June 12, Delta Junction

Another rainy day.  I was really looking forward to the drive from Tok to Delta Junction because I had read the views of the mountains would be stunning.  They most likely are if you can see them through the clouds.  It rained all the way to Delta Junction.

                                         Ice/snow on the river.  I've seen this in several places and not sure why the ice is still hanging around.  Water is running around, and under it. It looks cold, but the weather had previously been warm.  Its a mystery to me.

We saw this patch of water lilies.  I thought maybe the yellow blooms would show up, but I guess the weather makes everything look gloomy.

The sign said free samples, so you guessed it.  All of the rigs came to a screeching halt and we piled in to the store and sampled the different sausages.  Reindeer, buffalo, yak, were among some of the flavors.  All of the sausages were good, but nothing really "wowed" me so I left empty handed.

Delta Junction is the end of the Alaska/Canada Highway.  The road continues on to Fairbanks but is called the Richardson Highway.  We have driven all of the Alcan except the section between Whitehorse and Tok, and we will catch that section later.  I'll digress a little and give a summary of roads we have traveled since we started.  Its  little confusing because the same road/highway may switch names/numbers several times. So here goes:

We started out on BC 99 (British Columbia) also know as the Sea to Sky Highway.  The road became BC 97, also known as the Caribou Highway which changes names to  the John Hart Highway which changes name to the Alcan at Dawson Creek, and is still BC 97. Are you still with me?  The Alcan aka BC 97 changed numbers once we crossed the Yukon border and now is known as Yukon 1 or Alcan.  At Whitehorse we took a side trip to Skagway on highway 2  which became Alaska  Highway 98 and  aka as the Southern Klondike.  We then continued on Yukon 2 aka the Northern Klondike which changed to Yukon 9 somewhere around Dawson which then becomes Top of the World Highway which changes numbers to Alaska 5 and then becomes the Taylor Highway.  The Taylor Highway connects at Tok and we are back on the Alcan aka Alaska 2 until we come to Delta Junction.  Once we leave Delta Junction we are on the Richardson Highway, or Highway 2 to Fairbanks.  Whew...did you get all of that.  Believe me, its taken me a month to figure out where I am!!

Its fitting that we left Dawson Creek, the beginning of the Alcan in rain and we are ending it in rain.

The sign says it pretty well.  What the sign doesn't tell you is that a major portion of the northern section was constructed by Black Americans.

This is a pig...no, not the kind that you see on the farm.  The pig is used to clean out the Alaskan Oil Pipe.

A cross section of the pipeline.  The pig fits in the center and grinds its way through.

Yes, the mosquitoes are almost as big as this.  We see lots of sculptures of mosquitoes and there are lots of real ones. The cold and the rain doesn't seem to bother them at all.

This sign was at the visitor center.  I'm not sure why because there weren't any signs of Bison nearby. We did see similar signs on some of the highways where there were bison.

The Alaskan Pipe line.  This was right next to our campsite in Big Delta Junction. It goes underground here and continues forever.

The pipeline goes over the river.

We drove to Rika's Roadhouse.  Before the bridge was built it was a major ferry river crossing during the gold rush days.  Also the Black American Brigade was housed here during the construction of the Alcan.  Before that it was also a telegraph post. The roadhouse is now part of the Big Delta Junction Historical Park.  We dry camped here for the night for a small fee.  There is a great cafe that serves pies and soups.  Ymmmm.

Tomorrow we head for Fairbanks.