Cassiar Highway

Highway 37, better known as the Cassiar Highway, is what the Alaska Highway used to be before they paved it and put up tourist signs every five miles. This 450-mile ribbon of mostly gravel and patchy pavement runs from Kitwanga to Watson Lake, cutting through some of the most remote country in northern British Columbia. You’ll pass through the ghost town of Cassiar, where an old asbestos mine left behind a collection of abandoned buildings and equipment that’s slowly being reclaimed by the wilderness. The Stikine River crossing at Telegraph Creek Road junction marks the halfway point, where the bridge spans one of Canada’s last major undammed rivers.

This is a moderate route that demands respect rather than technical driving skills. Stock vehicles handle it fine, but you’ll want good tires, spare parts, and extra fuel—gas stations are few and far between, with some stretches going 200+ miles between pumps. Summer brings construction crews and dust clouds thick enough to choke a moose, while winter means ice, snow, and the very real possibility of getting snowed in for days. What draws people back is the absolute emptiness of it all—you can drive for hours without seeing another soul, just mountains, forest, and the kind of silence that makes city folks nervous.