|
|
 |
|
Heading NORTH on the George Parks Highway towards FAIRBANKS, located 250 miles away. To get to Fairbanks I have
to drive straight into the Alaska Range mountains, through the range, and come out on the other (north) side.
| The WAL*MIKE'S at Trapper Creek. |
|
|
| Get your antlers and fuel here. |
| Heading due north and straight for the peaks. |
|
|
| The mountains get closer and bigger. |
|
|
|
| Ultimate views. |
|
|
| Now I remember why I always opt for the 6-hr drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks. |
|
|
| Just glorious. Not a word I use often but it fits. |
Then I enter the glacial-carved trough high up in the pass, and the
mountains surround.
| Mountains ahead, mountains behind. |
|
|
|
|
| Jagged slopes so close you could almost reach out the car and touch them. |
| Igloo, Alaska -- population zero. |
|
|
| I don't know why it closed. |
| Coming down the north side of the range. |
|
|
| My thesis rocks must be near, but where? They all look alike in the snow. |
|
|
|
| Then I see a familiar face -- it's Jumbo Dome! |
|
|
| I would know that dome anywhere. |
| And ten miles away, there she is -- Sugar Loaf Mt! |
|
|
| It looks tall. I'm glad I don't have to climb it again. |
|
|
|
| My own piece of the rock -- a reminder I was there |
|
|
| Chalcedony from Sugar Loaf's rhyolite vugs that I had cut and still wear. |
|
|
|
| Past the range, the land quickly goes flat again. |
|
|
| I stop to admire a cabin and cache on the river lowlands at Teklanika. |
| Something else I nearly forgot -- mosquitoes. |
|
|
| Click to enlarge & count the bugs in the inches between the car door & mirror -- they want my blood. |
Safely back in the car, I watch the mosquitos try to needle their
way under the glass seals to get at me, their buzzing and burrowing frantic. Then, feeling like I have just escaped from an
Alfred Hichcock movie, I drive on.
| The railroad bridge at Nenana. |
|
|
| Stop at Nenana for this BED AND MAYBE BREAKFAST |
|
|
| Nearing Ester, the peaks are a distant view. |
|
|
| Click on the BOOK to continue to FAIRBANKS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
