Cruising the highways

well head Snow and ice 7 months of the year Oops, Arctic Ocean, end of the road Ocean just starting to thaw.. We did dip our toes. And we drove back to Fairbanks with our next stop Denali national park.

After touring Fairbanks for three days , we headed to what would be the most northern place of this trip: Deadhorse, Prudhoe bay and the Arctic ocean . Leaving the rolly hills covered by spruce, aspens and others trees crossing the Yukon  river, we drove thru Atigun pass (4,800 ft) in the Brooks range down toward the ocean, discovering the tundra and its wildlife. A 1000 miles round trip on mostly  gravel or chip seal  roads with the steepest grade of 12% . A lot of  road maintenance re-construction with long berms of dirt and gravel in the middle  that challenge the driver and let not forget on some gravel section "the washboard are so severe your teeth rattle"... The Dalton highway , as it is called , follow the  Trans alaska pipeline  which carry crude oil from Prudhoe bay to Valdez ( 800 miles long). Deadhorse is just a large camp for all contractors supporting the oil companies extracting zillions of barrels. Down town Fairbanks ,pop 70,00...

Watson Lake  sign post forest started by a US soldier working on the Alaska Highway is now more than 75,000 signs strong from visitors all over the world.                                     Heading Northwest toward Fairbanks, we are entering gold mining territory from the lone  gold digger and his shovel  ( we saw one near a little stream and a make shift camp) to the huge dredge ran by the big Klondike mining company  (1912) Mining is still active the guy is on the right digging a hole... little stream   Dawson city Back then the Yukon river  was heavily use to ferry equipment between settlements, with the shallow draft stern wheelers. We are currently in Fairbanks heading north to Prudhoe Bay to dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean...   

Welcome to Canada!  It, only, took us twenty minutes to clear the border and we were off to our first Provincial Park.  Saskatchewan and Alberta paysages are a mix of corn, wheat or oil and gas fields Silos next to the railroad In Alberta , we stopped in Edmonton, Province capital and big center for the oil and gas industries, to visit the West Edmonton Mall. It is the largest indoor mall in North America with 5.3million square feet and more than 800 retailers, a couple of amusements parks, mini golf. Pretty amazing. Further up the road, Beaver Creek settlement with a beaver one cannot miss... Later we reached Dawson creek, British Columbia, the start of the Alaska highway which celebrate its 75 th anniversary this year. Built in 1942 in 8 months by more than 10 thousand US troop as the government was preventing a possible Japanese threat to Alaska. An incredible achievement as crews manage to “ punch a pioneer road ...