usbackroads destination--Tangle Lakes Campground, Denali Highway, Alaska

usbackroads destination--Tangle Lakes Campground, Denali Highway, Alaska

travel dates: August 13, 2016

The Denali Highway was interesting, but dodging potholes and running washboards for over a hundred miles was starting to wear thin by the end of the day. I was really looking forward to pavement and a nice place to spend the night. Tangle Lakes Campground was the beginning of the pavement and looked like a real attractive place to spend the night.

Tangle Lakes is an interesting area. It is the start of a interesting canoe trip.  Here is a report from the first party headed downstream this year. Notice the melt-out date for the lakes.

http://www.newsminer.com/features/outdoors/trip-report-tangle-lakes-are-ice-free-and-apparently-good/article_1ddbb714-2835-11e6-ac99-c3e74ff0fef9.html

The BLM does note that Tangle Lakes is on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeological district. That was enough to convince me to camp there for the night.  Here is the background info on the area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangle_Lakes

Now that was not what I expected. Here is further back info: http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/fo/gdo/tangle_lakes_archeaological.html

The weather the previous day was perfect. I was looking forward for another day of perfect weather. This photo pretty much explains the weather. Dark clouds and light clouds with wind and rain.

Off in the distance there were mountains somewhat visible. The weather just got worse and pretty soon the mountains were gone for good..

Even in the poor weather the scenery around the lakes was still pretty impressive. It was not long before I was bored with gray and muted green.

I was really looking forward to that pavement after the previous days driving. Well, there were still some potholes to dodge, but not as many as on the gravel portion. However, the washboard was replaced by whoop-de-do's. That is the frost heaving. Well, after potholes, and washboards the whoop-de-do's come in third. There are efficient in changing the arrangement of stuff in the trailer. So at every stop is in interesting to open the trailer door and see the new "arrangement".

As you can tell by this picture the road does wander across the landscape. The truck and trailer was somewhat pointed to that bring spot on the horizon. The good news is that later in the day it did finally clear, but only after we managed to get past all the "scenic" spots.

Here is a view of the campground. A stop worth spending a couple of days grayling fishing and hiking. When the wind quit blowing the Alaskan state bird made its appearance. So probably worthwhile having plenty of bug juice on hand.

The road to Valdez beckoned. It was a long day with "heavy" traffic for Alaska. Must have seen about ten vehicles on the road, though there were lines at the gas station in Glennallen.

Here is a final picture of the campground. Hopefully, I will be back to spend a few days there in the future.