Hi friends! Hope you are having a great summer!

First things first, we made it to Alaska!!! After spending Memorial Day in Chicago-land, we headed north via Wisconsin to Montana. Once we crossed the Canadian Border, then we slowed down for a couple of weeks to explore Waterton Lakes, Banff, and Jasper National Parks. All were beautiful in their own right and it was a lovely way to begin our journey north.

Click on any photo to open the gallery and read the captions

From Jasper National Park (in Alberta), we drove 330 miles to Dawson Creek (British Columbia). Dawson Creek is the start of the 1,390 mile long Alaska Highway. Imagine our surprise when we pulled into the ‘Mile 0’ signpost and saw friends that we made on the road! It was surely a sign of great times to come!

Highlights from our travels along the Alaska Highway include: a giant cinnamon bun in Tetsa River (it was as good as all of the advertising promised), the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, camping and canoeing at Deadman Lake, and arriving in Delta Junction, AK 5 days after we started. There are many towns, lakes, and overlooks along the way and we didn’t give this road all of the time it deserves.

Just a few quick facts about the Alaska Highway:

• The road was build as a military necessity during WW2 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Construction began on March 9, 1942 and ended on October 25, 1942. That’s 8 months to build a 1,400 mile road! Doesn’t that seem like a crazy short amount of time?!?
• The 2-lane road is paved; however, there are several frost heaves, loose gravel patches, potholes, and construction spots. This limits cruising speed to about 50 mph in most sections of the road.
• Wildlife is prevalent! We saw nine black bears, a grizzly and her cub, loons, osprey, a moose, and three herds of free range wood bison!
• The Alaska Highway passes through the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge. Over 200 species of migrating birds flock to the refuge every year to mate and rear their young (see what I did there?).

If you are interested in driving to Alaska, then be sure to grab the Alaska Milepost book. It has been an invaluable reference for every town, gas station, scenic overlook, camping area, and even, the world’s best cinnamon roll. The book covers each route to and within Alaska. Cellular service has been limited; it’s been fun to refer to the milepost book along with a paper map for navigation!

Bettles, Alaska

Summer solstice above the arctic circle truly is 24 hours of sunlight. The mosquitos don’t quit and the birds don’t stop singing either! Overall, it was a very cool yet very strange experience. Mark was awake throughout the night to take pictures of the ‘midnight sun’. Below, you can see the sun barely dip behind the distant mountains sometime after 1:15 AM!

We stayed at Bettles Lodge for 3 nights and it was the perfect amount of time to sightsee and relax. The lodge is all-inclusive and our dinners included salmon, fried chicken, and pork tenderloin with a balsamic reduction. In addition to the flight seeing tour, we took a boat ride to a historic town site (now abandoned), walked around Bettles trying to spot the troublesome bear, and played a slug-fest game of Triominoes. There is plenty to do to stay busy without being overly stressed about it. The owner and staff were kind and the chef is phoenominal. It’s worth checking out!

I am planning to provide more frequent updates this summer, so this is all we have for now! Next up is Fairbanks, North Pole, and visiting some hot springs before we spend a couple of weeks in Denali.

Do you have any tips for can’t miss things to do near Fairbanks or epic hikes as we plan for Denali? Please post ‘em in the Comments!

Hope you are doing great!

❤️ – Mark and Debbie

* I say ‘broke into’ lightly since bears aren’t hardened criminals – they are opportunistic animals without opposable thumbs! We aren’t clear if s/he was ‘bearly’ on the front porch … or in the kitchen rummaging for a granola bar. Luckily, the confused bear was back home in the woods the following day!