This morning we slept in because I forgot to set the alarm clock. But, since we normally take showers at night, we still managed to be on the road by 8 am. Yes, it only takes us half an hour to dress and pack (I know, too much information already). The morning was nice and crisp, sunny and 3 deg C. However, today we're travelling north and we're expecting the temperature to go way up (go figure eh?). Indeed, when we got to Fort St. John, our final destination for today, the temperature was up to 20 Deg.
We took scenic highway 40 to Grande Cache and then to Grande Prairie. The road goes right through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We could see the snow topped Rockies quite often to the left of us which provided some spectacular views at times. We were also following the Smokey river for a long time. The rivers by now have lost their mountain wildness somewhat but are still fast and, to me at least, are very interesting. 
We took scenic highway 40 to Grande Cache and then to Grande Prairie. The road goes right through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We could see the snow topped Rockies quite often to the left of us which provided some spectacular views at times. We were also following the Smokey river for a long time. The rivers by now have lost their mountain wildness somewhat but are still fast and, to me at least, are very interesting. 
We spotted a lot of mule deer does along the way and also a couple of moose (or is it meese?). So far we haven't spotted a grizzly yet but we're just starting on the Alaska highway today.
Just out of Grande Cache, which is a lovely town by the way, we spotted a wo
rking coal mine. This mine does surface stripping as well deep underground mining. The surface strip mining operation was quite interesting since they were working these giant machines on the slope of a steep mountain. Near the Smokey river, they had a processing p
lant where trains hauled away the coal to wherever. I understand this is high grade coal destined for the steel smelting industries.
rking coal mine. This mine does surface stripping as well deep underground mining. The surface strip mining operation was quite interesting since they were working these giant machines on the slope of a steep mountain. Near the Smokey river, they had a processing p
lant where trains hauled away the coal to wherever. I understand this is high grade coal destined for the steel smelting industries.We arrived in Grande Prairie around noon and stopped for lunch. Grande Prairie is a typical oil boom town with rapid growth and construction rampant everywhere. We were not too impressed with the hustle and bustle everywhere. New giant malls are sprouting up all over the place and such. The scenery from Grande Cache to Grande Prairie is not too interesting. We're in the Peace River valley which is pretty flat and farmed extensively. We couldn't wait to leave Grande Prairie behind. After awhile the landscape started to become more interesting and we crossed into British Columbia once again. Also, upon crossing into BC, we had to set our clock back another hour, we are now on Pacific Time which is 3 hours behind Eastern Time (Toronto). We have to cross one more time zone when we cross into Alaska.
We arrived in due 
time in Dawson Creek, BC where we stopped and took some pictures of the official start of the Alaska Highway, called "Mile 0". We visited to local tourism information shack and got some more maps and stuff. After a few miles we made a side trip over an original section of the Alaska Highway that crosses over the Kiskatimaw river. Here is an original curved wooden trestle bridge that is still in use. We decided to have a look at the bridge. This bridge was built in 1942 during the construction of the Alaska highway. For those of you with an interest in why and how the Alaska Highway was built, here's a good website: Alaska Highway . An interesting trivia factoid is that this is oil and gas country that we're travelling through. Everywhere along the highways you see natural gas pipelines and compressor
stations. Some are burning off the sour gas, made famous by our eco-terrorist Wiebo Ludwig.
time in Dawson Creek, BC where we stopped and took some pictures of the official start of the Alaska Highway, called "Mile 0". We visited to local tourism information shack and got some more maps and stuff. After a few miles we made a side trip over an original section of the Alaska Highway that crosses over the Kiskatimaw river. Here is an original curved wooden trestle bridge that is still in use. We decided to have a look at the bridge. This bridge was built in 1942 during the construction of the Alaska highway. For those of you with an interest in why and how the Alaska Highway was built, here's a good website: Alaska Highway . An interesting trivia factoid is that this is oil and gas country that we're travelling through. Everywhere along the highways you see natural gas pipelines and compressor
stations. Some are burning off the sour gas, made famous by our eco-terrorist Wiebo Ludwig. After crossing the bridge over the Kiskatinaw river, we crossed the Peace river near a town called Taylor. The interesting thing there was 
that the natural gas pipelines had to cross the river as well. Since it is too dangerous for the natural gas pipes to share a bridge with vehicles, they constructed a special suspension bridge just for the gas pipelines some ways off to the regular bridge. The white and red striped pipes are the gas pipelines.
that the natural gas pipelines had to cross the river as well. Since it is too dangerous for the natural gas pipes to share a bridge with vehicles, they constructed a special suspension bridge just for the gas pipelines some ways off to the regular bridge. The white and red striped pipes are the gas pipelines.We arrived in Fort St. John shortly after crossing the Peace river, which is a substantial river at Taylor by the way. Fort St. John is another boom town, albeit smaller than Grande Prairie. We found a very, very nice hotel here for a very reasonably price ($79.00). The tourist season has definitely not started yet and that works in our favour.
As you probably saw by the blog heading, we are definitely in redneck country here. Regular cars are in very short supply here in northern BC and Alberta and outnumbered by at least 5 to 1 if not more. All you see is trucks and pick-up trucks. The pick-up trucks are all big, more often than not with dual rear wheels. The typical male drives a giant Dodge RAM pickup truck with dual wheels and a V8 or Cummings diesel.
The other thing we had to endure was lots of road construction. This time we had to wait at each road re-construction site 5-10 minutes before being allowed to continue. Hopefully as we get further away from the build-up areas we won't be pestered too much by this summer time phenomenon (oh.. I sure like using big words of more than two syllables).
Well folks, I hope you stick with me as we travel along. Your comments and emails are always very much appreciated as it keeps us in touch with ya'all.
No comments:
Post a Comment