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We waited 3 days for the weather to clear for a much anticipated flight. The plane held 10 of us plus the pilot.

The half hour flight to the mountain was incredibly scenic. I sat in the co pilot seat

We drove south out of Fairbanks towards Denali National Park. We left the pavement and headed out the old Denali Highway , the original 100 mile gravel road to the National Park now abandoned. We drove several hours out to a remote State Park and spent 3 days fishing and enjoying the wilderness. There were very few fellow travelers out in these remote areas.

We’re taking a break for a couple of days in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city situated not far from the Arctic Circle. We’ve been traveling for a month now and need a break. We’re here for the summer solstice celebrations, a street fair with food booths, bands playing, fireworks. They have a similar celebration at the winter equinox. The air is smokey from nearby fires and unfortunately a fire is blocking our path to Mt Denali south of here. We’re getting mixed reports of road closures. We’re heading out today and hoping for the best with these endless 🔥

We’ve arrived in Alaska having driven 5,516 miles from our home in Vermont. We are struggling to adapt to the 24 hours of sunshine. The sun “sets” at 12 pm and skims the horizon for a couple of hours before rising at 2AM. It’s never dark. We narrowly escaped being trapped in Dawson City by another out of control forest fire, we were the last vehicle across the Yukon on the ferry that before they closed Top the World highway. The scenery has been spectacular.

This photo was taken at 11PM

We traveled up the Dempster Highway to stay in the wilderness and fish the rivers that empty into the Arctic Ocean . Once we crossed a mountain range with snow covered peaks, we left the Boreal forest behind and entered the treeless Tundra which stretched to the horizon in all directions. The “highway” was gravel with very few vehicles passing us. It took a lot of effort to walk across the Tundra, like walking on 12” of foam rubber. We could poke our walking sticks down through the moss and grasses and hit frozen ground down about 6” , the permafrost stays frozen all summer. Daytime temperatures were in the 60’s down to 40’s at night. The mosquitoes were active at 40 degrees !

Taking a shotgun fishing, this is grizzly territory

We’re in northern Yukon , a restored gold mining town on the Yukon River. It’s a great town to wander the streets, only Main St along the river is paved , the rest are gravel. The road up here was brutal, 350 miles of ruts, frost heaves and huge potholes, endless construction, a stressful drive. We wondered the broad back streets enjoying the architecture here. I’m currently in the Visitors Center, the only place in town with useable internet. Tomorrow we head up The Dempster Highway which ends at the Artic Ocean. I will fish the rivers and camp in the Tundra,It’s bear country (Grizzlies ) so caution will be advised

We’ve spent 2 productive days in Whitehorse, got the truck worked on , shopping, laundry and we found delicious Indian food at a food truck. It’s cold here, we’re wearing down jackets in the morning. We’re heading Dawson City today

We crossed into the Yukon Territory today where we had our windshield broken by a passing gravel spewing truck. We’ve seen an incredible variety of wildlife along the road: several bear, one mother with 3 cubs, many moose, deer, snowshoe rabbit, raptors, woodland buffalo, and others. We stopped at a natural hot springs, beautiful clear hot water with a soft gravel bottom, what a treat. We continued up through high, snow covered mountains, looked like we were driving through the Swiss Alps at times. We’ve arrived at Whitehorse, the only city in the territory which is surrounded by snowy peaks. We’re going to spend 2 days here doing truck maintenance, shopping and laundry. All of our clothing and bedding smell of smoke and fire from the last few days. We had dinner at a pub down by the Yukon River in an old section of the city. Time for a break.

They abruptly announced a temporary road opening for a few hours and we jumped at the chance to escape our entrapment. We headed north at 8pm and drove through the HUGE forests fire that had crossed the road ahead of us . The ridges on both sides of the road were burning, more choking smoke. It took almost 2 hours of very limited visibility driving to emerge on the north side of the blaze, it was a huge relief to put the fires behind us. We spent the night on the roadside exhausted with several other RV fire refugees. We are now in the Northern Rockies.