Alaska & Points North Tips And Tales From The Road

274 Pages·2013·7.74 MB·English

by  Usher

Alaska & Points North
tips and tales from the road

Carolyn M Usher

Crackling Communications
British Columbia, Canada
Copyright © 2013 Carolyn M Usher All Rights Reserved

Designed by: Carolyn M Usher Photography by:
Steve Usher and Carolyn M Usher Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in
Publication Usher, Carolyn, 1951—
Alaska & points north : tips and tales from the road / Carolyn M Usher Includes
index.
ISBN 978-09686297-2-7

1.Alaska—Description and travel. 2. Alaska—Guidebooks. 3. British Columbia
—Description and travel. 4. British Columbia—Guidebooks. 5.Canada, Northern
—Description and travel. 6.Canada, Northern—Guidebooks. I. Title. II Title:
Alaska and points north.

F902.3U.84 2012 917.9804’52 C2012-902932-7

Published by:

Crackling Communications
7623 Garfield Drive
North Delta, BC, Canada, V4C 4E6

mailto: [email protected]
Reader Beware:

I have triple-checked to ensure that contact information is accurate and up to
date. But numbers and URLS do change. Also understand that the conditions I
describe are as we found them. And everything that is written is in my opinion.

The far north is at once timeless and always changing., especially road
conditions, weather, wildlife and facility openings / closures. Travel with an
open mind and an eager heart. Then let us know what you found.

mailto:[email protected]

www.weroadtrip.com/

PRINT vs ELECTRONIC – is there a difference between the two versions?
Fundamentally no, in terms of text content but to facilitate transfer to a digital
format content has necessarily been reformatted and re-arranged with some
minor losses and fewer photos.

Cover Photo:

A moose cow and her calf head north to Alaska along the Stewart Cassiar
Highway in British Columbia, Canada.
Contents

Introduction: Alaska & Points North
CHAPTER ONE: Getting Started
Marine Route
Marine Route Contacts
Road Route
Driving Tips
What to Drive?
Driving Conditions
Road Conditions Contacts
Weather Info
Border Crossings
Camping
Camping Resources
Housekeeping
BUGs
General Resources
Emergencies
CHAPTER TWO: North through British Columbia
Up the Fraser Canyon
Interesting Info: Gold Rush Trails
Into the Peace River Valley
Onto the Alaska Highway
The Yukon
Interesting Info: The Northern Lights
Whitehorse, YT
Klondike Highway
Skagway, Alaska
Bear Safety
CHAPTER THREE: Into Alaska
Leaving Skagway
Haines
Interesting Info: about Bald Eagles
Haines Junction
Tok and the Cut-Off
INTERESTING INFO: about Glaciers
Valdez
Interesting Info: Sea Otters
Interesting Info: Valdez Gold Rush
Copper Center
Kenai Peninsula
Seward
Homer
Fishing on the Kenai
Anchorage
CHAPTER FOUR: Denali National Park
Interesting Info: Gold Mining at Independence
Denali National Park
Denali Details
Nenana
Mount McKinley - Denali
CHAPTER FIVE: Fairbanks to Deadhorse …return
Dalton Hwy
Interesting Information: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
Deadhorse
Prudhoe Bay
Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields Tour
Wiseman
Interesting Info: Sled Dog Races
Fairbanks
Top of the World Hwy
Interesting Info: Tools of the Gold Fields
Interesting Info: Dawson City
Dawson City
Klondike Gold Rush
Dempster Hwy to Inuvik
Inuvik
Camping on the Dempster
Inuvik to Klondike Junction
Whitehorse
CHAPTER SEVEN: British Columbia White to Haida Gwaii
Atlin
Stewart Cassiar Hwy
Telegraph Creek
Stewart Hyder
Fish Creek Observatory
Haida Gwaii
Haida Gwaii / Queen Charlotte Islands
Contacts
Haida First Nations People
Interesting Information: Ravens
Heading Home
Local Reads I Loved
Our Wildlife Count
Land Route
An Epic Road Trip
British Columbia, the Yukon
& Northwest Territories to Alaska
Introduction:
Alaska & Points North Alaska is all about the landscape: massive glaciers
slithering down slopes that open into the expansive valleys where the buffalo
and the caribou and the musk ox roam. A cinnamon-coloured grizzly teeters
knee deep in foaming rapids to bat a leaping salmon into his bone-crunching
jaws.

The ice fields of Prince William Sound calve icebergs as big as apartment
buildings while sea otters play chicken in the chop beneath. Narrow gauge
railroads reach for the sky, the Prudhoe Bay oilfields pump black gold through
24-hour nights while Klondike fever rolls out eccentric personalities still living
the dream.

Evocative names like Denali and the Arctic Circle, Aurora Borealis and the
Iditarod charge our batteries for adventure. We dream about the big trip, the one
we’ll do someday. When we point the camper north for Alaska.
Quit dreaming. Alaska and points north are now easy and accessible. Long gone
are the sharp-shale roads that shredded tires. There are campgrounds and hotels
and big box chains with competitive prices. Which is not to say it isn’t an
adventure.

We spent six weeks through July and August traveling all the legendary roads of
the north in our camperized van. In the pages that follow I recount our
experience, for better or worse. Always some of both when we travel but the
“worse” always make the best stories.
Whether your perfect adventure is a fly-in tour, a cruise up the Inside Passage or
a full-on self-guided drive through the wilderness, Alaska & Points North will
give you lots to ponder as you start planning. The book is organized so that the
right-side page tells the story while the left provides information like details,
maps and contacts.

Who are we?

I am hopelessly addicted to travel shows but confess to being weary of lithe
young hosts bounding from cliff to cliff on their twenty-something knees. We
are living proof that life after 50 just gets better and better!

We met soon after Steve returned from a two—year trek around the world. I had
been working and traveling through the UK. If not love at first sight, it was
fascination at first chat. We were the only two people in the room who “got”
each other. We married and raised kids and hauled them around North America
with an old tent trailer Steve kept patching together.

This shared passion for seeing what’s around the next corner is an itch we’ve
now scratched together on every continent of the world but Antarctica.

We travel by bus, train, plane and boat but are most fond of roadtripping. Behind
the wheel, we hit the open road, choosing secondary routes through the small
towns of the world. We are on a lifelong quest to discover the best cinnamon
rolls in country cafes and the tastiest fish on the beach.