Unbelievably Gorgeous Drive on Dalton Hwy

     These next photos are of a landscape so incredibly awesome that you might not believe I took them all in a single afternoon.  But, I did.  You'll just have to believe me.  On Saturday, John and I drove 140 miles down the Dalton Hwy (aka the Haul Road) from Prudhoe Bay to Toolik Lake.  Its mostly unpaved and a safe speed is about 30 mph.   Most were just point-and-click photos taken out the window of the truck while we were driving along, but we also stopped to stretch our legs a few times.  We drank V8 juice, munched on sandwiches, celery, and raisins from the Aurora, and talked. Seeing this land changed me..I could scarcely believe my own eyes.

We followed this river for most of the way

Looking south and seeing for miles and miles

We were also following the Pipeline

Brooks Range in the distance

Looking down at the river..I think we saw a caribou in the distance here.

Incredible!  Clouds, foothills, giantness..took my breath away over and over

Rainstorm up ahead--and mountains are getting closer

Interesting.  None of the other hills had names.

Ooohh ahhhhh

The drive just kept getting more and more beautiful.  We stretched our legs here.

Huge feature in the distance

Same huge topographic feature upclose.. moss growing on its sides

That's our pickup truck--we'd pulled off to check out the river up close again.

So many different clouds and the road wet and glinting sun from the passing raincloud

My fav pic of all--crazy cool raincloud

The pipeline and a million clouds on the horizon

Rainbow!!

There it is!!  Toolik Lake!!! 

Slanted pic--but there's the Brooks Range as seen from Toolik Lake