Before I start on our travels after Fairbanks, I want to mention that we finally put our kayaks to use. We had debated whether or not to bring them on this trip and now we have actually used them, so we are glad we did. The Chena River runs through Fairbanks and has several little boat launches along it. We watched a lot of people floating past the RV park while we were there and we almost missed our chance. Finally, our resolve, the weather, and our schedule all came together to get us out on the water. We even put Jordy in his PFD and put him in Ellyn’s kayak with her. He seemed to have a great time. Geoff had to stay back though because, if he got too close in his kayak, Jordy would want to jump in. The weather was a little windy, but the river winds back and forth and, as we turned corners, the wind would come and go. All in all, it was a fun time.
From Fairbanks, we traveled southeast, backtracking to Delta Junction, where the Richardson Highway and the Alaska Highway meet. From there we followed the Richardson Highway south along the Delta River towards the Tangle River Valley. On the road to Delta Junction, we stopped at the Knotty Shop, a stop we missed on the way to Fairbanks, where we could get a free scoop of ice cream if we presented our copy of the Milepost. It was a quirky little store which had several animal figures out front made from the burl wood found in this area. The weather was not too pleasant but the ice cream was excellent.
As we continued along the Delta River, the weather started to clear and the sun and blue sky shone through the clouds. We stopped of for a few view points and pictures. Unfortunately, some of the areas to pull over have many tall trees between us and the scenery. Sometimes there is a short walk to an overlook, but often we have found the trees blocking the view of the mountains.
South of Paxson, AK, we turned onto the Denali Highway (unlike many “highways” in the lower 48, some of the ones in Alaska may not even be paved. This one was for most of the length we drove on it). Just after we reached the end of the paved portion of the road, we turned off to the Tangle River Valley and a little state campground. It had no services other than a few porta-potties, trash bins, and a hand pump for water. We had been prepared for this, but the campground was also nicer than we expected, as it appears to have been recently refurbished. We had to pay a $12 fee to camp there overnight but it was a nice place to stay.
They had fire rings and we had gotten some salmon at the Fred Meyers supermarket back in Fairbanks, so we decided to get into the real camping spirit and cook the fish over a real campfire. (It was only real in the fact it had real fire. The “wood” we used was some eco-logs made with waxed cardboard that we had been carrying around for several months. It was safe for cooking.) The salmon was excellent and the weather was even nice enough to eat outside on the nice picnic table provided at our pull-through site.
The next morning was rainy and we headed out under wet, cloudy skies for a short, but bumpy ride to Kenny Lake and the Copper Country of Alaska. First we had to back-track on the Denali highway back to the Richardson Highway. Then we continued south. This area of Alaska has a lot of perma-frost in the ground and this makes the frost heaves quite prevalent long the roads. We could only do about 45 MPH over most of the trip, slowing to 30 MPH in areas of a lot of road damage and even getting held at one point because we had to wait for a pilot vehicle to arrive from the other directions to guide us through the extensive construction they were doing on that section. We have our stone shield we put under the tow bar to keep most of the rocks off the toad but our car came out of that part of our trip quite dirty. The campgrounds do not want you to use their water supply to wash your car.
