Longest amount of daylight and longest drive (6/21)

While the sun was up today about 22 hours and never gets dark, this was also our longest drive. And while the 275 miles is normally not a long day,  the drive from North Pole to Copper Center was a long and tiring one. Roads relatively good but keeping eyes on the road, Alaska Pipeline, and scenery, frequent photo stops, and allowing for road dips and rough patches wears on you.

The mosquitos are definately the most seen of the Alaskan wildlife,  including the wood one. 

Just a roadside view.

Many Roadhouses popped up along the early travel routes in Alaska.  This one is Rika's Roadhouse and is a national historical landmark. 

While this thermometer goes to 80 below,  it was almost to 80 above in the early morning. 

Fort Greeley 

Then back on the road. Delta Junction is the intersection of the Alaskan and Richardson Highways and the end of the Alaska-Canadian (ALCAN) Highway. 

The snow covered mountains blended into the clouds in this pictures since it was so bright but the shorts show that today it was a very warm day. 

Great think about RV'ing across Alaska is that during these long drives, we didn't need a McDonald's or restaurant (which is great because they're weren't any for long stretches), we found a great view,  pulled out the chairs,  made a sandwich,  and just stayed for a while.

And you get to see the Alaskan pipelines.

A roadside stop with a river rubbing next to the road on one side and on the other the high slope of the mountain where the ground rock looked like sand.  Toni tested out the water temp, it was cold. 

Finally made it Copper center, near Wrangell St Elias National Park. The riverside campground is known as a fisherman's campground but salmon season doesn't start until July and the river is extremely higher than normal and wouldn't have been a good time to fish.