Only in Alberta (at least that I know of) can you find used oil derrick lots. Need a nodding donkey to put on your property to pump a little oil? Just head down to Mike’s. No credit check required. Start pumping today!

After leaving Grande Cache, we headed north to Grand Prairie. True to its name, just before we entered the city the mountains we had been travelling through gave way to a flat plain. We spent the afternoon at… Wait… Yep, the water park! We were hungry after all of the swimming so we found a park to cook dinner, then headed out of town, following the signs to Alaska (even though Alaska is still over 1000 miles away). We camped for the night at a small campground on a hill overlooking the town. It was very pleasant and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Looking out across the Grand Prairie

The next day we drove to Dawson Creek, the official starting point of the Alaska Highway. The history of the highway is fascinating, but the short of it is that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US decided that it needed to protect Alaska from an invasion of North America. At the time there was no good way to transport men and equipment north, so it was decided that a highway needed to be built. The US army started work in Dawson Creek in March of 1942 and finished 8 months and 1345 miles later under the worst possible working conditions. To this day it remains one of the most impressive road building feats in history.

The mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway

Leaving from Dawson city I wondered what it was like for my parents, 40 odd years ago, driving through the same places. The difference is that today we have a 4×4 van to drive the nicely paved highway, and my parents set off on the then gravel road in a VW camper! Mom and dad, care to chime in with some stories?

Today large sections of the road have been rerouted or straightened, so it’s difficult to know when you’re actually driving on the original road. We took a detour to drive over the last remaining bridge constructed as part of the original highway that is still in use.

The Kiskatinaw River Bridge is the only original bridge still in use.

At present the road serves primarily to access the oil and gas deposits being exploited up here. Probably 60% of the traffic is heavy trucks hauling drilling equipment, and another 30% is RVs.

We camped in a provincial campground our first night on the road. It’s located near a large work camp that houses drilling workers. We talked with a lady with two small children at the campground. Her husband works in the drilling fields, and she comes up with their kids and camps here for the summer so that the family can be together. He will be working here until next April. It seems like two thirds or so of the campground is occupied by drilling workers’ families.

Oil workers’ camp

“Fishing” on the Buckinghorse River

Camp!