We got an early start from Haines yesterday because we knew we had more than 200 miles of driving ahead of us. We traveled up the Haines highway and crossed the US-Canada border (again!) into the Yukon Territory. At the town of Haines Junction, we turned northwest onto the Alaska-Canada highway. The story behind the ALCAN is an interesting one. In 1942 the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor and invaded the remote Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska. At the time there was no land route to Alaska for the US Military to use to bring in troops and supplies. A huge construction effort was undertaken by the military, and in just 8 months they built 1390 miles of highway through the Yukon and Alaska – that’s almost six miles of road completed each day! As we drove the highway we could appreciate the difficulty of the task – the freeze/thaw conditions up here are extreme, and some parts of the road buckle and crack. In fact, some sections of the road are just gravel because the permafrost does too much damage to pavement when it freezes and thaws. It makes for a dirty and dusty ride. And don’t get me started on the ginormous potholes…
BUT…the scenery was gorgeous. The snowcapped peaks and rugged terrain were awe-inspiring.
We made a few stops along the way. Well, we had to stop at one point because there were about fifteen people just standing in the middle of the road, gawking at a bear about 50 yards away. We got out of the car and took some photos too, being careful to keep the group of people between us and the bear in case it got upset. This was the closest we’ve been able to (or wanted to) get to a bear, so it made for a fairly decent close-up shot.
We also took a short break at the Million Dollar Falls. There was a campground right there but we decided to push on a little further. (This photo puts me in mind of those Where’s Waldo? children’s books)
We pulled in for the night at one of the most remote yet scenic campgrounds we’ve stayed at, right on Destruction Bay. Just after we pulled in, a seaplane landed behind us and picked up some people for a sightseeing tour. (Note the layers of dirt caked on the van thanks to the dirt sections of the ALCAN).
We got another bright and early start this morning because we had another 240 miles to go, and if you can believe it the road was even worse today than yesterday. It wasn’t all gravel, but even on the asphalt Kevin really had to concentrate on the road in front of him to avoid all the bone-jarring potholes. That’s okay, there really wasn’t much to see along the roadside. Well, except for the World’s Largest Gold Pan. You wouldn’t want to miss that.
The road improved a lot once we crossed the Alaskan border. In the past month we have crossed the US-Canada border eight times, if you can believe it. At this crossing there 
was an international boundary marker, but the interesting part is that they’ve also cut a 20-foot-wide swath through the forest to mark the boundary line. The cleared area stretches along the 141st meridian all the way to the horizon in both directions – apparently it goes as far north as the Arctic Ocean and as far south as the Wrangell Mountain range. I’m amazed that they keep it so well-maintained, actually. I mean, in this day and age do we really need to draw a line through the middle of an uninhabited, unpatrolled forest wilderness to keep track of which trees belong to which country?
If you look closely at the top of the marker there is a little bird who is perched in both countries at once.
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