Edmonton Alberta: Gateway to the North Latin World

So, ever wanted to drive to Alaska?

I thought that would be a great summer road trip this year. And then I looked into it.

If you want to drive from Edmonton Alberta to Anchorage Alaska, its quite the long haul. Google Maps shows us the route we would take, and its 3,124km in length, taking roughly 36 hours of straight driving. Even covering 8 hours a day, we're looking at the better part of a week.

Wow, that's a really really really long drive. Well, forget that, instead lets drive from Edmonton to Mexico. Now Mapquest and Google Maps' driving directions don't really tell us how to get there, since Mexican roads don't exist on the system. However, Tijuana is right across the border from the Cesar Chavez Community Center in sunny downtown San Ysidro California. Edmonton to San Ysidro can be looked up on Google, and let me tell you... its... closer!. That's right, its only 2,936km from Edmonton to San Ysidro, and Google helpfully ends our trip a quarter-mile from the Mexican border. Its not much closer (Grande Prairie, for example, is closer to Anchorage), but closer nonetheless.

Now for a few caveats:

• If you just want to get to Alaska, you can go to... y'know... Juneau. ["Juneau what the capital of Alaska is? -ed] That's a whole lot closer: 2,224km if you sneak up through the Yukon like Google wants you to, or 2,107km if you do what I or MapQuest recommends and barrel directly across Northern B.C. (and meet the cute girls from Prince George and Prince Rupert along the way).
• MapQuest puts San Ysidro at 2,903km from Edmonton using the shortest directions, but note that it keeps you away from the American-Mexican border. Nice try, email jackasses.
• Bali Hotel's "How Far Is It" gives you "as the crow flies" distances instead of driving distances. Here, San Ysidro is 2,344km away, Tijuana is again not listed, Juneau is 1,392km and Anchorage is 2,277km from Edmonton. Again, if you want to go to visit the "real" Alaska, you're better off heading to Mexico.