I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, but knew I always wanted to move to Texas. This past summer of 2019, I made it happen.
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We woke up on the morning of June 9th in a Tok, Alaska parking lot, surprised we had not frozen to death overnight. We’d slept in my Nissan Murano with an outside low of 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degree Celcius). To anyone that is wondering if that is normal for Alaskan summers, it is.
We quickly reorganized the car and headed down the Alaska Highway (Highway 2), headed towards Canada. It took us a little under 2 hours to reach the Canadian border and customs. To anyone wondering about what you need for Canadian customs, the answer is simple, but it does take a little bit of planning. You will need a valid passport or passport card to enter the country, firearms are not allowed passage across the border, no fresh fruits or vegetables are allowed, there is a limit on alcohol and tobacco, and pets require a health certificate that was signed within 30 days.
We made the passage into what we referred to as “No Man’s Land” until we reached the true border of Alaska and the Yukon Territory. We also jumped foward from Alaska Standard Time to Pacific Standard time, which lost us 1 hour.
You would think it wouldn’t be a very busy place with there being no major cities either way for hours, but the parking lot was full.
The first town we encountered was Beaver Creek. It is the westernmost community in Canada and, as of a couple years ago, its population was just over 100. There were other small towns along the highway, but no major cities. We stopped for gas and took short driving breaks, but otherwise enjoyed the seemingly endless road taking us through the Yukon Territory.
By 4’oclock that afternoon, we had made it to Burwash Landing, which is located on Kluane Lake, Northeast of Kluane National Park.
There is a Museum of Natural History located right alongside the Alaska Highway, which houses wildlife exhibits and Alaska Native artifacts, as well as information on the forest fire that affected Burwash Landing in 1999.
From Burwash Landing, we soon made our way past Destruction Bay, which also resides on Kluane Lake.
At Haines Junction, we continued towards Whitehorse along Highway 1. The Haines Highway (Highway 3) will take you South to Kathleen Lake and eventually back into Alaska before reaching the port-town of Haines.
Along the way, we saw 2 Dall Sheep dash up the side of a steep hill off the side of the highway. To watch the full video, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-cYrebKqw0&feature=youtu.be
A fork in the road right before Whitehorse gave us the option to go North to Dawson City (not to be confused with Dawson Creek, British Columbia), which was a popular location in the 19th century Gold Rush. We continued East towards the capital of the Yukon.
We made it to Whitehorse around 9 PM, planning to continue to push towards Watson Lake, which lies north of the border to British Columbia. A routine check of the car and the U-Haul stopped us from moving past Whitehorse that night. We discovered that one of the tires on the U-Haul was missing a wheel bearing out of the hub assembly. Luckily, Whitehorse has a population of almost 30,000 and a local U-Haul dealer, so we were able to schedule a fix that evening.
We quickly found a hotel room on Priceline.com at Canada’s Best Value Inn, but not before seeing a fox running down the middle of the street while making our way there through downtown Whitehorse.
Day 2 consisted of a total of 386 miles/622 km and 7 hours of driving time.
We got in bed knowing tomorrow would be a long day, but fell asleep imagining the unknowns of new adventures.
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