For the 4th we decided to drive on the denali highway. For those who dont know the denali hwy is a 135mile long road with only about 18-20miles of it paved cutting through the interior of the state from cantwell to paxson.
The old lady wanted to do some fishing along the way and this year that GMU is open year round for griz.
Didnt see any bears (not that I really expected to) and didnt lose any parts off my truck (big bonus). The road wasnt in that bad of condition either. we averaged about 30mph. Very hot though.
Your trip brings back memories of when I dragged my wife, and at the time, my 2 month old daughter down that same stretch of road. We left Fairbanks, hit Cantwell, then on over to Paxson, and back up to Fairbanks all in one day. Needless to say my wife about killed me, and she made me swear we would never do that trip again. How were the skeeters? They were horrible when we went. I would stop the car (more on that in a sec) so the wife could nurse, and I could practice my nicotine habit (which I soon after kicked) outside the car. I kid you not, the entire windshield was covered in skeeters within a minute of stopping the car...it was disgusting!!! Anyhow, the "car" we drove was a little Pontiac Sunfire sportscar. My Toy just wasn't big enough for the three of us comfortably, so we ended up taking the slightly larger, yet slightly not recommended (as opposed to the p/u) car for the drive. As luck would have it, there were no flat tires or cracked windshields.
Anyhow, thanks for the pics...I really like that last one, those clouds are pretty dramatic.
Jim,
The sqeeters werent that bad, it was those damn no-see-ums that were driving us crazy.The mosquitos were present but those gnats are always annoying. You know, when you open your mouth you swallow about a dozen.
LB, you and Bill are always welcome up here.
Nut, you can camp wherever you want to. Where we stayed the first night there was a little wading pool that the wife and pooch stayed in for a long time. They have campgrounds along the road but you have to pay to have a neighbor next to you. I cant see doing that. Basically you have a 130mile long campground.
It was a nice weekend. The drive up, Mt McKinley was present since there wasnt a cloud in the sky, unfortunately with the snowcapped mtn and the sky the pics didnt turn out. It couldn't be because of the cheap $57 disposable camera we had
.
We put only about 700miles on the truck but it was great. Half way down the hwy there is a lodge on the susitna river. We went in and had a few beers to cool off and talk for hours with the lady who works there. I guess shes been doing this for years since her brother owns the lodge. Everytime I drive that road it always intrigues me.
Nice pictures. I remember doing that drive with my Uncle that lives in Big Lake when I was 14. I caught a ton of Grayling on a fly rod on that trip, haven't been able to kick that habit yet.
