YTJ's Travels

Denali Highway to Cathedral Creek B&B (Day 4)

In the morning we took our time driving out and stopped to take lots of pictures, as we didn't want to repeat our blue-bird Denali view mistake. We saw more porcupine, moose, and caribou, and some more incredible panoramic views. I'm not sure how they will look embedded here, so I will try to upload a higher quality one if it doesn't show up well.

We ended our Denali Highway Journey in Paxon... where the gas station was closed, so we crossed our fingers as we headed north to see the offical end, though our start, of the Alaska Highway.
We saw a momma moose with two brand spanking new babies on the way:

View of the Alaska Pipeline

The official end (and our beginning) of the Alaska Highway

We stopped for the night at Cathedral Creek B&B. It was a lovely spot with friendly folks. We pretty much camped in the side yard next to the fire pit. It ruled. What also ruled was doing laundry and taking a shower for the first time in several days!

Rainbow at 5am!

Hatcher Pass to Denali Highway (Day 3)

Thursday, June 6

After another relaxing morning, we pulled out the water filter and filled our water bottle with some cool river water and back tracked the rest of the way down Hatcher Pass Road. Once we got to the Highway, we stopped at the XPR-SSO stand. This woman knew how to make a good strong americano! Seriously one of the best I've ever had!

We rolled up the highway taking our time to look around, but are still kicking ourselves for not stopping for a proper picture of Denali. With these blue bird skies, we missed out on an amazing photo op thinking that we'd have the chance once we got to the national park. What we did get was the picture below from a snomobile park in Trapper Creek:

We continued on to Denali National Park, it was beautiful there-

-we really wished we had time to get out and hike and explore, but we really didn't, so we stopped for a few photos, saw what we could, and headed to the evening destination: the Denali Highway. It had been closed due to washouts from recent flooding, but we asked at the post office (where the boys saw the moose below), and it opened that very morning, so we were good to go!

Here we saw some of the most spectacular scenary of our entire trip. It was quiet. It was beautiful. We ran across more wildlife that people, and this made a very happy family.

Caribou!

Thinking of home!

Porcupine in a tree!

Securing the oven...

Let's camp here.

So the sun does eventually set in Alaska!

Girdwood to Hatcher Pass (Day 2)

Wednesday June 5

We all slept better than any of us had in... who knows when... that first night in WTJ. We brought up some blackout material cut to fit around the windows and be stuck in place with magnets, and were able to keep in pretty dark in there for a place that we never actually saw the sun set. Chad and Hatcher had left for work bright and early, so Chris, Lucas, and I cooked up an oatmeal breakfast and some coffee in our ever-so-carefully packed french press. It was sunny and warm, we were surrounded by the forest, mountains peaking over the tops of the trees; in other words, perfect.

Heading back up the Seward Highway I saw bald eagles nesting on the ground in the wetlands--more than I could count! We said one last goodbye to everyone in Anchorage and had lunch with Hatcher and Chad. Hatcher's rice and beans were hot, and not cooling fast, so when he turned to his dad with an exasperated, "It's still hot."
To which dad replied, "Blow on it"
Hatcher said matter-of-factly, "You blow on it, I'm not a blowing machine."
I could not hold my laugh in.
What a precious nephew.

Next we drove up the road to Hatcher Pass (our nephew's namesake). The sign could use a little touch up if you ask me! The road was beautiful! We saw wildlife and gorgeous views: