Camping and riding in Petersville

Mt Foraker and Denali (Mt McKinley) from Petersville road.

This past week hubby and I, and the pooch, camped and road ATVs out in Petersville area. We drove out there Sunday evening, avoiding the weekend crowd. Petersville is only a couple of hours drive from home and is a popular spot for camping, partying by some, and riding ATVs and snowmachines. For a couple of days we rode the area trails, more like old, worn gravel roads, averaging about 53 miles round trip (to the camper) a day. We took a day to relax and recover in between the 2 days of riding : ) The first day was clear enough to see Denali from the road. I took some pics knowing clear skies around that mountain don't usually last long. It clouded up that evening and the clouds stuck around the rest of the week. Despite a drizzle here and there, we enjoyed beautiful scenery, lots of green hillsides, flowing creeks, even some snow. We didn't see any large animals but we did see a few beaver dams, gopher type critters running around, ptarmigans with chicks and a fox (in camp).

Our dog Sissy loves to run with the ATVs but willingly hops on the back after a few miles and at large creek crossings. She stays on, held in between Scott, his hard gearbox and stategically placed bags on either side of her. Tho, when she sees a gopher running across the path there's no stopping her wanting to jump off. After her first jump, tumble and roll, with road rash and no critter, she contained her excitement just a tad.

At camp, this seemed to be her favorite spot to lay outside, high, dry and on the soft side (minus the side bags and Scott). She wasn't about to let us go anywhere without her : ) Sissy kept an eye out for this foxy lady who came thru almost daily to check out the old campsites and firepits.

Petersville is also known for gold mining. There are several old private mining areas with large equipment that look like they haven't moved in years. We passed a few locals panning for gold at the creek in the recreational mining area. Most of the trails (roads) dead-end at mining camps, at the base of a mountain or at the top of a hill. It was a fun and beautiful trip exploring for 3 days in one little area of our beautiful state.