Day 12: Lake Creek Campground, YK (north of Destruction Bay) to Fairbanks, AK, USA - Tuesday, 5/21/24

Photo of the day:

We got an early start this morning since we didn’t have anything to disconnect. Heading out of the camp, we saw a sign indicating there would be sections of gravel roads of 12km. They weren’t kidding. We wondered if the road was just so bad that they tore it out in some sections and put gravel down in its place. 

Some patches were fine and others were frozen washboards. We continued along and came across another sign saying more gravel patches for 18km. Some of the patches are 20 to 50 feet long and others are hundreds of feet long. At times we felt like the RV was a puppet being bounced around and heaved side to side by strings. (Lynda thinks there was a scene in Spaceballs like this but could not find it on Youtube. )

I (Dave) remember something his college calculus professor mentioned a few years ago.  He talked about gravel roads with washboards and how a vehicle can get bouncing just right so it moves sideways on the road.  I've experienced this before and felt a few times today where the back end of the RV moved slightly sideways.  Any math experts out there can either prove this or tell me the professor snowed me, but it seems real.   I haven't been on gravel roads like these since Maquoketa days!

If you get car sick, this route might not be for you. It’s hard to enjoy the scenery, follow along in the Milepost magazine and/or look for wildlife when you have to be so focused on the road since it is constantly changing. It will be interesting to see if the road conditions improve once we get into Alaska.

We liked this sign that showed the road going from pavement to gravel.  We didn't like the gravel part!

Despite the rough road, the scenery continued to be great.  These mountains to the south of the Alaska Highway added bright white against the various greens and greys.

We had a surprise stoplight in the middle of nowhere.  Roadwork on the Beavercreek bridge.

Soon enough we crossed into Alaska!

We were welcomed into the US with freshly paved roads and the sight of two moose in the woods.  We backtracked to see the moose and found him but we didn't get a good picture.  The brown spot in this picture is a moose.  Trust us!

Here are some pictures along the route.

Midway Lake

Wait, were Jake and Alena near Tok, AK, and put these rocks on the side of the road? 
Or maybe Jason and Ashley?

Heading towards bigger mountains as we continue west north of Tok

We continue to be amazed by the various rivers.  This is the Johnson River, which is super wide and mostly dry.  We can only imagine when the water is really flowing.

We spotted a mom and baby moose in a small clearing.  Again we backtracked (luckily the highway wasn't busy) and got our best moose picture so far.  Look carefully to see the baby to the left of the mom.

Lynda thinks the baby is soooo cute!

This is the zoomed out picture

Here is another oddly dry river bed...

It is worth noting that the roads need a lot of work in Alaska too. The RV was rocking side to side and we might have gone airborne a couple times again.  It was rough, and Lynda is super relieved that we are flying home and do not have to do that road trip in reverse!

Next, we drove past Eielson Air Base but no photos are allowed, and we followed the rules.  Of course the Chinese and other adversaries are taking photos from space, but we aren't supposed to take them from the highway 😕.  There were some impressive planes on the grounds.

We stopped at the North Pole, AK. The North Pole has Starbucks, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Shell gas station plus Safeway groceries… Who knew?

We met a couple from New Zealand who took this picture.  They are traveling in an RV from Calgary to Anchorage and back.  Yikes!

We got to Fairbanks and decided to do laundry. This is the fanciest, most high-tech laundromat we’ve ever been to (of course, apart from the last time we were at one on this trip, our experience mainly includes college campus laundromats).  It is quite nice, but you do pay for it. $20 for one load of laundry.

Hard to see in this picture, but the crossroads are Illinois St. and Minnie St.  We thought this was fitting since we are from Illinois and are driving a Minnie Winnie.  

After laundry we stopped by HooDoo Brewing Company for a pint and some cheese bread.  It had a great outdoor biergarten.

Cool little truck, so we took a picture

While at the brewery we checked the timing for sunset and sunrise.  Sunset is at 11:33 PM and sunrise is at 4:01 AM.  That's a short night!

Our campsite for the night is at Tanana Valley Campground.  It is a little campground stuck in the middle of Fairbanks.  Not the most scenic, but we wanted electricity, water and cell connectivity, which it has.

Tomorrow we hopefully will sleep late and then head towards Denali.  We have an extra day before Brittney arrives and before our campsite reservations at Denali, so we'll find a hike or two and enjoy the day.  We haven't hiked for a couple days due to travel and bears.

Total miles today: 361

Previous: Day 11: Watson Lake, Yukon to Lake Creek Campground, YK (north of Destruction Bay)

Next: Day 13: Fairbanks, AK to Denali National Park, AK