ZR-1 Alaskan Adventure Travel Log

[QB93Z]

On a beautiful Sunday morning, we posed at the actual Alaska Highway, Mile Zero Marker before setting out for the 282 mile drive to Fort Nelson, BC:


About 20 miles north of Dawson Creek we left the modern day Highway to drive on the older, less direct route. On this route is the Kiskatinaw Bridge:


Construction of this wooden bridge took 9 months to complete in 1942 and was the 1st curved wooden bridge to be built in Canada. There are few that still remain. The Canadian Corp who were contracted to build the bridge, camped in the area, and later became the Kiskatinaw Provincial Park.


After crossing the bridge, we drove up the canyon to an overlook:


Lyndi volunteered to wait at the overlook while I drove back to the bridge for a nice long range photo:

[QB93Z]

Continuing north on the Alaska Highway, the next significant barrier to the Army engineers building the highway was the Peace River. The river is wide and has high banks on both sides. The war-time pressure to complete the road to Alaska required some radical solutions. The quickest way to get a long, high-level bridge was to dis-assemble a bridge in Oakland California, ship it to Canada, and reassemble it across the Peace River. That bridge lasted ten years and had to be replaced.


The Alaska Highway in British Columbia runs in a mostly northern direction to skirt the Canadian Rockies. The traffic on the Highway was sparse and the road conditions were excellent. The scenery is breath taking:


In order to enjoy the long driving sessions, Lyndi arranged her art supplies and paints in the car. She has completed one acrylic painting so far and is working on more:


Just before we reached Fort Nelson, we spotted this Black Bear crossing the highway:


We arrived in Fort Nelson in time to visit the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum which houses a fascinating collection of vehicles and mechanical artifacts.


Jim

[Alberta_ZR1]

Amazing pictures and love reading the log. Can't wait to see more!

Tyler

[QB93Z]

Monday has been another day of beautiful weather here on the Alaska Highway. We left Fort Nelson and the Highway began the climb to cross the northern portion of the Canadian Rockies. With an early start, we got some interesting views of the fog in the valleys:


Here is a view of Teacup Mountain on the eastern side of the mountains:


Here is another view of the open road that we had almost all to ourselves:


The road conditions for this leg of the trip are execllent. There were two places where we had a short wait at a construction area for single lane traffic. The maintenance crews have done a good job of repairing the frost heaves and pot holes from last winter. We averaged 110-115 km/hr (65-70 mph/hr)

Gasoline is available on this portion of the Highway, but preplanning is needed because in some places it is almost 100 miles between gas stations. We bought gas at the Toad River RV Park. They only had regular gas and it was about $6.50 a gallon. The gas pump had a sign that said "No Sniveling"


As we continued climbing the Highway ran along the edge of Lake Muncho:


Here we are entering the Stone Mountains area. The mountains are evidence of the fascinating geology that formed the Rocky Mountains millions of years ago:

[QB93Z]

Here is a Stone Goat. They live in the rocky areas of the northern Rockies. They come to the roadway to lick the asphalt to get the salt from last winter. Lyndi got fairly close to this one before it went down the slope to a stream:


Latter on in the day, we found a herd of Woods Buffalo. There were about 30 members of the herd and they were on both sides of the road and ON the road. They are not at all bothered by the cars. They come out of the woods to eat the vegitation on the roadside:




After 320 miles, we reached the Yukon Territory:


When we got to Watson Lake, we visited the famous Sign Post Forest where a tradition of posting direction signs and markers has been going on since it started in 1942 when a homesick Army engineer put up a sign to his hometown. Today there are over 71,000 signs on display:


Lyndi added a sign to our hometown, Westminster, Maryland:


Jim

[tf95ZR1]

VERY cool! Thanks for the reports and pictures.

[gbmidyear66]

Awesome - the sign post forest brings back memories. I recall pulling into Watson Lake late afternoon, visiting, then getting a campsite where I involuntarily donated more than a pint of blood to the mosquitos.

Hopefully you'll get a chance to spend a bit of time in Whitehorse - lots to see there - the paddlewheeler tour of the whitehorse river was fun.

[QB93Z]

During our visit to the Sign Post Forest, a man came up to us and asked if we were the owners of the yellow Corvette.

It turns out that he is from Annopolis, MD and he had seen the Maryland plate on my ZR-1 when I passed him on the Highway. When he saw the Z parked at the Sign Post Forest, he stopped to try to find us. It wasn't too hard since Lyndi was wearing a Registry T-shirt.

We had a nice chat, had a beer later, and he is going to come to our framing studio to get his travel photos framed. You never know where you will find business.

Jim

[scottfab]

Very nice pic.
Did you ask the goat to come pose next to the car?

[jcruz]

Very cool! Love to see the pics...