From a boondocking spot in Prophet River, BC we made several brief stops before reaching Edmonton, Alberta in Kiskatinaw Park, Dawson Creek, Beaverlodge, and Valleyview.
Kiskatinaw Park’s key attraction is a curved wooden bridge built as part of the Alaska Highway project during WWII (more in post linked here).
If you’re part of Gen X like I am, you’ll likely think of teenage angst, Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek and the fictional town of “Capeside, Massachusetts” from the popular, can’t-wait-until-next-week show called “Dawson’s Creek” when someone mentions a visit to this town (show intro video below), but Dawson’s Creek is in northeastern BC.
The actual Dawson’s Creek is best known as “Mile 0” for the Alaska Highway. It starts here and stretches into Alaska.
We crossed from BC into Alberta and our next stop was Beaverlodge. This small rural town is primarily known for its giant beaver statue. That’s right we pulled over for this!
Doug was an Indian Scout as a boy and his dad, having a funny sense of humor, gave him the name “Little Beaver” so that his dad was…you guessed it, “Big Beaver”. With that kind of history, you’d pull over too.
Beaverlodge says this is one of the largest beaver sculptures in the world. Yes, I was sad it didn’t say it was THE largest. I don’t know where that might be. Anyway, built in 2004, this beaver stands 15 feet tall and is 28 feet long. No matter how you look at it, that’s a big beaver.
We made a stop in Grand Prairie to get something notarized. This little dog helped Doug with his paperwork!
Our final stop, before reaching Edmonton was in Valleyview. It’s a small town located at the junction of highway 43 and 49. It’s often referred to as the “Portal to the Peace” because of its location along the route to the Peace River in northern Alberta.
With over 500 miles in the rear view mirror over the last few days through generally small, agricultural towns along the route, we looked forward to our next stop, the big city of Edmonton.
