Jonathan and Jenna: Alaska at Last! (Part 1)

We made it!!!

Our 10-day trip of a lifetime is finally complete(ish). We crossed into Alaska on Thursday!

We're not yet in Port Alsworth; we're staying about 1-1/2 hours outside of Anchorage at the King Ranch, home of Kingdom Air Corps, with Dwayne and Carolyn King. We met up with the Kings on Tuesday at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.

It was such a huge blessing to us to be able to travel with the Kings. Not only did they provide invaluable information about traveling this famously rugged road, they also let us sleep in their camper for those freezing two nights on the Alcan (we had been planning to tent-camp!), not to mention the wonderful company they provided on a lonely stretch of the trip. :)

Plus, we finally had someone to take our picture!

Driving the Alcan proved to be a spectacular experience. We encountered some singularly interesting weather - highs in the 50s, and yet we were driving past lakes, rivers and streams that were solidly frozen over.

Apparently, last week they had quite the storm; one man who owned a gas-station that we stopped at for fuel told us they had been towing cars out for three days straight after the storm! For us, though the further north we've gone, the more snow we've found, the weather couldn't be better! The roads were dry the entire way and the sky was clear. Alaska, quite literally, has given us a warm welcome. :)

We've passed many landmarks, seen "exotic" wildlife and gaped at so much beautiful scenery along the way. I could never describe all of it to you, I only hope that you will be able to experience something like this someday, but for now I'll try to give you a taste of it through my pictures.

In Watson Lake, Canada we stopped at Signpost Forest. I have no idea how it began, but it's a place where people traveling along the highway stop to hang up signs, usually from their hometown, but often just random road signs.