Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Good morning, my friends. Well, we've made it to the first sight-seeing stop of our trip. Dawson Creek is the beginning of the Alcan Highway. Now that we're here, it occurs to me that we're really doing two trips this time around. We're touring Alaska, but we're also making something of a pilgrimage by traveling the entire length of this historic highway. You can read more about it at that link I've given you. Here's a little image of the route we'll be taking between Dawson Creek and Delta Junction.

It will be our first time traveling this far north, and our first visit to Yukon Territory.

But let's just back up to yesterday's drive first, shall we? I didn't take a lot of pictures because (a) the road was mostly lined with trees on both sides; and (b) it rained for a good part of the day. Despite the weather, the roads have been good, and the traffic almost nonexistent. Here are a couple of structures I captured as we sped by. We've seen a lot of abandoned cabins like the one below.

Just to its right was this falling-down barn.

It's my habit to quickly skim our Milepost looking for anything of interest along our route. This caught my eye instantly. This is the sort of thing I live for:

AND THERE HE IS!!! And no posts got in my picture for a change.

Well, I don't know how the day could get any better after that, do you?

So, I took this picture of the map to help explain what comes next. We've crossed the Continental Divide several times as we've traveled in the United States from west to east and back again. Here, in British Columbia, we crossed over two divides. In the image below, I've indicated our start in Prince George and our destination in Dawson Creek. The yellow lines indicate the Arctic Divide (the lower of the yellow lines) and the Continental Divide (to the right of the Arctic Divide).

Here's what The Google tells me about them. As to the Arctic Divide...

Regarding the Continental Divide:

Okay, and about one-fourth of the way into our journey, we passed through forests devastated by mountain pine beetles. You can see the dead trees mixed in with the living ones.

This is what The Google tells us about mountain pine beetles. We've also seen this sort of damage in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here's another image of the other side of the road. Kind of sad. Having all those dead trees is bad for wildfires too.

We also crossed the bridge over the Parsnip River.

Here's why that's significant:

We stopped at a convenience store in MacKenzie to use their restrooms. We also got a couple of cups of coffee.

We didn't go in, but I was amused at their visitor center, housed in this train cabboose.

We traveled some higher elevations, but we were actually traveling between mountains, and so we were never higher than about 2,500 feet. We saw some snow-capped peaks. We crossed our fingers for no snow on the road, and there was none.

We drove through Chetwynd, which is all about the chainsaw carvings.

Here's a little more information about those:

If we'd come through a little later, we might have enjoyed the competition. Instead, we enjoyed the carvings lining the road as we drove by. I took dozens of pictures hoping for something. Most of them were too blurry and far away, but I got a few good ones.

This is an eagle, if it isn't obvious.

Mike thought this was the Alien from the movie of the same name.

We traveled alongside and crossed the Pine River several times during the day.

And we passed by this elk showing us her better side. She was the only wildlife we saw aside from birds.

Eventually, and after many miles, we crossed over a ridge and Dawson Creek came into view.

Dawson Creek was our first sight-seeing stop because it is where Mile 0 of the Alcan Highway is located. Also, there's a "gateway" sort of picture where it is seemingly required that one take a picture to document one's arrival. We thought possibly we could be jailed for neglecting to get the picture. The sun came out late in the day, and so we hurried into town to find the spot before losing the light. Along the way we passed by this restaurant. It seemed important to document the place:

Smitty also has some business interests in Canada. We learned that on a different trip. We saw this in Ontario.

Okay, so we found Milepost 0 pretty easily.

We had a harder time finding the "gateway" (my word for it). We wanted to stop off at the visitor center anyway, and so we went there when our efforts to find the gateway were unsuccessful. As it turned out, it was right there in the visitor center parking lot, but I didn't turn in that direction when we arrived. I needed the friendly women inside to point out the obvious. Here are some associated plaques.

And here we are!!! This photo was the whole reason for visiting Dawson Creek. I've been following a Facebook group called "Alaska RV Travelers," and absolutely everyone takes and posts this picture. And you know how I get the FOMO. (That's "fear of missing out." Thanks to my friend Debi for introducing me to FOMO. It's the biggest fear of my life.)

Okay, and so that brings me to this morning. We have another night here, and we've planned a pleasant day for ourselves. It happens there's a Farmer's Market in the parking lot of the visitor center this morning. Also, I want to go back to the visitor center for some "merch" to document our visit. There's also a historical walking tour that we can start from that same location. I was given a map at the visitor center yesterday. The women there couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful, and they loaded me up with lots of good info. The walking tour will also include murals illustrating the town's history. 

So we'll get going soon. We're going out for breakfast, and we'll check out the farmer's market. Then we'll do the walking tour. Also, there's a quilt shop in town, and we want to pick up a few groceries. I'm keeping our supply of fresh produce and eggs low because we'll still have to cross back over the border into the United States when we reach Alaska. 

It's a busy day ahead, and we're looking forward to it. The sky is overcast, but two weather apps have promised me there's no chance of rain. Up until now we've been driving, driving, driving to reach this point. There are still many driving days ahead, but the "grand adventure" part of the trip starts today. Buckle up, my friends.