Memories of Alaska Highway

Families grow stronger when they share good experiences and learn from their memories. Traveling the Alaska Highway has provided many wonderful experiences for our family, and we often remember and laugh about them.

The Alaska Highway starts at Dawson Creek in British Columbia, Canada, near the Alberta border and stretches north-northwest for approximately 1520 miles to Fairbanks, Alaska. I traveled the entire Alaska Highway only once, but I have been on large portions of the highway about a dozen times.

The first time that my family traveled the Alaska Highway was in 1973 when we moved to Alaska. Our family at that time consisted of my husband, two little girls (ages sixteen months old and one month), and myself. We drove a 1970 Chevrolet pickup and pulled a thirteen-foot camp trailer. Car seats were just coming out but were not yet required for children. Since we had room for only one car seat in our truck, we chose to put the toddler in the car seat and put the baby on a pillow on my lap. Our toddler was very active and hated the car seat so we were able to travel only while she was napping. Our trip up the highway took two full weeks.

My plan at the time of this first trip was to come to Alaska and stay for about a year to allow my husband an opportunity to experience Alaska and get it out of his blood. I thought we would then return to Utah and “get on with our lives.” The trip up the highway converted me to the beauties of the north country. I loved Alaska from the time I entered it in 1973.

For my second and third trips, I drove down the highway with my six children to spend six weeks with family and then drove home. Their ages at that time were 17, 16, 14, 12, 9, and 4 years old. Neither my husband nor the children really believed that I would make the drive – until we actually left. The car was really too small for all of us so we were very crowded. One of my strongest memories of this trip is my fourteen-year-old son trying to find someplace to put his long legs. The teenagers were so bored with all the scenery that they actually slept the trip away as did the younger children. We drove about twelve hours each day and then stopped at hotels at night. One night I woke up to the fire alarm going off but couldn’t see any fire. I called the office, and a man came to change the battery in the alarm. I was amazed that none of my children woke up during the entire experience. The only time that we could not get a hotel room was when we hit Calgary, Alberta, during the Calgary Stampede and ended up sleeping in the car. I awoke early the next morning with two guys looking in the window at my daughters. I hurriedly started the car and got out of there! The children all complained about the travel arrangements, but several of them wrote essays about the trip for their college applications. They learned some interesting lessons on the trip: patience, getting along together, and the importance of family. All of my children have definite memories of this trip!

Several of my children have driven the highway with friends to attend college and had interesting experiences. My oldest son had a funny experience when he and his friend pitched their tent in the dark and woke up to discover that they had put their tent in the middle of someone’s driveway.

My husband’s parents wanted to drive the highway in 1990. They flew to Alaska and then drove with my two youngest children and myself. This time I drove a Chevrolet Suburban and had plenty of room to take belongings for a college student. On the return trip, my older brother drove with me. This time we slept in the Suburban, and we drove the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks and then drove to Anchorage on the Parks Highway. This is the only time I drove the entire highway.

We stopped in Edmonton on numerous trips in order to go to the Edmonton Mall. This mall is really huge – about a mile long. It has all kinds of stores in it including two McDonalds and hotels. There is a wave pool in the mall as well as a place with carnival rides. It was easy for me to see why such a mall would be helpful in a place with months of cold weather.

I drove the Alaska Highway three different times in 2004. My husband purchased a truck in Washington, and I flew down to drive back with him in May. In August I drove down the highway with my youngest daughter when she went to college and then flew home. In October I drove down the highway with my husband to spend a few months helping his parents. I enjoyed every trip!

Driving the Alaska Highway provides many happy memories for my family.