Yukon River crossed by ferry

Downstream from Whitehorse, Yukon, only a single bridge crosses the Yukon River. It's along the pipeline haul road in interior Alaska. Crossing the river at Dawson City, Yukon, a favorite destination for many RVers, means putting your vehicle on a free ferry run by the Government of Yukon. This boat can handle about a dozen small cars at once or a couple of large trucks with an extra car or two tucked in wherever there is space.

Generally the ferry runs back and forth in 15-minute intervals between ice out, usually in May, and the low water prior to freeze-up, usually mid to late October. Low water, however, can stop the ferry at any time, though it is rare except just before October.

Alaska facilities lack modern amenities

If you drive to or from Alaska via Dawson, Yukon, you'll enter or leave the state near the settlement of Boundary, high in the mountains on the Alaska side of the border along the Top of the World Highway.

There's a bar at Boundary, a couple of gas pumps which may or may not be open depending on the strength of the party the night before, and, of course, there are restroom facilities, shown here. Beware, it can be cold in this ladies room.

Gold dredges abandoned in Alaska

After the gold rushes waned, the more organized and mechanical extraction of gold began in Alaska. The most common device used on gold-producing streams in Alaska during the first half of the 20th century was a dredge, basically a huge metal barge that floated it's way down stream by digging holes in front of itself big enough to float it in. The rock from this digging was processed on board, the gold extracted, and the leftover tailings spit out the back. Streams that were dredged nearly a hundred years ago are easily recognized by the ridges of tailings, generally supporting little if any vegetation, alongside a creek bank.

When the gold ran out, many of these dredges were abandoned in place; it was often deemed cheper than dismantling and moving the dredge to another stream. A few miles north of Fairbanks, Gold Dredge #8 has been restored and is a tourist attraction. The dredge pictured here, known as the Jack Wade Dredge, sits alongside the Taylor Highway a few miles north of Chicken. While it is fenced and you cannot go aboard to explore, you can walk around three sides of it and peer inside. The creek is on the fourth side, and the tailings along the creek bank stretch out behind the dredge.

Alaska's critters featured at conservation center

Forth-five miles south of Anchorage a small brown-and-white sign points to the edge of Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet and says simply, "Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center." Though it first seems to be an official agency, it's actually a private business that works closely with the state.

Regardless of who owns it, this one is worth your time. It costs a few bucks per person to enter. Once inside you can either walk the loop, about a mile and a half of level ground, or drive it in a rig of any size. Up close and personal, you will see elk, moose, caribou, Sitka blacktail deer, musk oxen, elk, brown bears, black bears and grizzly bears. I photographed this brown bear from less than 10 feet away. Later a deer came up to the fence, stuck it's nose through the wire, and licked my hand. If you're traveling with kids, they will love everything about this place.

Here lies the true end of the Alaska Highway

Most RVers headed for Alaska look at a map and generally conclude that Fairbanks is the end of the Alaska Highway. Not so, say the folks in Delta Junction, about 90 miles before you get to Fairbanks. They rightfully point out that the Richardson Highway, passing through Delta Junction from Valdez to Fairbanks, was already in place before the Alaska Highway was built, thus the builders only had to open the road as far as Delta Junction.


The folks in Delta want to be sure you clearly understand this. This large sign is on the left as you pull into town, and the mile marker in front of the visitors center clearly label Delta the "End of the Alaska Highway."

A century is really old in Alaska

When you travel around some parts of our great nation, like New England, it's quite common to find houses that were built 300 years ago or more. Not so in Alaska. Up here, a building that's 100 years old is about the best you can do, and there are precious few of those.

One building that has survived in Alaska is Rika's Roadhouse just outside of Delta Junction, the actual end of the Alaska Highway. The roadhouse itself is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the centerpiece of a state park. A few minutes spent walking around the grounds and poking your head into some of the outbuildings adds up to time well spent if you want a feel for old-time Alaska.

This particular picture shows the roadhouses garden, with cabbage ready to pick in the foreground. Behind the garden, a back corner of Rika's Roadhouse is visible.

