61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 13 & 14

July 24-25, 2016

Day 13

An early morning as we had 285 miles to cover on our way to Dawson Creek British Columbia. While it was a long ride with some construction thrown in we made it to Northern Lights RV Park just after 12, but the clocks also went back an hour, the ride took about 6 hours with a fuel stop and lunch along the way. Our campground in Dawson Creek was the Northern Lights RV Park, full hookups with cable tv, which is good because the satellite dish couldn't find a signal. The sites are small and all gravel but it suffices for the two nights we are here. A presentation on the history of the Alaskan highway was given by one of the local visitors center's representative. A travel meeting followed with information on our next travel day.

Day 14

Our first order of business was to get the "official" Alaskan Highway picture done.

 

At the visitor center they have a large collection of old photos from the days of building the Alaskan Highway. The highway was built during WWII to connect Alaska with the contiguous United States, an amazing feat that was accomplished in just over 7 months.

The original sign post forest.

One of the nice things about locals giving presentations is they can recommend great places to shop. If you ever find yourself in Dawson Creek and need to stock up on meats check out The Butcher Block, our wallet is a little emptier but our freezer is stocked with meat to last us until we're done with the trip.

After storing all of our goodies the next order of business was a drive to Chetwynd BC, about 60 miles away, home of chainsaw carving. Dave took about 100 pictures of the various sculptures around town, we by no means saw them all, that would take a few days. We saw the ones on the main drag in town but heard there many others on other roads in town.

The eldest Ent of the Ents from J.R.R. Tolkiens  "The Lord of the Ring" series. 

 After spending time checking out the carvings we headed to the Kiskatinaw River Curved Bridge. As with many old highways the Alaskan Highway has been rerouted and no longer goes over the original bridge over the Kiskatinaw River but the old bridge is worthy of a stop.

Until next time...