Meier's Lake Roadhouse

Upon leaving Paxson Lake Campground, we backtracked to Meier’s Lake Roadhouse to top off the tanks in Elvira. Meier’s Lake Roadhouse is one of those out of the way places that has a story to tell. They sell fuel, will cook you a burger, and on the way out you can pick up a can of soup from their grocery shelves or a fresh baked cinnamon roll (yummy goodness).

The pump for petro is most likely 30 years old or older, you know the kind of pump station that has the internal gears with numbers on a roller. The numbers ‘turn over’ with each dollar and with each gallon pumped.

They have a museum of sorts that is a collection of contents from a long passed Chitina resident. The family decided they would rather share all these wonderful keepsakes with travelers who visit the roadhouse than have them in storage.

Chitina is a small village on the Edgerton Highway, and is located at the western boundary of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. You can reach the Edgerton Highway by driving south on the Richardson Highway past Glennallen.

Today’s goal: make a left hand turn onto the Denali Highway, Alaska Route 8, and see how far we get down the road.

We have all afternoon. 

No timeline. 

No pressure to be anywhere. 

Just traveling down the road.

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Exploring Paxson Lake

Good morning snowy world! It was a perfect peaceful morning for exploring Paxson Lake. All the other campers had vacated the campground and we explored to our hearts content.

Wildlife count for the morning: one large beaver on its morning rounds, several gulls, and the carcass of a caribou at the waters edge.

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Paxson Lake Campground

It was 3:32 p.m. in the afternoon when we finished lunch, and with bellies full of delicious Thai food, we were ready to head to Paxson Lake via the Richardson Highway. I say that like there is more than one way to get to Paxson Lake but in truth, when you are driving it is either from the north on the Richardson Highway or from the south on the Richardson Highway. We were approaching from the south.

At mile 159 the road narrows, and now has the appearance of the old road that I remember from years back with potholes to avoid on both sides, and very little shoulder on the road to buffer any slight miscalculations in driving. We started to see snow on the surrounding ground by mile 162, and it started to rain. The snowy ground gives the road an even narrower feeling; there can be no misstep, no rash movement of the steering wheel. These type of driving conditions are a test for any skilled license holder.

When we reached Meier's lake at mile 170 it begins to snow. Three more miles down the road and the snow increases its efforts to turn the landscape white. By the time we reach Paxson Lake Campground, and turn off at mile 175 the snow is coming down in steady sleet filled sheets that blur ones vision. Good thing we did not have plans to drive farther that day.

We passed the evening watching the snow accumulate, enjoyed a hot meal, and a game of 9-card golf. This was round three of the card game for the trip and I finally won.

Wildlife count for the day: two arctic hares

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Tok Thai Food

On a cold snowy day a hot spicy meal always sounds too good to pass by.  Tok Thai Food has made the upgrade move from a bus to a building since the our last visit in 2013.  Tok Thai Food for the win!

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Hot Coffee and Cool Flakes

Update from the Kendesnii Campground.

It had rained most of the night and in the early hours of morning, when we thought it had just stopped raining something else was happening out of doors. We woke to a sight that made us strangely giddy, snow.

We still wonder why in the world in the middle of June, on a camping adventure, we would be so giddy to wake up to snow. Perhaps that is the true meaning of adventure, enjoying each moment along the way especially the completely unpredicted ones.

We took our time drinking coffee, cooking breakfast, and taking photos of the snow covered world. Enjoying each moment of the quiet that surrounded us. By the time we had the camper packed up and were ready to break camp there was only one other vehicle left in the campground. Everyone else must have had somewhere else to be in a timely manner.

Once we reached the Tok Cutoff Road the snow was quickly turning to slush, everything was wet. The trees were heavily burdened with snow.

It rained. 

It snowed. 

It was grey, and it was beautiful.

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Alaska Wildflowers

Happy Monday my friends, here are a few photos of the wildflowers around the Kendesnii campground. 

Have an absolutely wonderful, perfect day!

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Road to Nabesna

Mile 60 on the Tok Cutoff Road, Alaska Route 2, from the Richardson Highway take the right hand turn that will lead you to Slana and Nabesna. Nabesna is at the end of this 46 mile road with the road weaving into the north side of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve.

At mile 12, the road surface changes from asphalt to chip seal, the road narrows, and the driving slows down, which is a perfect way to enjoy the journey into this beautiful country. At mile 15, the road turns to gravel, narrows a bit more, and the view of the mountains on either side of the road are pleasant to the eye.

At mile 27.8, we pass by the Kendesnii campground. Two and a half miles farther down the road, we encountered a small washout creek that crosses our path. We were able to traverse over this patch of road with ease because of our vehicle size and height off the ground but in another quarter mile, the road was consumed by a rather deep fast running creek. We decided that this would be our turn around point and we return to the Kendesnii Campground for the night. Reaching Nabesna will have to wait for another time.

There are 10 campsites at the Kendesnii campground, and we were the fourth folks there with two other folks/vehicles showing up after us.

It was a quiet peaceful evening spent in front of the fire pit watching the flames dance, listening to the birds, and the trees sway in the breeze. There were dark clouds gathering towards the west, that after our fire time and supper turned into a steady rain. We fell asleep to the rhythm of the rain on the camper top.

Wildlife count for the day: two moose, and one meandering lives-in-the-area-near-Kendesnii-scruffy-matted-friendly-does-not-have-a-care-in-the-world d-o-g.

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Showy Jacob's Ladder + Holiday Rescued

Showy Jacob's Ladder along the Glenn Highway

Today we had two goals; one was to find a way to charge my camera batteries. I pulled a brain-dead maneuver and forgot to charge my camera backup batteries before we left Anchor-town. Our second goal of the day was to reach Nabesna.

Nabesna is an old mining village founded by the Nabesna Mining company sometime before 1909. It is located on the north side of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The mine closed in 1947, and the census from 2010 shows only five residents.

The drive from Lake Louise to Glennallen afforded us sweet views of the wildflowers along the roadside; Showy Jacob's Ladder and Lupine. Happy spots of purple that would brighten your day. In addition, Mt. Drum was in view directly in our path to Glennallen. When they first forged the Glenn Highway east, they surely used Mt. Drum as a direction marker.

A stop at the Glennallen True Value Hardware store, and the assistance from the nice True Value employee and the trip was saved. They had a 120-volt AC inverter to charge my camera batteries using the (cigarette) plugs in the cab of Elvira. The holiday was back on track. We made another pit stop for petro in the camper rig, and a stop in the pouring rain at the IGA (the local grocery store) for water, and we were off down the road to find a dryer place to have lunch.

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