Getting there IS the fun

For a long time my minimum requirements for a drive to be a road trip have been "it must be at least six hours and you must cross state lines". After driving 1800 miles without leaving the state, I may rethink that definition. It was definitely a trip. I don't have the words to describe it. Here are a few captions and 35k words worth of pictures...

The Denali Highway. They need a sign "Warning amazing mountain scenery next 140 miles" right about here.

AK Range next 10 pictures.

This is an awesome place for a road

Corrie

It wasn't really this dark, but it was an amazing sunset.

Summit Lake sunset

The Alyeska Pipeline

The pipeline is still an amazing feat of engineering 35 years later.

Chena Hot Springs, AK. 100% of the resorts electricity comes from geothermal power.

We had a moose in the campsite. 

20 miles north of Fairbanks the brake caliper started sticking.

Replacing the second brake caliper in a carwash parking lot across from the Napa.
I was cheering up a bit by this point. 

What everyone makes the Dalton Highway sound like (this is a side trail)

What most of the the highway actually does look like

There was even a lot of pavement, which no one ever mentions.
It's really a nice road for all but about 50 miles.

The bridge over the Yukon

Corrie making supper while we wait for a pilot car at midnight.

Camped out in Brooks Range.

We must be getting close.

Melinda at work in the Deadhorse aiport.

In AK road trips sometimes require an airplane...

The Arctic Ocean

The Deadhorse coffee shop.

The edge of "town"

Heading back into the Brooks range

Someone read too much Calvin and Hobbes...