October 2013 - Page 2 of 14 - Song of the Road

While we we hiking the Totem Trail we met this cool native Alaskan couple. We asked them what we should do if the sun holds out for a few more days and they told us we had to drive up Harbor Mountain road. It was something we would have never done if we did not chat with this couple and it turned out to be a highlight of our Alaskan leg of the trip.

Here is the sign you need to look for. It is off the main highway but not easy to spot.

One of the turns driving up the road, the biggest danger is getting distracted by the view.

Half way up the road we stopped for some pictures.

There were so many eagles flying around, you can see the corner of the XP in this one. They were HUGE and cast shadows so big it looked like a plane flying over you when they were close.

The road is narrow, gravel and has steep switchbacks to the top, but we saw all types of vehicles on it. However, I would not bring up a trailer or large RV. When you get to the top there is a parking lot off the road on the right, it has some of the most stunning areas to have BBQs I have ever seen in my life. We decided we were going to camp in the parking lot for the night for free (there were no signs saying you can’t to this….) and BBQ some chicken.

This was the view from one of the picnic sites. WOW!

This was our view for dinner, we wanted the one facing into the warm sun.

We brought the tri-pod so we could actually have a few pics together

While we were up here we met a group of teenagers who said the auroras were at a 4 and would be visible around 12:30am, so decided to stay up and wait for them (and wait……and wait….and they never came). But the stars were spectacular and it was fun to just bundle up, burn a campfire and watch the satellites roll by.

The next day we drove another half mile to where the road ends to take a hike one of the locals at the BBQ site told us about. It was a spectacular hike along the ridges and around the mountain range, the total hike took us about 5 hours.