Alaska Highway – Travel guide at Wikivoyage

Alaska Highway – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
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North America itineraries
Alaska Highway
Alaska Highway
Contents
Understand
Prepare
Get in
3.1
By car
3.2
By plane
3.3
By bus
Drive
4.1
Alternate routes
4.2
Side trips
Stay safe
Go next
The
Alaska Highway
is the road connecting
Alaska
with the rest of
North America
. It runs primarily through
Canada
. This itinerary will cover the 2,232 km (1,387 mi) trip from
Dawson Creek
British Columbia
via the
Yukon
to
Delta Junction
Alaska
. This is not a Sunday drive.
Understand
edit
'Mile 0' monument in downtown
Dawson Creek
This highway was built during World War II to help the American military transport equipment to and from Alaska.
Prepare
edit
Get a copy of
The Milepost
, either in print or eBook form. (Print would be a better idea once you hit the road.) Billing itself as "the Bible of north country travel," this guide book covers the entire northwestern corner of North America in rich detail.
Give your car a thorough mechanical evaluation before you attempt this trip. For
winter driving
, get winter or all-weather tires and low-weight oil (5W30 or as recommended by your manufacturer). Sign up for roadside service such as
AAA
CAA
, but verify that they will cover the entire cost of towing you long distances. Many services will cover only a few hundred dollars, which is not sufficient.
Cell phone coverage is very sparse. Although every Yukon community along the highway has cell service in the vicinity, do not count on using your cell phone in an emergency. You should carry enough emergency supplies to last yourself one or two nights. The nearest tow truck can be 1000 km (650 mi) away. It is even more important to carry emergency supplies in winter to avoid hypothermia and death. At the very least, bring food, water, blankets, a first-aid kit, and spare tires. Wintertime temperatures can dive as low as −40
°C / −40
°F. Bug repellent may be very nice to have in the summer.
Be sure to verify that you have the appropriate entry documents for
Canada
or the
United States
, depending on your direction. Canadian immigration can request that you show proof of enough funds to cover your trip and an emergency. A bank/ATM receipt, a few credit cards, traveler's checks, or cash will suffice. They will refuse entry to Canada if you do not demonstrate enough funding for your trip.
Gas (petrol) stations in this part of Canada are frequently
not
open 24 hours, especially in winter, and most of them do not have a pay-at-the-pump mechanism. Many stations have very long distances between them. You should keep your tank as full as you can and be prepared to wait for a station to open if you arrive in the middle of the night.
The highway may be in various states of repair. Be prepared to wait a while as road crews continue to maintain the road. Winter frost is extremely hard on the roads. Do not be surprised to see deep fissures across the highway.
Get in
edit
By car
edit
Main article:
Driving between the contiguous United States and the Alaska Highway
Getting to the Alaska Highway is no small feat in itself. It starts in Dawson Creek in northern British Columbia. You can get to Dawson Creek either by driving north from southern British Columbia through
Prince George
or by driving northwest from
Edmonton
Alberta
By plane
edit
Whitehorse
is the largest city along the highway, until you reach Fairbanks at the end. The Whitehorse airport
YXY
IATA
is served by
Air Canada
Air North
, and
Westjet
. Nearly all of the flights are to or from
Vancouver
, with some schedules to
Calgary
and
Edmonton
. There is also summertime nonstop or one-stop service to
Frankfurt
, Germany, via
Condor airlines
Dawson Creek
Fort Nelson
, and
Fort St. John
have airports with schedule commercial flights, though Fort St. John has the most flights of those by far. A renting car could be used for the drive, but renting RV would be more comfortable and convenient. An RV is usually quite expensive and after the cost of gas, probably more expensive than staying in a hotel every night, but there a few hotels along the route between the few cities.
By bus
edit
Portions of the Alaska Highway west of Tok and southeast of Fort Nelson have intercity bus services, but the remainder of the Alaska Highway, including the Yukon have no such services.
