West of Wasilla Alaska

We had skipped a couple days of wilderness camping near Talkeetna as it was just a bit too smokey to be very enjoyable.

The next day after going to the pass, I wanted to see what was out near Port Mackenzie, which is southwest of Wasilla.  We drove out past where the car’s Nav system said there weren’t any roads, all the way to the water, which turned out to be just above/across from Anchorage; but the road ended abruptly at a Homeland Security labeled gate.  There was nothing out there to see, which was very strange with all the security, even a small boarded up shack that said it was the security checkpoint.

We did spot a small campground just up the road and drove in past about 10 empty sites right on Lake Lorraine.  They did have fire rings and most of the sites looked level.  There was even one that I am pretty sure I could have gotten our motor home into.   The place was completely empty.   It had a small boat ramp and a rack of orange life preservers, something I had not seen in any campground before.

On the way out we saw a very funny named road, so on the way back we had to stop and get some pics.  Here they are.

 

Kathy also took a picture of this sign, I’m really not sure why.

[It seemed funny to me to say “drug free” school zone, like there is a drug OK school zone!]

 

As we drove back toward civilization, we stopped at the Iditarod HQ that was along the way back.  We brought Dusty over to one of the dog statues out front and he started shaking and barking at the statue.  He appeared to think that big dog was going to eat him.   We put him back in the car as there were a lot of sled dogs around there and it probably wasn’t too safe for him to be among’st them.

We walked over to the puppy cage and then over where they were giving rides on something that looked like a golf cart being pulled by a bunch of sled dogs.

Sled Dog Video

They really got that cart moving on the small loop trail thru the woods!

 

We drove back to the campground and ordered pizza to be delivered for Kathy’s birthday dinner. (her choice).   I think it was the fastest pizza delivery ever.  It was there in less than 15 minutes.