Bison with young, along the Alaska Highway
©2003 Duleepa Wijayawardhana
Album Notes
In a fit of something resembling madness, I decided my Canada Day weekend would be spent in the Yukon. It was chance to continue my tradition of exploring Canada for Canada Day and seeing a new province, or in this case, a territory. It was also a chance to drive the fabled Alaska Highway.
The Alaska Highway remains one of the "great drives" of North America. Built in the second world war by the American Army as a land route to protect Alaska, it was built in a rush to just "get there", it was never created as an everyday travel route. These days it is paved and a fantastic drive, but it is still an engineering marvel. There are great stretches of simply nothing. I felt a little safe in having extra gasoline in the car... just in case.
This trip (which I did alone in 5 days) took me all the way to Haines Junction in the Yukon where I camped near the fabulous Kluane National Park. I then drove south to Haines, Alaska and the ferry to Skagway, Alaska, before starting on my return trip through the insane rally conditions of BC's Cassiar Highway. This was a 20-hour return drive back to Edmonton which saw me leave Watson Lake, YK at 6am and reach Edmonton by 3am the next morning (about 2000km). Fun.
