#ProjectAlaska: Fairbanks and Beyond

I was somewhat glad to leave Nenana as the mosquitoes were pretty thick there. As it turned out, this particular location was the only one during the entire trip that gave me any trouble from insects. Considering what I had read about in so many different publications, blogs, and even talking with friends who had been to Alaska; I was actually rather surprised that with the exception of this single location, no further bug issues were encountered.

The route from Nenana to Tok was rather uneventful and I didn't come upon much in terms of scenery, either. In fact, very few pictures were even taken during this stretch.

 Looking down into Fairbanks:

At Fairbanks, the road becomes the "unofficial" Alaska Highway. The "official" highway actually begins at Delta Junction; about 94 miles to the south of where the Richardson Highway and the Parks Highway meet at Fairbanks. A pretty lake I spotted along the way:

#ProjectAlaska: Talkeetna to Nenana

Starting out at Talkeetna, I drove in rain and fog all the way to Denali National Park. I was disappointed that the fog was so thick; I didn't even bother stopping at the southern viewpoint on the Parks Highway because one couldn't see more than about 50 feet in front of the vehicle, let alone be able to see Denali (Mt. McKinley). Still, I was hopeful that the rain and fog would clear up by the time I got to Denali NP or shortly thereafter. As it turned out, the rain did stop and the fog cleared; but the clouds themselves were still there which prevented any sights of Denali's peak. So, I enjoyed the sights of the wildlife in the park (my first sight of a brown bear up close!) and also got a small bit of climbing a rock in.

This rock doesn't look very impressive when taking a picture from the bridge, but once I got to the top it seemed MUCH bigger:

This next set of pictures was taken from the Grande Denali Lodge high above the valley below [http://www.denalialaska.com/grande-denali-lodge/]: