A Guide to Alaska-Yukon Highways

To Page 2, Fort Nelson to Whitehorse
To Page 3, Whitehorse to Delta Junction

Click on the images below
to enlarge them

The start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Photo taken in February 2002. For more information and photos about where it starts and ends, see this article.

The historic Kiskatinaw Bridge, the last of the original wooden bridges built on the highway. It is accessed by a loop road at Km 27.8. Construction of the bridge by civilian contractors began in November 1942; 534 feet (162.5 meters) long, it curves 9 degrees along its length. It had a weight limit of 25 tons, and the large number of trucks exceeding that weight made construction of a new bridge necessary by the 1970s. This photo was taken on a frosty morning in early October 2002.

The impressive new Kiskatinaw River Bridge, at Km 33.6, was opened in 1978. This photo was taken in early October 2002.

The view northbound at Km 140 as seen in July 1998.

The abundance of pipelines in the region north of Fort St. John help to make it very attractive to moose due to the ease of traveling and better browsing. October 2002.

Wildlife along the Alaska Highway - cows on the road near Wonowon, BC, in early October 2002.

Looking north up the highway from Pink Mountain (Historic Mile 143) in early October 2002.

The original tote road has been re-routed in many places (in some cases more than once in a single location), and past routes can be seen often. This is northbound at Km 246 in early October 2002.

This re-routing of the original road is just south of the Sikanni Chief River at Historic Mile 158 (Km 250). This photo looks southbound in early October 2002.

Looking north up the Alcan to Buckinghorse River, BC, at Historic Mile 175 (Km 279), in October 2002.

Below, one of the major re-routing projects on the Alaska Highway was at Trutch Mountain, Historic Mile 178. The old road went to the right to the top of the ridge at 4,134 feet in order to avoid the extensive muskeg below, while the new highway, completed in 1987, deals with the wet conditions in the bottom of the Minnaker River valley. This section of the old road, about 30 miles long, is still driveable (October 2002).

Looking north from near the summit of the Trutch Mountain section of the old road in October 2002. There's a mule deer on the left side of the road down by the corner.

Southbound at about Km 350 in early October 2002.

It surprises most people to find out that the Muskwa River at Fort Nelson, BC, is the lowest point on the Alaska Highway, at 1,000 feet (305 meters). This photo was taken from the highway bridge at Km 451 in October 2002.

To Page 2, Fort Nelson to Whitehorse

All photos are © 1998-2007 by Murray Lundberg, and are not to be reproduced without permission.

---

References & Further Reading:

• Alaska Highway & Canol Bibliography
• Ken Coates - North to Alaska (Toronto, ON: McLelland & Stewart, 1992)
  
• Murray Lundberg - Alaska Highway (Whitehorse, YT: Webster, 1999)
  
• The Milepost (Bothell, WA: Alaska Northwest, 1998)
  
• Hope Morritt - Land of the Fireweed: A Young Woman's Story of Alaska Highway Construction Days (Edmonds, WA: Alaska Northwest, 1985)
  
• Iris Woolcock - The Road North: A Woman's Adventure Driving the Alaska Highway, 1947-1948 (Puffin Press, 1990)

---

Previous Features

More Photo Albums Links