Today I will talk about the first part of my great alaskan road trip. The last two days saw me driving 333 miles from Anchorage via Glennallen (A) to Delta Junction (B).
Could I have driven all this in one day? Probably, but what is the point in rushing along? So I drove at a relaxed speed and stopped A LOT to take pictures. I was really blessed with good weather on the first day. I drove on the Glenn Hwy from Anchorage to Glennallen. Glennallen has 518 residents and one hotel. Although being so small, it is actually the main commercial hub for a very large region. Alaska has a tiny population when you compare it to it's size. There are somewhere around 600'000 people in a state that is 586,400 square miles(!!).After spending the night in Glennallen i headed towards Delta Junction on the Richardson Hwy. My guidebook claims this is one of the most scenic drives in all of Alaska. I tend to agree but i only got to see a little glimpse of it. Why? Cause the weather was just plain to bad today. The clouds were really low and didn't allow me to see much. To make matters worse it snowed a lot during the whole drive. The highlight today was clearly driving along the oil pipeline. The Richardson Hwy more or less follows the pipeline all the way to delta Junction. The sheer size and length of this thing is impressing. I also liked the fact that there were even less cars on the road today. I could drive for 30min or more and not encounter another car. Freakin awesome if you ask me!! ... And then I drove past an accident where two cars had hit head on just a bit earlier (rescue was already there).. I wondered, if there are so few cars, how do they still manage to hit each other head on?? I'd say bloody tourists not keeping their eyes on the road ;)
Tomorrow I will drive another 98 miles to Fairbanks where I will stay for two nights. After that? I am not sure yet. I wanted to head south to Denali National Park but there is not much to do there yet. Something I have noticed, is, that most tourist attractions (buses in the park, scenic train rides etc.) don't start operating until late may. It is really nice to avoid the big tourist rush but honestly there is not much to do this early in the season.
To avoid large accommodation costs I was thinking about getting a tent and a sleeping bag to stay at camping grounds. I am really glad I didn't do that because all the camping grounds i drove past in the last few days, were still closed!!
Please enjoy the pictures. I would have liked to do more editing on them but as so often in the last few days, I just don't have the time to do more.
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