Planned Detour.

 

We have made such good time, seen everything (so far) that we wanted to see, that we are scheduled to arrive in Fairbanks a week earlier than we need for our booked trip to the Arctic Circle on the 20^th.  So we decided to add a ‘loop’ between Anchorage to the south, and Fairbanks to the north.  The mission was to drive the Denali Highway (110 miles of dirt, potholes, loose gravel … you get it), in a westerly direction pointed at Mt. McKinley (Mount Denali) the whole way.  If we leave in the morning with the east sun pointing on the mountain, AND the weather is clear, it could be spectacular. A lot of ‘ifs’…

The first 80 miles of the trip was on Richardson Highway – a well paved road connecting Fairbanks with Valdez.  It is reportedly one of the prettiest highways in Alaska, and it did not disappoint.Many stretches have lupine along the edge of the road

We did pass the pipeline several times en route.  

We drove right past rainbow ridge. 

It’s kind of funny following the guidebook and the road signs.  By the end of the day, it can be easy to blow off yet another pull-out.  We were flying down the road, and saw a sign for yet another pull-out and couldn’t figure out what the view was.  So thinking we might not want to miss something, we went ahead into the pull-out, turned the RV around to look behind us rather than in front of us.  Boy was THAT a good plan. 

There were numerous glaciers clearly visible from the road.

We camped at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) government campground (no services), and managed to snag a waterfront site in the tangle lakes region – lakes that formed as glaciers receded.  

We were greeted by a porcupine.  

This area is rich with archeological remains from ancient people who lived here 10,000 years ago (easy access to water and herd animals). 

There were grouse at our site.

Denali Highway the next day:  

The Denali Highway is 134 miles long with 20 of them paved.  We liked the paved road, but not the unpaved, which in many ways was worse than the top of the world highway. 

 The views and the good weather MORE than made up for the difference.  

Along the way, we stopped at Gracious House lodge for an ice cream cone.  The place is for sale.  No … we didn’t even THINK about it.  The owner does try to sell everyone who comes in, wanting to know if we’d like a change in lifestyle.  The owners have run the lodge for 50 years, they are 72, he had open heart surgery 4 months ago, and they need to sell.  They have had an interesting life here. The antlers are included in the sale

We crossed many rivers popular for canoeing.  Notices indicate ‘fast flowing waters, water temperature = 45degrees, an unprotected person will survive 6-10 minutes in the water’.We passed the Wrangell Mountains (heights 14-16,000 feet), rounded a turn, and were looking right at the Alaska Range. 

We made friends along the way. Stinky liked this one

We set up camp in a boondock spot (free camping – such as Walmart, or rest area) spot with a distant view of Denali mountain.  There were large animal carcass bones at the site, and we eventually saw private property signs.  

AND, we were still very far from Denali, so we picked up and headed further south, through construction, 

to Denali State Park campground – a parking lot with a reasonably good view of Denali, 

and a great view of the surrounding mountains.  We also arrived with a flat tire.  There is no cell phone service and our little compressor isn’t doing the job. 

Night night – we’ll deal with this tomorrow.

More pictures from the day