North Peace Regional Airport (YXJ) serves Fort St. John, a city in northeastern British Columbia's Peace River Country and a key stop along the Alaska Highway, and a rental car is essential here given the vast distances and limited public transit across this part of the province. The airport sits a short drive from the city center, with rental counters run by international and local companies, and pickup is generally efficient given the airport's role as a regional hub for the surrounding oil, gas and agricultural industries.
From YXJ, the Alaska Highway runs both directions through the region: heading south, Dawson Creek, home of the highway's official Mile Zero marker, is roughly an hour away, marking the historic start of the nearly 2,400-kilometer route to Alaska. Heading north and west, the highway continues through Fort Nelson and eventually into the Yukon, a journey of many hours that most travelers break into stages given the remote, sparsely serviced terrain along the way. The Peace River itself and the rolling farmland of the Peace Country surround Fort St. John, a landscape that shifts gradually into boreal forest and muskeg further north.
Driving is on the right throughout Canada, and while the Alaska Highway here is a well-maintained two-lane paved route, it passes through genuinely remote country where services can be sixty to a hundred kilometers apart, so treating fuel stops as mandatory is standard practice for anyone heading north from Fort St. John. Wildlife on the road, including moose and deer, is a real hazard at dawn, dusk and after dark, and winter here is long and serious, with heavy snow, ice and short daylight common from roughly November through March, making winter tires strongly advisable even though British Columbia does not mandate them outright. Fuel stations are reasonably frequent around town but grow sparse quickly once you head north or west, so planning stops around towns is essential for any longer Peace Country trip.