Paxson Lake to Tok

Don and I drove about 200 miles today, taking the long route (about 30 miles farther) from Paxson Lake to Tok for two reasons. First, we knew from Larry and Marilyn, who had just driven part of the other route, that there was a lot of construction. Second, I wanted to take the portion of the Alaska Highway that we had bypassed by going to Dawson City and Chicken instead of directly from Whitehorse to Tok.

We stopped at the visitor center in Delta Junction for a certificate for each of us. It reads “This certifies that ______________ has gone through the trials and tribulations to reach mile 1422, the End of the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction, Alaska on this date, _____________.”

Flowers are in bloom everywhere. It’s apparent that Alaskans treasure the warm summer days and want to beautify their surroundings.

And here’s one of the reasons: Delta has experienced temperatures down to –72 (on Jan. 6, 1975). Even summer days can be pretty cool. The top temperature on this display is +9 recorded on June 25, 1983, and on May 5, 1958 it reached –10 degrees!

Before reaching Delta Junction, we stopped at the Denali Fault/Pipeline Visitor Viewing Area. An information board explained how the structure of the pipeline differs in this particular location because it’s crossing the earthquake fault. It states “engineers have conservatively designed the pipeline to allow for up to 22 feet of lateral movement and five feet of vertical movement.”

While I was reading the information boards, Shadow found a comfortable spot in the shade with some fireweed.

We saw moose tracks nearby, and later spotted a moose on the side of the road. There’s a forecast for several days of rain, so we’re glad to have full hookups again.