The family and I took a little trip this past weekend and I thought I would share with the folks here.
We left Sunday and the weather was great almost the whole way. When we got a few miles from Cantwell we ran into a huge storm but we continued on anyway. At the Denali Highway junction the weather turned partly cloudy with scattered showers so things were looking up. As we headed east it seemed that we were chasing the rain and when we got to the Susitna River crossing where the road to Roosevelt Lake starts the whole mountain range where the lake is was completely covered by rain. We decided to head the opposite direction for a few miles and found a nice dry hilltop campsite off the road. As the evening progressed we could watch the rain move east from our hilltop perch and the nice weather move in from the west.
The next morning I got up before the sunrise and went off on a little hike. There was a lake below us and I wanted to see how difficult it would be to reach it. About halfway there I decided it was farther then it looked since the whole rest of the way back was up hill. The whole morning there was scattered low lying fog that was moving east while the sun began to rise from behind the mountains. Almost the entire hill side was covered with low alpine blueberries and while they were tasty they were still a little early.
After a quick breakfast and breaking camp we headed out to see if we could find the Roosevelt lake trail and get up to the lake. The road in most of the way is in really good condition. It didn't turn into much of a trail until about the last 100 yards and that was only because it narrowed to a single vehicle track. There are lots of mining roads and the chance of taking a wrong turn were very good, which I did a few times. It ended up taking us about three hours to travel the 17 miles to the lake because of wrong turns and backtracking. At the lake right before Roosevelt Lake we came upon a F-350 buried to the frame in a mud bog. I talked to the lady to see if I could assist them but after seeing how stuck they were and that they had broken a drive shaft we came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to do much for them. She said that her husband was on his way back with some heavy equipment to get the truck out so I wished her luck and headed to the lake. On the way up we say lots of caribou, some were even walking down the road in front of us for a short time. After getting to the lake it was still pretty early in the day and we decided that we were going to drive the rest of the Denali highway and make the loop back home. So we ate lunch and let the kids play for a little while before heading out. On the way back to the highway I recorded the track on my gps and made it out in 53 minutes. If anyone wants me to email them the track let me know and maybe it will save someone else some time.
That night we camped at the Paxson Lake camp ground. It was very well maintained and out of the 42 sites only about three were occupied so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The next morning we headed back and wrapped up another great trip.
We left Sunday and the weather was great almost the whole way. When we got a few miles from Cantwell we ran into a huge storm but we continued on anyway. At the Denali Highway junction the weather turned partly cloudy with scattered showers so things were looking up. As we headed east it seemed that we were chasing the rain and when we got to the Susitna River crossing where the road to Roosevelt Lake starts the whole mountain range where the lake is was completely covered by rain. We decided to head the opposite direction for a few miles and found a nice dry hilltop campsite off the road. As the evening progressed we could watch the rain move east from our hilltop perch and the nice weather move in from the west.
The next morning I got up before the sunrise and went off on a little hike. There was a lake below us and I wanted to see how difficult it would be to reach it. About halfway there I decided it was farther then it looked since the whole rest of the way back was up hill. The whole morning there was scattered low lying fog that was moving east while the sun began to rise from behind the mountains. Almost the entire hill side was covered with low alpine blueberries and while they were tasty they were still a little early.
After a quick breakfast and breaking camp we headed out to see if we could find the Roosevelt lake trail and get up to the lake. The road in most of the way is in really good condition. It didn't turn into much of a trail until about the last 100 yards and that was only because it narrowed to a single vehicle track. There are lots of mining roads and the chance of taking a wrong turn were very good, which I did a few times. It ended up taking us about three hours to travel the 17 miles to the lake because of wrong turns and backtracking. At the lake right before Roosevelt Lake we came upon a F-350 buried to the frame in a mud bog. I talked to the lady to see if I could assist them but after seeing how stuck they were and that they had broken a drive shaft we came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to do much for them. She said that her husband was on his way back with some heavy equipment to get the truck out so I wished her luck and headed to the lake. On the way up we say lots of caribou, some were even walking down the road in front of us for a short time. After getting to the lake it was still pretty early in the day and we decided that we were going to drive the rest of the Denali highway and make the loop back home. So we ate lunch and let the kids play for a little while before heading out. On the way back to the highway I recorded the track on my gps and made it out in 53 minutes. If anyone wants me to email them the track let me know and maybe it will save someone else some time.
That night we camped at the Paxson Lake camp ground. It was very well maintained and out of the 42 sites only about three were occupied so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The next morning we headed back and wrapped up another great trip.
