Denali Highway

Jeff Foxworthy has this saying: "You know your a redneck if the directions to your house include the phrase "Drive off the paved Road".  While I'm not a redneck, that phrase has been included in the directions to  both the homes I've owned.  While driving around Alaska, if you want to experience truly experience the vastness of Alaska while driving, then it's best to "Drive off the paved road".  Three roads which fit this phrase are the Dalton Highway to Deadhorse, the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City, and the Denali Highway which cuts across the state south of the Alaska Range.  

Two years ago, I drove all three.  This year I only drove the Denali as it is the most convenient.   Still it's 130 miles of mostly gravel.  I skipped the other two since I again wasn't feeling all that great.  This time nausea every morning.  

   Two years ago when I drove the Denali the clouds was hanging pretty low to the point where I wasn't able to see the mountains too well.  This year the skies decided to open up again being clear or partly cloudy.  I forget the names of these two peaks.  That's a glacier flowing down to the valley below, which also is filled with a glacier terminating just after it comes around the bend.

The views along the Denali Highway are pretty spectacular.  Since the road is 90 percent gravel, it is very lightly traveled.  It is however popular with motorcyclists riding most BMWs, no Harley type bikes here.  I saw quite a few bicyclists along the road too.

This is the view from a ridge I hiked up as there was a geocache on top.  I only looked for a few geocaches this trip. 

When I hit the pavement on the east side of the highway I pulled over to make lunch.  Suddenly another View motorhome pulled along side.  It was Ben and Kelly!  They were heading to Tangle Lakes, just down the road behind me to go kayaking.  They had to do some real serious arm twisting to get me to join them for a few days on the water!  Yeh, Right!.  

They have this very interesting kayak.  It took Kelly about an hour to put it together.  It consists of this aluminum tubing frame, like the frame of a small cloth airplane, over which is stretched a canvas like material.  

We spent two days kayaking a couple of the lakes.  We saw several beaver lodges along the way and one beaver, who wasn't too happy that we were around.  Other than the beaver, we were the only ones on the  second lake.

The nausea was getting progressively worse so  the day we departed I stopped at the health clinic in Delta Junction.  They promptly laid me out in their ER giving me IV fluids and anti nausea meds.  The next day I was feeling much better after spending the night at the state park right next door to the clinic. I decided to head back towards home rather than go any further north. 

Thanks to Ben and Kelly for befriending me and convincing me to go kayaking.  I regret I wasn't feeling better so I could more fully partake in the great meals they offered.