Off to Alaska
I didn’t really have a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish with my sketchbook on this epic adventure. Somehow just document the trip visually. I started out with watercolor pencils, which I found unsatisfying, mainly due to the colors I had with me. I much prefer to dip my brush into my watercolor palette and have a little conversation with the colors.
This set of sketches was done as we traveled I-5 in WA, Hwy 97, known as the Cariboo Hwy, through British Columbia to Dawson Creek, then picking up the Alaska Hwy heading west across BC, into Yukon, then finally reaching Tok, AK, just across the border.
First wildlife sighting: a bighorn sheep grazing in the ditch along the highway.
The scenery along the Cariboo Hwy was beautiful and we enjoyed camping at Crooked River Prov. Pk on Bear Lake - but the mosquitos were really bad!
We were very excited when a bear crossed the highway! We started seeing more and more smoke from wild fires in the area. At our campsite in Beatton Prov. Pk. a juvenile eagle kept us company and wild rose was everywhere!
Wildfire smoke got worse traveling west and we saw another bear! The forests transitioned from the massive, abundant evergreens we are familiar with in the pacific northwest to small, skinny, scraggly spruce mixed in with a lot of birch and aspen - we had entered the boreal forest!.
As we headed deeper into the boreal forest of Yukon, the highway suffered more and more from frost heaves that cause the pavement to buckle and break into potholes.
After two days of arduous driving over frost heaves, potholes, and gravel roads, we arrived in Tok, AK.
Other posts in this series:
