Milepost 0 of the Alaskan Highway in Dawson Creek, BC

Jump to a specific day of our trip: June 8, Day 1, Irvine, CA to Carson City, NV June 9, Day 2, Carson City, NV to Burns, OR June 10, Day 3, Burns OR, to Spokane, WA June 11, Day 4, Spokane, WA to Radium Hot Springs, BC June 12, Day 5, Radium Hot Springs, BC to Canmore, AB June 13, Day 6, Canmore, AB to McBride, BC June 14, Day 7, McBride, BC to Dawson Creek, BC June 15, Day 8, Dawson Creek, BC to Fort Nelson, BC June 16, Day 9, Fort Nelson, BC to Watson Lake, YT June 17, Day 10, Watson Lake, YT to Whitehorse, YT June 18, Day 11, Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, AK and back to Whitehorse June 19, Day 12, Whitehorse, YT to Beaver Creek, YT June 20, Day 13, Beaver Creek, YT to Fairbanks, AK June 21, Day 14, Fairbanks, AK to Healy, AK June 22, Day 15, Healy, AK to Denali National Park to Anchorage, AK June 23, Day 16, Anchorage, AK to Whittier, AK and back June 24, Day 17, Anchorage, AK to Tok, AK June 25, Day 18, Tok, AK to Haines Junction, YT June 26, Day 19, Haines Junction, YT to Haines, AK June 27, Day 20, Day 2 on the Ferry: Juneau & Sitka, AK June 28, Day 21, Day 3 on Ferry: Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan June 29, Day 22, Day 4 on Ferry: Ketchikan to Bellingham June 30, Day 23, Day 5 on Ferry: Docking in Bellingham, WA. Drive to Medford, OR July 1, Day 24, Medford, OR to Irvine, CA July 2, Day 25, Irvine, CA (washing the car)

Welcome to our Y2K2AK page: our "Year 2000" Miata driving trip to Alaska.

Back in 1942, brought on by fears of Japanese invasion to remote Alaska, the US army built a rough road in just 9 months which connected Alaska to British Columbia, bringing a much needed land connection for that state to the rest of the US. Over the years, the conditions of the Alaskan Highway have steadily improved. But drivers continue to be challenged by the remoteness of the road and it's rough sections caused by winter and permafrost damage as well as deal with the frenetic highway maintenance and construction that take placealong many stretches of the highway in the summer, tourist months. This web page documents our month-long Alaskan roadtrip adventure, which we made in our Miata in June, 2000.

Jaime and I started talking about an extended vacation for 2000. Several came to mind, but Alaska came up most often. Originally, perhaps out of lack of creativity, we first talked of getting up there by way of cruise ship. However, our attention was diverted and our interest was piqued when we learned that the Midnight Sun Miata Club was inviting fellow Miata owners to make a roadtrip to Fairbanks, Alaska in June-July 2000. It didn't take long before we were communicating with folks from the MSMC about the trip, namely scheduling, routes, things-to-see, roads to drive, roads not to drive, etc., .... The MSMC appropriately coined the trip, "Y2K2AK".

Our route and schedule in most part was guided and dictated by certain things. We knew we wanted to get to Fairbanks, AK around June 21st to experience the Summer Solstice about as far north we'd get during this trip. And, of course, we wanted to drive the entire stretch of the Alaskan Highway, which meant starting in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada.

To get from here (Irvine, California) to there, we had decided we would drive up to the Canadian border via historic Hwy 395. We were willing to drive to Canada quickly since we've already toured the northwest part of the US on other trips. It made more sense to devote more time at places we've never visited. We wanted to visit Banff and Jasper National Parks. We'd also try to time our trip so that somewhere on the Alaskan Highway, we'd meet up with with 2 other Miatas making the Y2K2AK trek to Alaska from other parts of the counry (we all initially met through the Alcan2000 mailing list). Finally, we had to be in the Alaskan port city of Haines on the evening of June 26 because we had reservations for a ferry (part of of the Alaska Marine Highway System) which would take us and our car south through the Inside Passage to Bellingham, Washington.

For this roadtrip, we traveled easy and slept at motels, instead of roughing it and staying at campgrounds. Both AAA Tour Books and the latest copy of the Milepost, gave us ideas of where we'd stay. We'd try to make reservations a few days in advance for each city. Once we arrived in Alaska Highway territory, we also relied on The Alaska Highway, An Insider's Guide, Ron Dalby. Some of the smaller towns we stayed in had very few accomodations (Tok, Haines Junction, and Watson Lake), and some of the more crowded touristy areas (Anchorage, and Whitehorse) we made sure to reserve a room a bit more in advance. Before we left, we purchased a prepaid MCI/Worldcom phone calling card from the local Costco and used it's toll free access number to call hotels during the trip - it probably saved us a bit in long distance charges, and worked everywhere we travelled.

As for doing the trip in a Miata, Jaime and I are used to long trips in our cars. We have previously done a month long cross country trip of the US back in 1996 in Jaime's Miata. So, we've become pretty efficient at packing and using every nook and cranny of the Miata trunk space. We surprised ourselves by having room to spare when we left home.

Although we planned on staying at motels, we ended up having to bring some camping gear (2 sleeping bags, 2 pads, a tent and a tarp) because when we made reservations for the ferry back in March, all the cabins had been sold out. That meant we weren't guaranteed a cabin berth, and we had to be prepared to sleep up on the ferry's solarium on the upper deck. With the camping gear, it was no longer possible to pack everything in the trunk and inside the car, no matter how imaginative we were. To get the extra luggage room, we decided against towing a trailer. Instead, we borrowed a FasRack trunk rack from our local Miata club (SOCALM). We put all the camping gear inside a water proof bag that went on top of the luggage rack.

For car preprations, we read many of the preparations suggested by the AAA tour books and The Milepost and took them all into consideration. Having heard the stories about cracked and chipped windshields from stones kicked up while driving on gravel raods, prior to the start of the trip, we lowered my Miata's car insurance deductible down to zero. We made no special preparations to the car, other than doing regular maintenance procedures prior to the trip. This included replacing the windshield wipers, changing the brake and clutch fluids, changing the motor oil, and checking the brake pads. We already had changed the tires a few months earlier (Dunlop SP8000) and the shocks on the car were still in reasonable condition. Just in case, we brought along a cell phone, although it was doubtful if there would be cell coverage in the more remote areas we'd be traveling.

Each day of our trip is covered in separate web pages that you can either jump to directly from the links above, or navigate in a day-to-day fashion. For each day's page, we've included a map showing the route we took that day, plus we've also included some images from that day taken with Jaime's digital camera. In all, Jaime ended up taking almost 1000 images with his camera, and I shot about 21 rolls of film with my Nikon 8008s. So the handful of images you'll see in these pages are by no means representative of the number (or quality) of pictures we took, nor can they even begin to capture the beauty of the places we saw.

Eventually, we'll get around to adding specific day-to-day descriptions to each page. But, for now, all you'll see are pictures and the route maps and no other text. If you have enabled Javascript in your browser, when you move your cursor over the thumbnail images, you should see a short description of that picture on your browser's status bar. Enjoy!

Comments? Questions? Send mail to Jaime (jaimev@panix.com) or Jeanne (jppandes@earthlink.net)