Driving the “AlCan” Hwy (Part 1A, Canada) - 1981
On 24 July ’81 Geoff and I left Kent, WA in a Jeep w/ a plan to drive to Anchorage, AL via the “AlCan” Hwy. We reached Fairbanks, AL after 50 and 1/2 hours of driving. We reached Anchorage after 59 hours of driving. We took a side-trip in Muncho Lake Provincial Park. These slides are for Part 1 of the trip--the Canada portion. During the entire trip, we drove 2800 miles. We averaged ~ 41 mph. In ’81 the AlCan seemed like a very long logging road, as it was a mostly dirt/gravel road. During the trip, including side trips, we saw moose, deer, Stone and Dall mountain sheep, mountain goats, cariboo, grizzly bears, beaver and porcupine, We had time to do a little fishing also. Geoff planned to move to Alaska, and Wayne went along for the ride, and flew back from Anchorage. We alternated driving time. Near the beginning of the trip we drove 28 hours straight w/out making camp, driving a distance of 1250 miles; a 5 gallon can of spare gas fell off the back during this section, and we didn’t notice when it happened due to rough road. We saw the Northern lights during this part of the trip, which were a greenish color. We stopped briefly to look at them. We stopped at Haines Junction and saw a spectacular slide show about Kluane National Park. A person at the visitor center gave us a tip about a 16 mile 4X4 road that would lead us to an old gold mine in the National Park. Hence, we also took a side-trip in Kluane National Park to see if we could drive to the mine. At one point we almost turned around because the road was dicey, but we did make it to the mine. 60 miles before White Horse, the road was paved, and it didn’t seem right, as we were by now used to the rough road. One had to be particularly careful when it rained, as the dirt road would get slippery.
Note 1: Part 1B of this set of slides has been created and can be found at Canada->British Columbia->AlCan Hwy Trip 1B. Part 1C of this set of slides can be found at Sitemap->States (US)->AL->AlCan Hwy Trip 1C.
