H & P Alaska 2024

 If you like spectacular mountain views, the drive on Hwy 2 past Denali Nat. Pk. is a must see. The scenery is on par with all the great mountain drives we have been on. Unfortunately, most of the scenic pullouts are over grown and are not great for taking pictures. Here are a few I did take.       We ended up at K'esugi Ken St. Pk. K'esugi Ken is native for "the ancient one".   Talkeetna is 52 miles from our campground. Having heard of it in books we have read, we decided to take a look. Talkeetna is not on the main highway but the railway goes through it. Unbeknownst to us it is a real tourist trap. Tour buses and train loads of people. ugh. We were thinking of having lunch there but it didn't look like we would get anywhere near some place to eat. Fortunately, we were paying attention and noticed a few places on our way into town. Cute little place, deli style and good food. We both had the Chili, they had lots of great looking sandwiches but we are sandwiche...

  With the smoke on the first part of the drive, we wondered if we would get to see the big mountain. It started to clear by Anderson and we were greeted by clear skies. Maybe we would get to see Denali after all. We settled for a RV Park just south of Healy, about eight miles north of the Denali Visitor centre.  Views form our campground. This RV park just became a KOA, it is quite spacious and full service. Gives us a chance to do all the laundry. A little on the pricey side, $150.50 us for two nights. It is nice and close to the Denali though. This morning, July 27th, we made lunch to go and we were off to the park. The short red line (left to right) is as far as you can go by private vehicle. The grey road is bus tour only. Pat gets motion sick on buses, so that was out. There are a couple of spots on the red road that you can see the mountain, so off we go.  I stopped at a view point and that's when I realized that I had made a huge blunder. In my haste to get going...

  The road from Delta Junction to Fairbanks was pretty good, just a few pot holes and frost heaves. The views, on the other hand, were not good. Somewhere around were I put the X on the map was a forest fire. This was our view for miles and miles. Smoke.  Just before Fairbanks is the community of North Pole. The whole town is Christmas themed and although it did look cool, it also looked like a tourist trap. We did not stop. There was certainly nothing there that we needed, or wanted.  Our chosen campground was about 30k North of Fairbanks, Whitefish Campground. Luckily, there was very little smoke up there. These added a little colour to the creek side. Next day, we headed into Fairbanks to replenish our supplies. To get a feel of the town, we drove downtown. Just our luck, there was construction all over the place, with detours. Enough of this, lets get to Costco and Walmart. Realizing that we were going to have to get all our stuff into the RV frig and freezer, we deci...

Top of the World Hwy is not what I would call a relaxing drive. Mostly gravel, with a mixture of pot holes, wash board and frost heaves on the paved parts. The first part is pretty good gravel and fairly wide. You have to watch for wash board as it can get you sideways pretty quick.  Lets start with leaving Dawson on the ferry. It was loading this machine on the other side when we got to the landing and the boat could only take him and no other vehicles, so our wait was not long. A quick on, across and off. Up, Up, Up the road we went. About an hour into the drive, my tire pressure monitoring alarm sounded. Now what, a broken valve stem is what. Quickly to the top of the hill before we lost all pressure. Now to put on the spare. There was no more drama till we hit customs. We were prepared, got rid of all fruits and veggies, no fire wood and made sure any meat was compliant. The border guard says "Where are you headed" "Kenai Peninsula" "Any fire wood" ...

  It took us about two hours to get to Dawson City from Moose Creek campground. There is a gravel section that had the worst dust I have ever seen. At one point, I almost had to come to a stop to see the road. Worse than any fog I have ever been in. This picture doesn't even come close to the amount of dust but you get the idea. It just hung there, in huge big clouds, no wind at all. Funny thing was, there was not much traffic. Once we found a campground and got set up in Dawson City, we drove up Dome Rd. There is a view point that looks over the town. The first photo is as you are coming into town, it would be to your left of the lower photo. Our trailer is in the centre of the photo. That would be in the first photo. Tourists are always getting in the way. I had a very nice birthday lunch here, Triple J's. The town is trying to keep with the Gold Rush theme. Some pictures from around town. A few building are not in the best of shape. This will explain the above photo.   This...