We made it to Alaska!!! I’m not going to write much in this post. I’ll let the images speak for themselves. I’ll share some thoughts and descriptions with each image.
Pine Lake, near Haines Junction, Yukon Territory
Sunset at Pine Lake. The timestamp on this photo is 11:36pm. The actual sunset was probably another hour away. This is as late as I could stay up. It truly is the land of the midnight sun
Kluane National Park in the Yukon is a place I would like to spend a lot more time. It’s a tough place to really see because there are no roads that access the interior. To get into the backcountry, one must schedule a drop-off with a bush pilot or hike in with a backpack. On the other side of these mountain peaks are the largest non-polar ice fields and glaciers in the world. The Alaska Highway skirts along the perimeter of the park.
The wildflowers are out of this world in July. With 20 hours of daylight, they grow big and bright. The colors are richer and deeper than I’ve seen elsewhere. This is Tufted Vetch, mostly just a weed.
Crossing the border into Alaska, we were immediately rewarded with expansive views
To reach Alaska, we had about 185 miles of frost-heave roads. Some of the worst driving conditions imaginable. I thought those miles would never end. This is the pavement, not dirt roads. The only way out of here, other than the ferry, is to repeat these same 185 miles. That won’t be for another few weeks though.
There are countless pullouts along the Alaska Highway and the views just don’t stop.
Fireweed is very prominent throughout the Yukon and Alaska. It is a pioneer plant, one of the first to establish after a forest fire. The flower begins to bloom at the bottom, and over the summer, the bloom works its way to the top. Local lore says that when it reaches the top and goes to seed, winter is only 6 weeks off. Sadly, many Alaskans can already see summer coming to an end.
The official end to the Alaska Highway is in Delta Junction, though many claim it is Fairbanks. The original contact and order for the road was the stretch from Dawson Creek, Yukon to Delta Junction, Alaska.
Denali National Park
Denali, Denali National Park from the park road. They say that only 30% of visitors can see the mountain because of cloud cover on any given day. Only 10% get the rare view of the full mountain on display. We lucked out.
I’ve only flown my drone once on this trip. The parks don’t allow drones. We saw this moose as we were driving down the highway, but because of the marsh, I couldn’t get close enough to capture it with my regular camera. The drone allowed me to get over the top of the trees and capture this image.
On our way into Anchorage, we stopped at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla. Virginia, who is normally afraid of dogs, found herself quite comfortable with these powerful beasts.
This set of images is already long enough. I may attempt to post more photos in a few days. There is simply too much to include in a single post.