Howland Photography: Portrait of a Road Trip: Alaska Part 3

Jasper was a pretty nice drive. Up through the rockies with endless forests, mountains and lakes. We had a night to kill halfway, and pulled into a little camping area which had some great thick trees, perfect for the Stingray…

We slept well with the stars out in full sparkle through the canopy. The stingray was proving to be well worth the money. It let us sleep well off the ground, safe from prying animals, and was ludicrously comfy. After a chilled out night, I woke before Steph and climbed down the ladder to the camp area below, took out the grill and kitchen gear from the car and cooked up some french toast. The coffee press (one of two coffee making devices I got at REI) got another work out too. Essentially a french press within a thermos, it worked well, to retain heat once the coffee was brewed, but I preferred the simpler and smaller device we’ll meet in the backcountry later in the trip.

After waking Steph and having a small feast, we hit the road and headed for Jasper. The drive took us to the northern most point of the rockies, and then into a huge campsite. On arrival we were once again warned that 2 bears where currently in the site, and as such, we should be sure to follow the normal ‘bear aware’ precautions. No shit.

We threw up the tent and made our way immediately into town and found to my delight, the ‘Jasper Brewing - Brew Pub & Eatery’ was on the small and quaint main street. We had a couple of delicious beers whilst eating a monster burger (I should point out Steph had a salad) and peering at the mountains in front of us.

I got the impression Jasper would be a nice place to spend some time, a lot like Glacier and Gladstone had been, but this was a short stop on a mammoth 3,500 mile drive to Alaska, we couldn’t hang around.

The next day we hit the road and made it to one of the most anticlimactic locations on the trip. Though it gave us a buzz due to its status as being ‘Mile 0’ on the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek is a dog awful place. It’s highlights include a KFC, and a Frozen Yoghurt store. Just awful.

We stayed in a motel that night, and made use of it to wash clothes and restock the gear in the car, which had gotten a little disorganized from road life.

We had a good nights sleep, watched a little television, which we’d not seen in weeks, and then hit the road early the next day.

This day marked the real transition from normalcy to crazy, from civilization to barren and from people to no people. After we left Dawson City the road began to vanish. It turns out that not all that many people venture further north than this, and the wise men in Canada’s transport department seem to have figured roads aren't all that important up here. They went from smooth black, to rough, to sand, to this.

We dealt with this for about 9 hours, maybe ten. Along the way we encountered one roadside cafe who’s owner, an elderly lady who sold sandwiches, coffee and machetes, told us of the crazy folk who travel the roads up here. Apparently a couple of years prior a man on a bus had randomly whipped out a machete and beheaded half of his fellow passengers. I sipped my coffee smiling, then got bacon the car and made sure to pop the door lock down.

We’d grabbed a paper in Dawson Creek which had on its front a huge story about a monster fire on the Alaskan Highway. Later in the day we came across it for ourselves and we were awestruck at the power of nature and its capacity for destruction.

Towards the end of the day we were getting pretty tired. We found a tiny gas station and I got chatting to a couple who were biking the highway from Alaska back south. I enquired if there was a campsite near Muncho Lake, which we were less than 30 minutes from.

‘Sure, its cheap and nice enough, but go a little further and you hit Liard Hot Springs. They’re beautiful and theres a campsite there. If you stay on their site you get free entry to the springs.’

We we sold, so we made a dash for Liard. It took about an hour, but as the sun was about to fall away, we found the site. A black bear dashed into the bushes as we turned into the grounds, the first bear we’d seen so far, oddly.

Liard Springs are absolutely beautiful. Such a natural, relaxing and peaceful site. Being so far from any town meant it had hardly any visitors, but considering this, it was remarkably well maintained. There’s no way around it, it takes a good four hundred mile drive to get to this place from the nearest town. This is desolate country. Beautiful, wild and desolate country.

After a day in the car, the spring was phenomenal. We sat and read books and relaxed as the sun went down through the trees. We were right on the border of the Yukon territory, and would hit it the next day. But for now, it was time to relax.