Shrinking Bucket List: The Beginning of the Alaska Highway

By the way, you can right click on a photo to copy the image. Then you can have your very own copy of the photo to have enlarged and framed. Or you can left click on the photo just to make it larger for the moment. I realized how important it is to know how to make a photo larger after I posted the pix of the animal-crossing bridges.

The farther northwest we went, the towns became further apart. There were no services except in the towns. For instance, when we left Jasper National Park (where we stayed the night), it was 50 miles to Hinton, 81 miles to Grande Cache, 130 to Grande Prairie, and 80 miles to Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Highway begins. I had looked at it many times on the map and figured the miles more than once, but it didn’t totally sink in that the lack of names on the map meant the lack of services and people. We don’t have that much isolation in the US – at least not where I have been.

The town of Grande Cache was interesting (to me) for several reasons. It was established for the purpose of developing coal mines. Construction of the town began in 1969. By 1971 a hospital, schools, stores, and the first homes were built. At one end of town was a LONG and STEEP upgrade, with a corresponding LONG and STEEP downgrade at the other end. It is the birthplace of hockey player Dean McAmmond (not having watched a hockey game since Gordie Howe retired, I am once again clueless) and home of the Canadian Death Race (http://www.canadiandeathrace.com/). Just outside of town, they were removing the side of a mountain to get to the coal. (I’m sure they will eventually remove the top of the mountain, too, like they do in Appalachia.) It would have been easy for coal to have come crashing down on us just like a rock slide. I’m not good with estimating distances, but I’m sure they were working at least 2,000 feet above the road we were on. The town suffered a boom-bust cycle due to the dependence on a single employer that depended on a single commodity: coal. In an attempt to diversify the economy, additional industries were encouraged to develop in the area. This included a wood chip plant and a Corrections Canada facility. In recent years, wilderness tourism is an increasing industry. I saw a campground that actually looked inviting, but we had many miles to go before we could sleep (with apologies to Walt Whitman).

After Grande Cache came Grande Prairie, which was much larger than I had expected. Then came Dawson Creek, the start of the Alaska Highway.