Alaska Highway II - The Wildlife

The abundant wildlife in the widely uninhabitated Canadian Northwest and Alaska is surely one of the reasons why tourists travel this route.

All photos on this post - except the beaver - have been taken directly off the highway.

A heard of about 30 bisons

Walking at 2 feet distance from the car..

We watched a couple beavers crossing Lake Summit, right next to the highway

Most people want to see bears, like us. Of course, from a safe distance only....



Black bear

 
 






A baby bear.. petting not recommended...

 

'cause mom is watching closely! 

 

Alaska Highway I - The Road

Now that we have the first 600 mi of the Alaska Highway behind us, I know that this highway has many faces - beautiful ones, interesting ones, and some not so pleasant ones. Rather than squeezing it in one post, I want to write four of them, each one viewing the highway from a different angle.

This first post will focus simply on the road itself - about 1,400 mi (2.240 km) from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Delta Junction in Alaska. It was never just a tourist attraction: Built for military purposes in just 8 months by the US Army Corps of Engineers, it served for the development of the Canadian Northwest Territories and the Yukon after the war, and later for the exploration and operation of the ever increasing number of oil fields in British Columbia and the entire Canadian Northwest. But an uncounted number of tourists  have been happy that this road exists - now including our family.

The Alaska Highway begins in Dawson Creek and is marked by this monument:

Due to extensive reconstruction, the Alaska Highway is now several hundred miles shorter than originally.
This is one of the originally constructed trestle bridges.





 

 
 


Notice the distances on this sign

 
 
 

Common to all parts of the highway are the wildlife protection corridors on both sides, each one between 30 and 100 ft wide.










Although the highway is entirely paved, there is always extensive road construction going on in various parts, primarily due to the harsh weather conditions during most parts of the year.

 

 



Road conditions could be like this for many miles

One of the most impressive experiences is the lack of traffic, the farther north the road goes - sometimes several minutes between cars.

 

Across the Plains to the Alaska Highway

This last leg before the great adventure, the Alaska Highway, took us from central Minnesota through North Dakota, across the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and finally to Dawson Creek in Alberta, the location of mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. In order to reserve more time for travelling  the Alaska

Highway, we made the entire 1,417 miles (2.270 km) in four days, with overnight stops in Devils Lake (North Dakota), Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), and Edmonton (Alberta). Although almost all of the topography is pretty flat, the landscape was quite interesting and much less boring than we expected. It was also much greener than what we experienced when we crossed the Great Plains in Kansas and Texas two years ago.



 

In Grand Forks, ND, we had to buy four new tires for our trailer.

We stayed in Devils Lake State Park, one of the most beautiful campgrounds with large and very private campsites in beautiful nature.


Devils Lake in North Dakota

Another thing we didn't expect was the large amount of canola fields in North Dakota. They were all in full bloom at this time of the year.

 

 Another kind of greetings from the North: Huge mosquito swarms

A foretaste of what to expect in Alaska?

 

The very next day we bought a mosquito tent - we want to be prepared for Alaska!

  

 

USA-Canada border control

 

Liberal highway transport regulations in Canada

A fully assembled chemical plant!



Entering Edmonton - not very welcoming

 

 

 

Buffalo herds east of Edmonton



 

 The landscape in Saskatchewan and Alberta was dominated by canola too -  fields of yellow as far as one could see. Thanks to biodiesel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi

From Mackinac Island and Lake Huron, our trip led us further west across Wisconsin and along the Lakes Michigan and Superior, and from there across Minnesota to the headwaters of the Mississippi.



Summer fun at our campground in Eagle River, Wisconsin





Our second Wisconsin campground, in Iron River, close to Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area; by total water volume surpassed only by the Aral lake in Siberia). The combined water volume of the 4 other Great Lakes (Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario) is less than 75% of Lake Superior!

Here, we took a 3 hour boat cruise across the Apostle Islands, a group of 21 islands in the southwestern corner of Lake Superior that are administered by the National Park Service as a National Seashore.
One of the islands, Devil Island, consists of so extremely soft and brittle sedimentary rock that wind and water have been able to erode huge caves and caverns just above the water level

Sunset over one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior

Located in the southwestern corner of Lake Superior is Duluth, the westernmost seaport accessible for oceangoing vessels. 2,300 miles away from the Atlantic ocean, Duluth serves as a major freight hub, connecting America's Midwest to the East Coast.

Going west from Duluth across northern Minnesota, we crossed the upper Mississippi for the first time.

The Mississippi, about 80 miles downstream from its headwaters

Our next overnight stop was in a beautiful campground in Lake Itasca State Park. The water exiting this lake is defined as the headwaters of the Mississippi.

We had lots of fun renting three kayaks and paddling across the lake to the actual headwaters.

Not many people can say that they walked across the Mississippi!


 

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Now with Silke on board, or first destination was Mackinac Island, located close to the strait that connects Lake Michigan with Lake Huron and divides Michigan's Upper Peninsula from the Lower Peninsula. This small island has been a popular tourist attraction since the second half of the 19. century. Almost all of it is protected as a National Historic Landmark and as a State Park. Since 1898, all motor vehicles (except emergency vehicles) are strictly prohibited - also for the locals. All transportation is by bicycle or horse carriage.
Since 1957, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world connects the upper and the lower peninsulas. It is longer than Golden Gate (measured as the total length of the bridge) and as impressive a view.

Mackinac Bridge, total length 26,370 ft or 8 km

We stayed in a campground in Straits State Park, right across Mackinac island, and spent almost a day on the island. It was a Saturday and the island was packed with tourists, but by walking away from the beaten paths, we still enjoyed the 19. century ambiance, the scenery, and the laid-back way of life that comes with the total lack of cars and motor bikes.



Main Street on Mackinac Island. Notice that the absence of motorized traffic doesn't mean there's no pollution!

Everything is hauled by 1, 2 or 3 HP instead of 375!

USPS at work

Even the new washer/dryer combo comes with 2 HP

 



Mackinac Island also boasts a Victorian-style Grand Hotel, opened in 1887:

The hotel claims to have the longest front porch in the world



A Grand Hotel comes with a decent limo service, of course...