The Alaska Highway

It's summertime in Alaska, which means that you see more and more cars from the lower 48 in the store parking lots and traveling the roads up here.

The Alaskan highway is a great way to get to Alaska, but it can be rough on a car when it is under construction. Years ago you would see vehicles pulling into town up here and you knew they came over the Alaskan highway by the thick layers of mud and dirt, now days there is not so much open dirt and gravel roads as there were years ago. (Either that or the tourists are stopping at the car washes more and more.)

I still recall the road as it was under perpetual destruction and can not think of it without thinking of a bumper sticker with Bill The cat and Garfield showing Garfield as the before the Highway look and Bill The Cat as the after the Highway appearances.

Credited to Sergeant Troy Hise, while stationed at Summit Lake, historical mile 392, the following perspective on the Alaska Highway pretty much summed the AlCan up through the years I traveled between Alaska and Washington with my parents:

"The Alaska Highway
winding in and winding out,
fills my mind with serious doubt,
as to whether "the lout",
who planned this route,
was going to hell or coming out!"

Even with all of the construction, which may or may not still be taking place, check that before you head out, the trip is a lovely one that is filled with beautiful scenery and wildlife encounters.