Trip Report

We had a great weekend traveling about 75% of the entire Alaska road system.

We departed Friday afternoon at around 2:30pm. I had hoped to get a little further down the road before it got dark. But what are you going to do?

We made it to the Eureka Lodge, 100 miles up the road, before Alicia alerted us to the fact that she really needed to "go". So, even though it was only a little after 4pm and deep into final twilight, we made our dinner stop. We really like the Eureka Lodge (which is more restaurant than lodging). And in that area, you're pretty limited on indoor potty stops...

When we got back on the road, it was pitch black and we headed northeast toward Glennallen where we'd turn north on the Richardson Highway which runs from Valdez to Fairbanks.

After 3 hours of driving, we arrived in Glennallen which was halfway to our overnight stop destination in Delta Junction. The Richardson Highway out of Glennallen seemed alot like all those movies you see where people take a wrong turn down a snowy road and you never hear from them again. It was a little creepy.

About an hour out of Glennallen, when we were convinced we had made it to the absolute middle of nowhere, the wild weather hit. If you recently watched the classic Rudolph TV special, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

The world was black and white. Literally. Pitch black darkness with swirling and whipping white snow. The term "maelstrom" comes to mind. Suffice to say, it was rough-going. I thought my knuckles might burst from my hands, I was gripping the wheel so tightly.

Finally, we made it out of that weather and on to Delta Junction which is where the Alaska Highway connects with the Richardson. We arrived at our motel (the Alaska 7 Motel) at around 10:30pm.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the Buffalo Center Diner, which has lots of buffalo sausage and reindeer sausage. We abstained from the latter, due to the fact that we were headed for Santa's House in North Pole. The food was good, they had a nice arcade and an Alaska Choo Choo train traveled around the perimeter of the ceiling on a cool track.

Driving north, we passed through Big Delta where my parents and oldest sister lived back in the mid-50's. We took some photos of the Big Delta bridge over the Tanana River and the Alyeska Oil Pipeline which crosses the Tanana at the same spot on a suspension bridge.

We made it to North Pole by 11:30am and paid an immediate visit to Mr. and Mrs. Claus at their home. They were very gracious hosts. We delivered some letters to him from a 2nd grade class in Ohio and Alicia May told him her Christmas wishes, which slanted strongly in the direction of receiving a candy cane. He gave her two... :o)

We stood in line for almost an hour to mail our Christmas cards from the North Pole post office. Then we made a bee line for our log cabin lodging on the road to Chena Hot Springs.

We arrived at the cabin at 3:30pm just before it got too dark to see it. The cabin was awesome. Just what we want to build! It was nestled in the woods at the end of a 1/4 mile long snowy driveway.

The inside was easily warmed by the woodstove. After settling Little Bit in to the cabin, we headed 10 miles down the road to the Chena Hot Springs. There we had dinner at the resort and then spent some time in the natural, outdoor rock lake (adults only), and the kids swam in the heated indoor pool.

Stephen and I felt like we were making a polar bear plunge as we made a dash down a frozen stone path from the pool door to the outdoor hot spring. It was pitch black and a steady mist rose from the lake and froze in thick layers on the surrounding boulders. It was almost surreal. And making it down the stone ramp into the pleasingly hot waters was fabulous!

Once back at the cabin, we stoked up the fire, played some cards and then went to sleep on the wooden platforms... wishing we'd remembered to pack the air mattress!

We left the cabin just after first light on Sunday morning (around 10am) and made our way south through Fairbanks and then down the Parks Highway for the trip home. This route is a little shorter and better maintained than the Delta Junction route. We arrived home without incident at 7:30pm.

We plan to make this trip a Christmas tradition. Also, we hope to spend more time up around Chena Hot Springs during different times of the year. There is a lot to do, just at that resort. So if anyone comes to visit us, we plan to drag them up there...