From Tok I backtracked to Delta Junction. DJ is where the Delta River and the Tanana River meet as well as being the intersection of the Richardson Highway and the END of the Alaska Highway. There are beautiful mountains that are off in the distance, and I have included some photos of them, as it was a beautiful sunny day as I drove the 102 miles from Tok to DJ. It also warmed up significantly and was almost warm, here was a 70 degree shift is weather in 2 days!
Some quick history on DJ as it is quite interesting. During WW II as US helped Soviet Union against Germany, the AK Highway was built connecting roads with Canada. The roads met in an areas known and later called Delta Junction! Eventually the Glenn Highway was built connecting this area to Anchorage. This was a great place to have shipments come through and the area grew. In our world today, this is known as the Golden Triangle Drive, Anchorage to Tok to Fairbanks.
After WW II Fort Greely an army base was built and used to train soldiers for cold weather combat during the Cold War. (the -33 can help you understand why it was good for that reason!)
Ironically, during the 1990s and 2000s, immigrants from the former Soviet republics came to the area, significantly changing the makeup of the local population and to this day the district has a large population of students from Russia and other Soviet areas. Actually there was just a restaurant opened that is called “Taste of Europe” that served amazing pelmeni’s, piroshki’s, and other great Russian dishes.
I get to work with this board yearly and have come to love the 2 hour drive from Fairbanks to here, it is beautiful and I dream of riding it on my motorcycle sometime!
I will be home until the 15th, watch for more from my Alaska travels after that! Next trip, Gustavus, home of Glacier Bay National Park!
- the End of the Richardson HW and the beginning of the Alaska Highway!
- the end of the Alaska Highway
- this hangs by the Delta visitor center showcasing temperatures over the years
- in Fairbanks and Delta there were many Ice Sculptures, mostly on their way to melting, but they were still fun to see
- the long and empty road from Tok to DJ
- There is a great program in AK where students from Rural AK come to spend a week in Urban AK and then they switch, this was the welcome party for Kids from St. Paul island to FB
- fresh snow on the hill tops as I drove from Tok to Delta
- love the ‘fog’ dancing off the river
- such great skies
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