May 23, 2015

We are camped for the night at Summit Lake which happens to be at the highest pass along this Alaska Highway…4250 feet. It is a lovely spot but very popular with locals as well as travelers. We had hoped to see stone sheep during our drive today. We were skunked in that regard but happened to see 4 black bears, a momma and her cub, and two solo bears all within 5 miles. They were very healthy and robust. Add to our animal count two marmots beside the roadway. The moose continue to elude us.

We began our travels today with a visit to the Kiskatinaw Bridge. This is one of the original bridges along the Alaskan Highway built of wood and still in use. It is unique because it curves in a 9 degree arc as is crosses the Kiskatinaw River. When the concrete pillars were poured in November of 1942, an unusual cold snap hit. The pillars had to be protected from freezing by being wrapped and kept at 72 degrees until the cold snap ended. Just one more challenge faced by the builders of this road.

The highway drops into the Peace River gorge in a dramatic fashion. The highway sign reads “extreme grades ahead” which was a little bit of an understatement. The crossing of the Sikanni River was also dramatic but not as breath taking as the Peace River.

We stopped in Fort Nelson for lunch and totally missed seeing the largest chopstick factory in the world! Then it was on to the winding climb up the western side of Steamboat Mountain, which is where we saw the bears. A little rain fell on our heads then about 5 p.m., the sun popped from behind the clouds and off we went with cameras to capture the area.

The entire area we drove through today was heavily timbered with fir, spruce, black cottonwood, alder, larch and aspen to name a few. The Alaskan Highway has been an easy road to travel. We can now see why it is so very popular with RVers.

Below are photos of the Kiskatinaw Bridge and Mama Bear and her cub.