Hilarious road signs keep drivers in Alaska distracted

For some, the drive up to Alaska’s Grande Denali Lodge  is breathtaking.  For others, it’s actually a little tedious.

The lodge, which is less than a mile from the entrance to Denali National Park, sits high on a ledge of Sugarloaf Mountain overlooking Denali Canyon below, and the only way to get up there is via a one-mile road that twists and turns to an elevation of over 2000 feet.

You can’t go very fast as you drive, only about 10 miles an hour or so. The road is so windy, guests actually get a little bored as they snake their way to the top.

To make sure they keep their eyes on the road, the hotel installed signs –big yellow ones.  But instead of cautioning about speed limits or oncoming traffic, they warn drivers of falling coconuts,  aircraft or to be on the lookout for abductions by massive mosquitoes.

The idea for the hilarious signs came from Dennis Brandon, owner of Brandon Marketing Strategies who was hired Denali Grande hotel owner, Old Harbor Native Corporation.

“In short, people love them!” Brandon told FoxNews.com in an email. “We are frequently asked if the mosquito is the Alaska state bird, and do they really get that big.”  The answer, of course, is no.  That honor goes to the willow ptarmigan.

Installed in stages over the five years, new signs are added all the time.  This week a new diamond-shaped sign at the hotel entrance that says, “Be prepared to shop” will be installed --a play on the “Be prepared to stop.”   There is some discussion if the hotel should change them up to keep it fresh.

The road is part of the lodge property, and Brandon says the signs don’t cause a distraction, at least in the dangerous sense. In fact, he says, the signs have actually served as a way of keeping traffic to a slower pace.

The only real danger, he says, is “if you stop to take a close up picture of a grizzly bear.”