Pictures from my drive to Wasilla this weekend

[layla]

Denali National Park in the fall is one of my favorite places on Earth.



A mountaintop rears up from a low-lying bank of clouds in Broad Pass, the southern part of the park where the road goes through.


Doesn't this particular business just scream "Rural Alaska"?


Visited with family, bummed around Southcentral. It was rainy and autumny. Here's an ATV trail along the edge of the marsh surrounding Cook Inlet.


Nephew Brody covers his eyes from the flash. The kid has been photographed so many times that when he sees you take the camera out, he starts grinning and holds perfectly still until the flash goes off.


Grave marker in an abandoned graveyard in the woods near Wasilla.


From the same graveyard ... Native Alaskan graves traditionally have a small spirit house built over them for the spirit to live in; many of the graveyards up here have them. And sometimes the spirit houses have little fences. But this is the first time I've seen a spirit fence without a spirit house.


On the way back to Fairbanks, I detoured down Petersville Road, a gravel road out to the old Peters Creek/Petersville mining district. I just wanted to see what was back there. More pretty scenery, for one thing.


This was around the point where I turned back; the road had gotten so muddy that I was afraid of getting stuck. But this old (and still fully functional) roadhouse was cool.


And finally...

Driving home through Denali Park at dusk ... doesn't this look just like a mountain in a painting?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Some of my favorite pictures from my brief sojourn in Alaska are from the Denali area in the fall. I especially like the ones I have that involve the whiteness of the mountain against the Joseph's coat of wild blueberry colors..... Sigh. So beautiful. I tried, once, to drive out Petersville road, but after I went a mile or so I realized that my car (an ancient Nissan wagon with nearly non-existent suspension) simply wasn't going to survive it, so I reluctantly turned back. I'm proud to say, however, that my car made it through Hatcher Pass just fine, which is also a gorgeous place to visit in the fall. Thank you for the pretty pictures!!

-SarahD in CA

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I came to that conclusion around where I took that Forks Roadhouse picture, because the "road" (one rutted lane at that point) was getting really muddy and I could feel my little car swimming around. I'm glad I did turn back -- looking up information on the road after getting back, I found that it's recommended for 4 wheel drive from that point on.

It's kinda cool to know that I'm not the only one who's been down that road!

I'm actually really impressed that you made it through Hatcher Pass -- I've never been there in anything smaller than a truck! It *is* very gorgeous. It's one of the places that I would like to use for a "set" in one of my comics.