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<\/a>Looking out across the Grand Prairie<\/p><\/div>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway<\/p><\/div>\n
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?<\/p>\n
Today large sections of the road have been rerouted or straightened, so it\u2019s difficult to know when you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Kiskatinaw River Bridge is the only original bridge still in use.<\/p><\/div>\n
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.<\/p>\n
We camped in a provincial campground our first night on the road. It\u2019s 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\u2019 families.<\/p>\n