On to Fairbanks (08-09-14)

Just because we weren't on a scenic drive anymore doesn't mean the great scenery went away.  The Richardson Highway to Fairbanks is still a scenic road.  It just isn't made of dirt. We followed a tributary of the Copper River most of the way up to Fairbanks.

Salmon lovers may know that Copper River has the reputation of producing some of the best tasting salmon in the world. We were happy to watch a ton of them making their way upstream.  Salmon will swim hundreds of miles to return to the stream where they were born, so they can continue the cycle of life by spawning and thereby creating the next generation.

The salmon turn more red as they reach the end of their life cycle, heading up the river to spawn and die.  And where there are spawning salmon, there are grizzly bears, so we kept a sharp eye out (no luck though).

We stopped overnight in the town of Delta Junction to regroup. The place we stopped to get an ice cream has a sense of humor, with some (slightly) bigger than life size sculptures. I will say though that although the mosquitoes haven’t been as bad as we thought they would be,  the other night there was one in our bedroom that we couldn't catch, and he pretty much kept us awake all night.

I was surprised to realize that it had been 9 days since we’d had electric hookup and 11 since we’d had full hook up. With all the travel down dirt roads, the inside of the camper was overdue for a thorough cleaning, not to mention we had 10 days worth of laundry to do. We accomplished all that in Delta Junction.


  Delta Junction is the terminus for the Al-Can highway, the road that was built during World War II.  We’ll probably be back through this way when we leave Alaska.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped to enjoy the view as we slowly made our way up to Fairbanks.

Although these peaks aren't quite as tall as McKinley, Mt. Hess, Mt. Deborah and Mt. Hayes are pretty impressive in their own right. We still haven't seen a day without haze and clouds, so the pictures aren't as good as I would like.