June 19, Friday: Alaska Highway

Today was Fort St. John to Fort Nelson on the Alaska Highway.  We woke to cloudy, rainy weather.  Next door to the campground is a small park at the end of Charlie Lake where there is a monument to 12 Army soldiers who died in 1942 transporting equipment across the lake when their boat sank.

We stopped in town to do a bit of grocery shopping and got on the road close to 11 and made the 240 mile drive north to Fort Nelson.  This part of the Alaska Highway is fairly boring with forests on both sides of the roads with very widely mown aprons - I guess so drivers can spot wildlife easier.  

The forest is broken every few miles with dirt roads traveling away from the highway - all of them going to oil and gas fields.  We also saw quite a oil/gas crew barracks of trailers all in rows in the mud and a few other roadside attractions.

On to the portion of the Alaska Highway that goes through the northern Rockies.....