Northern Canada and Alaska

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
I did a Roadtrip up through British Columbia, Yukon, Northern Territory and Alaska in August this year.

9500km in 25 days, 1/3 of which was on dirt. Sun, rain, wind, snow and mud. and A lot of driving, but some stunning scenery and a couple of new experiences.

We started off in Southern Alberta and headed up the Icefield Parkway, on a whistle stop tour to get as far north as possible. Nice scenery though, and very different to the winter drive up it we did last year.

Icefield Parkwayhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

We headed to the southern end of the Stewart-Cassiar highway and headed north. We had hoped to see the unique way the First Nation tribe fish for Salmon at Moricetown, but the lack of salmon this year means they weren't fishing. Once on the Stewart Cassiar we headed north on a wide smooth asphalt road through never ending trees. We spent the night at a lake and got to Meziadin Junction the next day, where we saw several black bears by the side of the road.

Off to Stewart and the Salmon Glacier, and into the US (Alaska) to try and spot some grizzlies hunting salmon. Unfortunately all we saw was a small black bear for a couple of minutes. Disappointing!

Stewart, BC https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Black Bear, Hyder https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Hoary Marmot https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

We continued up the Stewart Cassiar to Watson Lake, famous for its thousands of signs, and started our trip through the Yukon. From Watson Lake we took the Campbell highway, a 400km dirt road through the boreal forest until we hit Ross River, a small village of a few hundred people. Crossing the River on a small chain ferry we started up the North Canol Road, a 250km (500km return) dead end, built during the second world war as a pipeline route from an oil field in the Northwest Territories, but now ending at the Yukon NWT border. It's now just a irregularly maintained dirt road used by small scale/artesian prospectors working claims.

The first part of the road is again lots of trees, but it opens up into more mountainous and tundra like terrain a the end, with some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Best of all you can have it all to yourself as there's no one around.

North Canol Road , on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hwdoJy]North Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

North Canol Road /url], on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hw9CE3]North Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

North Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Along the road there are also at least two areas full of abandoned and broken down vehicles used during the construction of the road, still preserved and alone in the middle of nowhere. Some of the are starting to fall apart, but most of them are in very good condition considering they've been sat there for 75 years.

North Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

North Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

We spent the night at the end of the road, just past the NWT border before returning the way we had come and crossing back to Ross River and needing the South Canol road, another 200km+ dirt road though some beautiful scenery.

South Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

South Canol Road https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Unfortunately it rained almost the entire way along the South Canol, but the road held up (more sand than mud) and we met the Alaska Highway again and headed to Whitehorse before heading up to Dawson City and the main reason for our trip - the Dempster highway.

The Dempster was built in the 70s as an all weather road (as opposed to just winter - where ice roads can be made) to access Inuvik for petroleum exploration. It's a 737.5km road with a reputation for tyre shredding, although the gravel they now use is a lot less sharp. Opened in 2017 the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk road was tacked onto the end, making it the only place in North America where you can drive to the Arctic Ocean. The whole thing is an 875km one way road, which for tourists like us is driven mostly "because it's there", but also because it again winds through some stunning scenery.

The road can be variable, and it's usually a lot worse in summer than winter. In our case that meant almost 1000km of mud on the way up, in some places several inches thick, and a beautiful smooth drive back a couple of days later.

Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

The way up
Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

And the way back
Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Amazing what a couple of days does to photos.

Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

The road basically starts in Boreal forest, works its way over two mountain ranges, and ends up on the flat and wet Mackenzie Delta Arctic Tundra. There are two boat crossings on the way, and most of the road is built up on a high gravel berm so it doesn't melt the permafrost beneath.

Dempster Highway https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

After couple of days we go to Tuktoyaktuk, spent the night overlooking the Arctic Ocean, dipped our toes in and headed the two days back down...

Tuktuyuktuk https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Disappointingly we didn't see too much wildlife, in part because it was the start of hunting season and there were hunters everywhere. We did see one Grizzly though..

Dempster Highway Grizzly https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

The smile is probably because it did a rather large dump just prior to that image...

On our way back down we stopped off at Tombstone Territorial park. It was snowing when we went through on the way up, but the weather was nice on the way back. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do the muilt day hike available, so just hit up the viewpoint - a short couple of hour hike instead. One of the big regrets, it was one of the most stunning places I've been to.

Tombstone Territorial Park https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

After we got back onto the tarmac, we headed off to Dawson City for a quick shoot into Alaska, which I'll post tomorrow.[/url][/url]
 
Definitely worth a trip, and realistically no more difficult than the typical west coast US trip many people do. You could fly to Whitehorse (via Calgary/Vancouver), rent a vehicle/camper there and drive the best bits.

Dawson City is a world heritage site, built in the 1890s during a Gold rush. Lots of mining history there and a nice little town. It's updated in spots, but still a lot of old dilapidated buildings, in contrast to Skagway in the US, which has been turned into a theme park style "mining" town full of pristine buildings selling Cartier and Rolex for the Cruise ship crowds.

We headed along the Top of the World Highway to Chicken in the US and then down and back into Canada via Tok (Alaska loves odd names. There's also a town called Circle and another called Central nearby, amongst others).

Alaska River , on Flickr

Yukon RIver , on Flickr

Alaska , on Flickr

After our relative failure at Hyder we decided to head to Haines to hopefully see some bears actually eating the Salmon. There are some tours into the wilderness round it, but we were heading to the Chilkoot river, which is next to a Recreation site and Campsite. Not exactly a wilderness location, but pretty much guaranteed grizzlies. Haines is pretty much what you'd think of an small Alaskan fishing community, down to the fish processing plant.

Haines Fish Processing Plant , on Flickr

We saw several bears in the river, largely by the salmon weir, designed so researchers can count salmon, and used by the bears to corral the fish...

Haines Grizzly eating Salmon , on Flickr

Haines Grizzly eating Salmon , on Flickr

Pretty interesting to see how the bear would just catch the fish, take a bit or two of the stomach and then just dump it back in the water (alive)...

As well as the weir they'd also wander up the river, which is only a km or so long and joins the fjord/inlet to a lake.

Haines Grizzly , on Flickr

The area is also swarming with Bald Eagles, they were literally everywhere - both juvenile and adult.

Bald Eagle Haines , on Flickr

We spent a night in the campground mentioned earlier and took the Ferry to Skagway, across the inlet, on a round tour back to Canada. The Border between Skagway and Canada is really quite something. The road winds from sea level straight up to 1000m+ closely paralleling an old gold rush route (which you can still hike, takes about 4 days I believe).

Haines Skagway Ferry , on Flickr

Skagway Alaska , on Flickr

BC River https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/, on Flickr

Mine Workings , on Flickr

Once that was done our trip was basically finished. We hit the Alaska Highway and spent the next 2-3 days heading home. TBH the Alaska Highway is ok, but it's just a means of getting to the more interesting roads that lead to the places you want to go. There are a couple of nice spots along it though, and plenty of wildlife - Black bears, a Bison herd and sheep.

Stone Sheep, on Flickr

Alaska Highway , on Flickr
Kiskatinaw Bridge

After doing this trip I think I have a longer list of places to (re)visit than I did when I started. Kluane National Park, Tombstone Territorial park hike, Chilkoot Trail hike, Mount Edziza to name a few, not to mention heading further into Alaska, especially some of the areas you need to access by plane, to see the wildlife etc.
 
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