Signs of Progress: Why You Should Always Pay Attention to Signs, Unless Instructed Otherwise

I noticed, while driving north last Sunday, that there were an awful lot of speed limit changes, so on the return trip, I counted them.

Sure enough, there were twenty changes in the posted speed limit in 240 miles from Denali National Park to Anchorage.   A few were in construction zones, where fines are doubled for miscreants, and I was paying close attention.   I was driving a borrowed truck and pulling my 19-foot travel trailer.

Best to pay attention under those circumstances.

Back up north, I exited Denali NP and crossed the bridge over the Nenana river.   A sign above the roadside read, “Experience the View.” 

 

  

So I did.   I’d always wondered about that mega-hotel perched like an aerie above Glitter Gulch, as the commercial district outside the park is known, and this was the perfect opportunity.

The drive up the hill is a series of blind corners and hairpin switchbacks and, luckily, though I wasn’t pulling the trailer on this excursion, it also soon proved fortuitous to read the signs.

 

 

Oh, by the way, there's a big hotel at the end of this driveway.   I can't help but think the humorous signs are meant to  take the attention away from how dicey the driveway is.   Imagine being a passenger in on of those 44 passenger tour coaches going up or down this road.

 

The lodge is closed for the season.   Employees were busy packing things up.

And, as promised, the view is pretty nice, too.

One of those aircraft you're supposed to watch for is in this photo and the one below.

See it?