The four of us agreed that this drive was the most beautiful we had experienced so far! Pictures don’t really do it justice.
This is the part of the scenery that reminded me of Switzerland (minus the chalets).
The diversity of God’s creation continues to amaze us.
On our way to Fairbanks from Denali, we stopped at the 49th State Brewery. For those of you who saw the movie, Into The Wild (or read the book) this is the bus used in the making of the movie. The original bus is still out in the wilderness. We even drove by the road where a stranger drove him to begin his wilderness journey. It was bizarre to think how close we were to the place where he died. Good book and movie.
On the way to Fairbanks.
A log cabin church.
We stopped at a beautiful lake to fish. Didn’t catch anything but it was a beautiful place.
Notice the butterfly.
There isn’t a lot to do in the Fairbanks area but we did go to an ice museum. Everything is made out of ice. They serve you a drink in a glass carved out of ice. The temperature inside was 24 degrees.
Entrance into the “hotel”.
You can actually stay there for the night in one of the four bedrooms. Thanks but no thanks. And you can get married there. Unless someone gets cold feet. (Joke stolen from the guide)
View of a lakefront camp site.
We went to see part of the Alaska pipeline. It goes all the way from Prudhoe Bay in the north to Valdez in the south. That’s about 800 miles.
We followed the general route from Fairbanks to Valdez. It was like playing Where’s Waldo. Sometimes the pipeline is underground and sometimes above ground. Who knew a pipeline could be so interesting. Although it’s been in use for 40 years there have been very few accidents involving oil spills and those that did happen were very minor. Chances are that in this day and age it would probably never be built. And that would have been a shame.
The end of the Alcan.
And the Alaska State bird.
Next post will be of the highway to Valdez. It deserves its own post
On our way to Talkeetna, we stopped at the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Museum. It was so informative and we got to cuddle the huskie puppies!
I really wanted to go on a dog sled run but not really doable in July. Next best thing was a sled ride around the compound.
We had no idea they would run so fast. It was really fun!
We were planning on spending a day in the cute little town of Talkeetna on our way to Denali. On the plane back to Anchorage I was sitting next to a gal who lives there and she told me about this campground. Can’t get much closer to the river than this.
And I ran in to her in town and got to tell her how much we were enjoying her recommendation. Locals know best!
Walked to town from our campsite. And then stopped in at the local cemetery.
And then on to Denali. Roadside views.
Dinner on the barby. Can’t believe the color of that salmon.
The only way you can get into Denali is by bus. We enjoyed the ride there and saw lots of wildlife but it was all too far away for me to get pics.
Getting close. And she was out!
The weather on Denali can be temperamental. Many who go there either dont see it at all or only have a partial view due to clouds. We enjoyed a beautiful day there!
And then hen there is the road. Nobody told me. The road is gravel and barely wide enough in many places for two buses to pass by each other. Usually one bus has to stop while the bus going in the opposite direction squeezes by. The terrain is very steep in some places. There are no guard rails. On the way back down the mountain, sitting on the right side of the bus, it is scary. For those of you who are familiar with Tioga Pass in Yosemite, is a piece of cake compared with this. But we survived.
On towards Fairbanks and Chena Hotsprings tomorrow.
After a whirlwind long weekend at home in So Cal, Cindy and I returned to the Land of the Midnight Sun! Here we are with my daughters and her daughter in laws at the wedding.
The guys did good while we were gone. Lots of salmon in the freezer.
We celebrated the 4th on the 3rd, Alaska style, at a music filled festival. They celebrate on the 3rd because they have to wait until midnight to shoot off fireworks. Even then it’s not completely dark. We did not make it to see the fireworks. Too late for us old folks.
Staying in Eagle River and drove outside of town to do a hike. Saw this moose on the drive. I was excited to see this one up so close.
Some beautiful views on our hike.
That’s bear poop on the trail. Yikes!
And on the way back to our campsite we saw this big guy.
Heading towards Denali tomorrow.
On our way from Seward to our next campground we stopped along the highway because the guys had axes to grind. Axes to grind. Get it?
Scenes from along the highway.
We went to the little town of Girdwood to do laundry. It’s a cute, funky town. And the dryers were fast! That’s a big deal when doing laundry on the road.
We took a day trip without the trailers into the town of Whittier. To get there you drive through the longest (2.5 miles) highway tunnel in North America. It was the first designed to withstand -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150mph winds. It’s a very narrow single lane tunnel which is shared by cars and trains traveling in both directions and they air it out between trips with jet turbine ventilation. It’s a little scary not knowing exactly who is controlling the whole system (human or computer) and hoping you aren’t going to see a train coming toward you! This is the entrance to the tunnel.
Whittier is another cute town.
Campground moments. We were blessed by the most beautiful rainbows that we had ever seen. Thank you, God, for the reminder of your promises.
This campground had a communal fire pit. Every night the owners would start the fire and everyone was invited to come and hang out, roast marshmallows and get to know each other. John and another camper played some music. It start out with a few fellow campers and then as people heard the music, more and more came including a group of guys who are highway construction workers and actually live at the campground. It was a fun time! And there was a repeat performance the next night with a new group of campers.
So Alaska is not called the land of the midnight son for nothing. 20+ hours of daylight means we never see a sunrise or a sunset. We are sleeping when those happen. But we had to get up at 3am for Cindy and I to make a flight from Anchorage to home. (Our two daughters and Mike and Cindy’s two daughter in laws are all in a wedding together. We left the guys in Alaska to watch Oliver the dog and to fish.) This was the sunrise as we drove from the campground to Anchorage. It was about 4 am!
I’m hoping I’ll have lots of pictures of the guys fish they caught while we were gone for my next post. As for me, I’ll be calling AAA to jump start the car (and, as it turns out, put in a new battery), go to doctor appointments, see most of the grandkids (they won’t care much that I’m home, they just want to see papa), do wedding stuff, and worship at our church on Sunday. It will be a tiring, whirlwind trip but filled with lots of fun! Until next time….