Alaska Highway crosses pipeline at Delta

For more than 30 years, now, a man-made object has caught the attention of Alaska's visitors, the trans-Alaska pipeline. Like it or hate it, the pipeline is a fact of life in Alaska and in the United States. Some 25 percent of the nation's domestically produced oil flows through this pipe every day. The pipeline crosses the highway at Delta Junction, the true end of the Alaska Highway as the road that continues another 90 miles to Fairbanks is actually the Richardson Highway.

There are only a handful of places near paved roads to get a good look at the pipeline. Perhaps the most spectacular of these is a few miles east of Delta Junction where the Richardson Highway and the pipeline cross the Tanana River side by side. A large parking area serves a boat launch between the road and the pipeline, and it also provides plenty of parking for large RVs so you can get out and walk over to the pipeline. You can, as this pictures shows, stand right underneath the pipe itself.

Statistically, this is a four-foot-diameter, hot-oil pipeline about 860 miles long running from the edge of the Beaufort Sea on Alaska's north coast to tidewater at Valdez in the rain forest surrounding Prince William Sound on Alaska's south coast. Currently, about 800,000 barrels of oil flow down the pipeline every day. At peak production a decade or so ago, some 2 million barrels of oil flowed through the line each day.

Alaska Highway sidetrips shouldn't be missed

Not a lot of Alaska Highway travelers make it to Atlin, British Columbia. That's a shame, really, because Atlin is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places in the entire world. It's a side trip that will take at least a day out of your schedule--two days are better; then you can stay overnight. It is well worth the time.

To get there, you turn south off of the Alaska Highway at Jake's Crystal Palace, about 40 minutes or so south of Whitehorse, Yukon. The road goes a short distance and splits. To the right are Tagish and Carcross, Atlin is to the left, about 60 miles. Some 35 of those miles are gravel road. About 20 miles down the road you will cross from Yukon into British Columbia. The only way to drive to this BC town is to first drive into Yukon.

Like most towns in the region, Atlin began as a mining town, and there is still a lot of active mining going on in the region. The big attraction, though, is the lake, one of the largest in Canada. For fishers, it is filled with lake trout, grayling and northern pike. For sightseers, the setting is simply stunning. This particular photo of an abandoned boat was taken just minutes after sunset on an evening in late August.

Finding a gem on the Alaska Highway

Even someone who has driven the Alaska Highway more than 30 times can still be surprised and impressed. Headed to Watson Lake from Fort Nelson a couple of days ago, I suddenly saw a little sign by a narrow gravel road on the right. "Smith River Falls 2 KM" it said. There was no place to park, no place to turn around, and the road was obviously not up to snuff for a big rig with a dinghy behind it. Plus I didn't even have enough time to slow down when I saw the sign.

I kept going, but the sign kept nagging at me. Finally, 12 miles later, there was a large turnout and I pulled over. I quickly unhitched my dinghy, drove back the 12 miles and headed into the woods. Slightly farther than the 2 KM (1.2 miles) promised by the sign, this is what I saw. A nice trail with stairs led down close to the falls where this picture was taken, and I could have followed it farther, right to the shoreline at the base of the falls.

If you look real closely at the picture, you can see two teen aged girls at the lower left to give you some idea of the scale of this place. This was indeed an impressive stop. And later I learned that the pool below the falls is chock full of feisty grayling. I never even thought to bring my fishing rod.

100-year-old car to drive Alaska Highway

I just got back from my annual foray along the Alaska Highway, and chanced to meet this fellow. This is Marl Brown and he is the curator of the Fort Nelson Heritage museum in northern British Columbia. Part of the display of the museum is a garage filled with more than 20 vintage automobiles owned by Marl. And every on of these old cars runs.

Marl is pictured here sitting behind the wheel of a 1908 Buick Model 10. Next June, when the car is a century old, Marl, who is 75, plans to drive it along the Alaska Highway from Fort Nelson to Whitehorse and back--that's about a 1,200-mile round trip.

His plans now are to go pretty early in the month, so if you're headed to Alaska early in the season next year, keep a lookout for Marl and this meticulously restored 1908 Buick.

And by all means stop at the museum when you're in Fort Nelson. It's right next door to the West End RV Park. This is one of the better small-town museums in the north and offers a lot of information about the building of the Alaska Highway and other area activities. If you want to see Marl's cars, though, you will have to ask. The garage is normally locked and only opened by special request.