Dawson Creek to Whitehorse Travel Guide

The best part of the Alaska Hwy - a distance of about 1500km - winds through northern British Columbia from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon (only 320km of the Alaska Hwy is actually in Alaska). Don't be fooled by the string of villages emblazoned across the area's maps, for there are only two towns worthy of the name en route, Fort St John and Fort Nelson - the rest are no more than a garage, a store and perhaps a motel. Watson Lake , on the Yukon border, is the largest of these lesser spots, and also marks the junction of the Alaska and Cassiar highways. All the way down the road, though, it's vital to book accommodation during July and August.

Driving the Alaska Hwy is no longer the adventure of days past - that's now provided by the Cassiar and Dempster highways. Food, fuel and lodgings are found at between forty- and eighty-kilometre intervals, though cars still need to be in good shape. You should drive with headlights on at all times, and take care when passing or being passed by heavy trucks. It also goes without saying that wilderness - anything up to 800km of it each side - begins at the edge of the highway and unless you're very experienced you shouldn't contemplate any off-road exploration. Any number of guides and pamphlets are available to take you through to Fairbanks, but The Milepost , the road's bible is, for all its mind-numbing detail, the only one you need buy.

From mid-May to mid-October daily (except Sun) a Greyhound bus leaves Dawson Creek in the morning and plies the road all the way to Whitehorse; it runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the rest of the year. The twenty-hour trip finishes at around 5am, with only occasional half-hour meal stops, but covers the road's best scenery in daylight.