This photo shows the extent of the wildlife we would see today, including the head with antlers in the bottom of the photo, wrapped in duct tape. We were perplexed but didn’t ask questions as we didn’t want to suffer the same fate. If you ever find yourself in Salcha, Alaska, you should drop in at the Knotty Shop because it’s one of the few places you can visit.

In any case, we weren’t up here to look at curios; we were here to collect a bit of the Alaska Highway into our bag of experiences. This is Birch Lake is apparently a popular spot to camp and fish.

Driving along the Tanana River, we were stunned by the magnificence of so much open wildland. Where else are rivers allowed to roam free?

Every direction is picture-perfect.

While the scale of things is nearly incomprehensible. It is hard to believe that people live out here, but the occasional mailbox and school bus stop signs betray their existence.

We’d like to know which mountain this is but have no easy way of finding out, so it’s just one more of those majestic giant snow-covered mountains that are found everywhere up here.

While the Alaskan Pipeline is interesting as an engineering feat this is a bit of an eyesore dragged across the landscape. I suppose we should be happy that it’s navigable by animals.

I believe we are now on the Richardson Highway heading towards Anchorage, and that’s the Delta River.

There’s one thing missing out here: enough time to take it all in. With our need to be in Anchorage tonight to make a flight to Juneau before continuing to Haines tomorrow morning, we don’t have a lot of time to linger.

Alaska is a place that demands one go slow, and with a heavy heart, we had to break those rules.

But there’s always time for one more photo.

And a glacier certainly demands the respect that we stop and admire its sleek lines slithering out of the mountains.

It is summer, right?

From here, we’ll make tracks for Anchorage, as it was getting late. Our dinner at Club Paris was not chosen with any culinary sensibility, but it was the cheesiest-looking eatery in a place where there are not many options. Another crap hotel, but that’s what you get when you’re being cheap and not wanting to spend more than $200 a night for a room.