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Published: July 11th 2011
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Lake Otter
Swimming in Summit Lake. The Richardson Highway extends 366 miles from Fairbanks in the Interior of Alaska to Valdez on Prince Williams Sound. This is a very scenic route with excellent views of several mountain ranges, rivers and lakes. It also offers views of the trans-Alaska pipeline, which carries oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to the pipeline terminus at Valdez. The Richardson Highway was Alaska's first road (known to gold seekers in 1898 as the Valdez to Eagle trail). During the 1898 Gold Rush, dozens of Roadhouses sprang up beside the trail. They were about 10 miles apart-a day's walking distance. Some of these Roadhouses still remain such as Rika's. In 1910 the trail was upgraded to a wagon road under the direction of General Wilds Richardson, first president of the Alaska Road Commission (ARC). The road was updated to automobile standards in the 1920's and hard-surfaced in 1957.
In this blog, there is a selection of photos showing the mountains, pipeline and Rika's Roadhouse.
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keenan
non-member comment
lake otter photo
that's a beaver