BC Bus North
+1-844-564-7494
Between
Dawson Creek
and
Fort Nelson
via
Fort St. John
updated Apr 2021
Cold Shot
+1 587-557-7719
support@coldshot.ca
Bus service from Monday to Friday between Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
updated Feb 2021
Interior Alaska Bus Line
+1-800-770-6652
akbus2@aptalaska.net
Year round service on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday between
Tok
and Anchorage, and Tok and
Fairbanks
. Trips between Tok and Anchorage stop along the way at locations including
Glennallen
and
Palmer
. Trips between Tok and Fairbanks stop along the way at locations including
Delta Junction
. Trips depart from Tok in the morning and return to Tok in afternoon. Therefore to travel involving switching between the routes at Tok requires multiple nights stay in Tok. Be sure to reserve in advance and allow some flexibility in your schedule as buses may be rescheduled based on demand.
updated Aug 2022
Drive
edit
Map of Alaska Highway
Start of Alaska Hwy at
Dawson Creek
The only real possible way of doing this trip is driving. Many travellers do this trip with a recreational vehicle (RV).
Although Canada generally uses metric, most points along the Alaska Highway are identified by mileage:
55.760556
-120.235556
Dawson Creek
- Mile 0
56.2525
-120.846389
Fort St. John
- Mile 47
56.7283
-121.807
Wonowon
- Mile 101
58.8059
-122.696
Fort Nelson
- Mile 283
59.1667
-126.017
Muncho Lake Provincial Park
- Mile 437
60.06337
-128.71484
Watson Lake
- Mile 613
60.717222
-135.055833
Whitehorse
- Mile 887
60.763707
-137.495226
Haines Junction
- Mile 985
63.311
-142.602
Taylor Highway junction
- for
Chicken
and
Eagle
63.336667
-142.985583
10
Tok
- Mile 1314
64.037361
-145.732167
11
Delta Junction
- Mile 1422
Remember that you will have more than 20 hours of sunlight during the summer months and less than 5 hours of sunlight in the middle of winter.
There is mobile wireless service between Dawson Creek and 85 km west past Fort Nelson. There is then no wireless service for around 400 km, until Watson Lake. After Watson Lake, there is no wireless service for 200 km, until Teslin. From Teslin, there is coverage along the majority of the way until near Burwash Creek (about 140 km from the Yukon-Alaska border), at which point there is no coverage until reaching the border community of Beaver Creek. In Alaska, there is mobile wireless coverage along the route except for the 70 km nearest to the Yukon-Alaska border.
Alternate routes
edit
Rather than going west from
Whitehorse
, you can go north along the Klondike Highway to the Historic Gold Rush town of
Dawson City
, take the Top of the World Highway to the Alaska border at Poker Creek and then take the Taylor Highway back to the Alaska Highway.
The 720 km long Highway 37 (
Stewart-Cassiar Highway
), runs from Highway 16 (
Yellowhead Highway
) at
Kitwanga
, British Columbia to the Alaska Highway. Highway 37 intersects with the Alaska Highway about 3 km north of the British Columbia-Yukon Border and 22 km west of
Watson Lake
, Yukon. This route can save about 210 km (130 mi) for travellers coming from southern British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the contiguous United States, but due to the sparse population along the route, there is no mobile wireless service along Highway 37, except at either end of the highway.
Side trips
edit
At about Mile 837, you can turn south to
Carcross
and go to
Skagway
, famous as the gateway to the 1896-1899 Klondike Gold Rush. In summer, the Historic Whitepass & Yukon Route Railway is operational as a historical tourist attraction, connecting Carcross and Skagway.
Another sidetrip that leaves the Alaska highway at the same point is a trip to
Atlin
. Atlin is a small town in
British Columbia
that is only accessible from the Yukon.
Stay safe
edit
Follow all advice in the Prepare section.
Go next
edit
The
Alaska Marine Highway
has service from the
Anchorage
area, south of Fairbanks.
About 105 km (66 miles) west of Alaska Highway's west terminus is the city of
Fairbanks
, the closest larger city near that end the highway.
Alaska Highway
This
itinerary
to
Alaska Highway
is a
usable
article. It explains how to get there and touches on all the major points along the way. An adventurous person could use this article, but please
feel free to improve
it
by editing the page
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