There’s nothing we love more than finding the perfect place to wild camp for the night and Alaska sure is treating us to some phenomenal locations. After leaving Delta Junction the Richardson Highway was a wonderful drive with forest, wildflowers and meadows. The sun was shining and we saw more wildlife along the highway than we had on all our other drives in Alaska. We felt like we were the only people on the road as we cruised past grazing moose and a few beautiful caribou with great racks.

There was an abundance of places to pitch up for the night but one whim down a short dirt track paid off. There was a crystal clear lake with gravel edges, mountain vistas and a few old fire pits dotting the area. Home sweet home. Craig set out looking for sticks for a fire while I walked up a gravel spit into the lake. It was so shallow and calm I could of probably walked across the whole thing, but instead i admired Daphne’s reflection in the waters.

It was warm enough for an alfresco dinner and the sun stayed out all evening while the winds gradually picked up. A big black cloud loomed over the mountains behind us and we spotted a rainbow out the window. The next time we looked outside the rainbow had become extremely vibrant and a perfect 180 degree arch. Rain began to fall in big dollops hitting Daphne’s metal roof with a big thud each time but I didn’t even care about getting wet – I had to get a photo of the psychedelic arch. It was so wide that only my GoPro fitted the whole thing in.

Once the storm passed at around 11pm the sun slowly began setting. The sunsets seem to go on for hours with the midnight sun so we kept peaking out every so often to see the progress. There weren’t many clouds where the sun was setting so it wasn’t spectacular until we turned around and saw the remaining black clouds had been stained by the low sun in beautiful shades of pinks and purples. It was awesome, two insanely beautiful views in just an hour. The night was topped of with toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate.

Our next night along the Richardson highway we camped across from a river with views of three snowy ridge-lines all with saw like edges. As we were reading I noticed a moose outside our window. She was by some shrubs and looked very young, maybe she’d only recently left her mum. Gradually she came out into the open and seemed to be eating and licking the gravel along our pullout, I guess she could taste the salt. It was amazing just watching her from our window but soon enough a car came plying down the road and the poor moose didn’t know what the heck to do. She started galloping in front of the car like a horse in the Grand National and then darted our way running right past our van and into the bush beside us. Van life in Alaska is like being part of a nature or wildlife documentary, we just love it!