A Different Alaska

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Early in our trip planning process we made a conscience decision to go south first and then swing up north as we exit Alaska. This decision was mostly predicated on the anticipated weather. Historically it is still pretty cold in Fairbanks during late May when we planned to arrive and the weather warms in the south earlier in the season. It also had a lot to do with being near the King Salmon fishing areas during the spring run. So far it has worked as planned with the exception of the seemingly endless spring rain storms. Sometimes you just go even in the rain but fortunately we are on a long time line so if necessary we can sit out a few days of rain and do our exploring when the weather clears. I have begun to feel extremely sorry for those people that spend a lot of money to visit Alaska on a 4-5 day tour only to have the weather set in and severely limit their opportunities to see all the beauty this state has to offer. While southern Alaska was a lot about fishing, marinas, open water, bays and boats, northern Alaska is completely different. Once you get past the Palmer/Wasilla area just north of Anchorage you enter into the Alaska Mountain Range which of course includes Denali. “Up here” it is a different Alaska, all about the mountains, hiking, camping, Quads and just the vast open wilderness. And there is also some pretty good river and lake fishing to go with it. On our agenda for Alaska North was to drive the Denali Highway. No, this is not the main route to Denali National Park, at least not anymore. This dirt road connected the Alaska Highway to Denali NP during the early days when the park first opened but it was abandoned when the Alaska Highway was completed to Fairbanks and the Parks Highway was completed from Fairbanks to Denali. What that left was 135 miles of dirt road that bisects the state through some of the most remote wilderness you could ever imagine. As one local told us, it is the place where Alaskans go because the tourist stay on the pavement. Since we are not part of the tour bus crowd we took this as a challenge and an excellent opportunity to continue our off-road explorations as we set out to drive the Denali Highway. We had fair weather on the Saturday of the Independence Day holiday weekend and as we had been told, many Alaskans were out there camping with their four-wheelers, tents, pop-ups, small campers and some fifth-wheels. You can camp anywhere on the road where you can find a spot, for free, along the entire highway and off that main dirt road there are literally hundreds of trails that head directly into the deep woods or to mountain tops or to remote streams and lakes – they all go into the wild. We may have been able to complete the whole thing but there were too many glorious photos to be taken, short hikes to make and stops that just had to be made to admire the view. We did make 82 miles of the135 when we stopped at the Alpine Creek Lodge for a late lunch. They did a great Bacon/Cheese Burger like I had been craving and we decided to turn around there and slow roll our way back since it looked like rain was coming anyway. It was just as remarkable going the opposite direction and the rains did come as we completed the trip. The rain stayed for two straight days and we huddled up in the trailer to some good books and DVDs waiting for Ronda and Wayne to arrive. We are excited to have them visit us on our trip and will be going back up the Denali Highway to show them where the Alaskans play.

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Comments

[Scott Mattison]

Spectacular Pics!
Wow, really enjoyed the pics from this post! Sometimes I wonder if we're going to to see a post entitled "Final Blog" filled with instructions on how to pack up your MD household goods for shipment to your new Alaskan address. How do you rationalize leaving a place like that?

[Roadancer]

One Word
The rational for leaving can be summed up in one word - Winter....ok maybe two words, Grandkids and Winter.