Appalachian Highlands (See road trip to Newfoundland Pictures)

Born of tectonic collision, the Appalachians form the mountainous spine of the eastern US Parallel ridges and valleys lie in the central portion.  Forest cover is mixed, with more conifers (pines) in the north and deciduous (broad-leaf) in the south.  In the north, glaciers scraped and depressed the terrain leaving behind massive drumlins of sediment and fertile soil in areas like the Finger Lakes winery region.  Later the sea level rose, giving New England its rockbound coast.

Central Lowlands

The vast central lowlands stretch from the Appalachian plateau to the Great Plains.  Pleistocene glaciers extending from Canada to the Ohio River left behind a mosaic of lakes and wetlands – boulders and rich soils.  The colossal ice sheets scoured the land, leaving behind the Great Lakes.  Melt water drained into channels that become the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.  Fields of blue-stem prairie grasses and oak-hickory forests clad the land.

Superior Upland

The continent’s oldest rocks, the 3.5 billion year old Canadian Shield, extend into the U.S. at Lake Superior.  Continental ice sheets bulldozed the land beginning two million years ago.  Today bogs spread across the upland along with mixed forests of pine, birch, maple, and beech.

Great Plains

Streams flowing out of the Rocky Mountains carried sediment toward the center of the continent, covering broad plains.  The 100^th meridian roughly coincides with the eastern limit of the region.  A cast sea of undulation short grasses blends into tall grass prairie in the Central Lowlands.

Rocky Mountains

The spine of the continent reaches highest in Alaska at over 20,000 ft. and in the U.S. at Colorado, with more than 50 peaks over 14,000 feet.  Running the length of the range, the Continental Divide directs stream flow toward the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.  Some 90 million years ago the mountains began to rise quickly on what was then the edge of the continent.  Later volcanism and glaciations sculpted the surface.  Douglas fir trees and alpine meadows cover the slops, with tundra vegetation above the tree line.

Pacific Coast Mountains

A play in three acts, the West Coast dramatizes tectonic forces.  (1) Volcanoes stud the Cascade Range, where the North American plate overrides the denser Pacific plate.  (2) The rugged Sierra Nevada rears up, pushed by faults in the crust.  (3) The Coast Ranges result from collision between continental and ocean plates or movement along the San Andreas Fault.  Grassland and chaparral in the south give way in the north to dense conifers, such as the great redwoods.

Columbia Plateau

One of the largest lava surfaces in the world, this region – nearly 100,000 square miles – was formed by magma erupting through fissures in earth’s mantle.  Contained between the Rockies and the Cascade Range, the lava in places reaches a thickness of 10,000 feet.  Varying from semiarid plains to forested mountains, the plateau is named for the Columbia River, which drains the land along deep, winding gorges.

Northern Rockies Boreal Forest

The surviving forest sustains one of North America’s richest populations of bears, wolves, lynx, wolverines, and caribou. 

The Frozen North

Tundra Vegetation on the coastal plain, known as the North Slope, sweeps up to the very summit of Brooks Range, the Northern Alaskan Mountain Range.  Part of the Ring of Fire, the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska Peninsula contain more than 75 volcanoes.  Along the fjord-cut Alaska Panhandle, dense conifers climb the slops of heavily glaciated coastal ranges.

Bering Sea

This region is a critical area for migration marine life, including endangered bowhead whales and grey whales.  It also supports huge numbers of murres, auklets, and other seabirds.

Additional Alaskan Highway Information - Alternative Routes

You can camp at most provincial parks as well as RV/Tent parks all along this road.  Unlike the flat roads in the Canadian plains, the Alaskan Highway has plenty to view.  Many people that we have talked to on our travels have told us of an alternative route to Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway from Calgary/Edmonton.  Below is their route – which is safer and has much more plentiful scenery.

Alaskan Timeline

1725-2007