Day 2 of the Denali Highway

Day 2- The plan was to take our time in the morning, have a pancake breakfast, do some fishing, and then drive the last 100 miles of the highway (70 of it was unpaved) with plenty of rest stops along the way. Then spend quite a bit of time at the Tangle Lakes and push on another 75 miles or so to our next campground. After only 20 miles of driving we realized that was not going to happen!

First, let's check out our view from a few feet from our campsite. To the left:

...and to the right:

What the...?!?! Yeah, I wasn't expecting to take that in when I soaking up the scenery.

Despite the visual setback...on with the fishing!

...and rock throwing!

Notice the bear spray on my hip. We never saw one but boy did we feel like we were in the middle of bear country.

Concentration.


Plumber butt.

And I always love the crying pictures.

One last picture of the river (sans naked guy) before we left.

We noticed that the blueberries were just about ripe.

Back on the road.




The one lane bridge that crosses the Susitna River.

Looking back at the bridge



It was shortly after this picture that we saw a caribou up on a hill. We stopped and watched him running full speed to the left and disappear. A few minutes later we spot him again running full speed to the right. I have no idea what was chasing him but it was something exciting.

Girls still hanging in there and even trying out the binoculars.

Found this spot and I couldn't pass up the chance to fish here. It was BEAUTIFUL!!

The girls did their part...throwing rocks!

Not catching fish so I kept changing flies.



Getting into the Maclaren River valley...some of the most beautiful scenery on this day.





Finally at about 5pm we made it to the Tangle Lakes campground. What we originally thought was going to be a quick stop ended up being our final destination for the evening. Just too tired at that point and it was a nice campground. So we drove around a couple of times before we settled on a spot. Not a bad view.


After dinner, we ran down to the lake so I could try my luck at fishing. Again, I was SKUNKED!!

Time for a quick story before bedtime.

Kendra asked how the girls slept on the trip...all things considered, not too bad. The first night we didn't even try to put them down until pretty late. They fooled around for a while but eventually fell asleep and slept with Lisa in the big bed. I slept up front by myself. We didn't want to run the generator all night so it did get kind of cold in the RV. Next time, we'll bring many more blankets! The second night, they slept great. I think we all laid down together and they both were asleep within a minute or two. Lisa and I were able to sneak out and get the fire going again and enjoy the peace and quiet for an hour or so. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.