On the Way to Fairbanks, our Final Alaskan Stop

The Windy Bridge looking back the Denana River. They have been grateful for the August rains to kill the wildfires and cool the temps since no one has AC. Most fires up here are started by natural causes, but they have a fire coding system. Often they just let them burn out naturally unless it’s effecting a town. It’s not unusual to have really large areas burn here because it’s really advantageous to nature for multiple reasons. 

Coal based electricity exists up here since coal is so readily available. Healy is the town where it’s located. “Into the Wild” the book and movie was based here. (The hero of this story was woefully unprepared by Alaskan standards.) Alaskans take pride in their ability to survive and thrive up here, so they hate that book. 

Denali gave a hint is it’s grandeur this morning, but the top peak is still in the clouds. The driver says this image of it was about the best visual of it since June. 

Still going through a boreal forest which has permafrost ten to fifteen feet down, so the black spruces are the scraggly trees that can survive. Better looking spruce are the white. Permafrost can change shape as it refreezes which dramatically effects the roads, power lines and the pipelines. Building a house on permafrost is very problematic which really limits where and how you build. 

Continental climate up here is in a crescent like shape, Anchorage and coastal cities get more rain and cooler summer temps compared to the interior. Alaskans have to use studded tires, chains and four wheel drive along with gravel in the winter rather than salt. Summer Solstice here on June 21st that lasts 21 hours. Winter Solstice is December 21st with about 2 hours of daylight which is when you can see the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. Fairbanks has lots of tours for seeing it now. They have a Northern Lights website now that follows how good the show will be. 

(Usually Jan & Feb around 3 AM are the best viewing.)

The George Parks Hwy is the main road to Fairbanks.   Clear Air Force Base is up here. It’s part of the early distance warning system and it’s totally self contained and still operational.

The oldest, longest run family owned Alaskan business, Cogill’s 

Train Depot is now a museum.

Nenana  has the Nenana River which flows into the Yukon. The Yukon is the fourth largest river in North America and was a major shipping channel for years. 

          The white & black tripod is what’s set in the river with cameras set up to watch it for problems.

The Nenana Ice Classic is still going on today. You can buy a ticket to chose when you believe the tripod is going to float away when the ice releases. You have to pick the day, hour, minute and second. This Alaskan event is the only big gambling event up here since there are no casinos. 

Eric is our driver/guide today. We have this stop along the way...(He made us laugh saying, “that Alaska has a law that tour buses must stop at all small towns with gift shops.”)

Great homemade bakery with locals working here including kids. Brilliant marketing! 

Jesse Holme’s Iditarod Racing Team. He is on the History Channel, “Life Below Zero”. He claims these dogs have to be a specific weight to survive the Iditarod. 

We went by another mushers place. All the dogs have their individual houses with spaces between them.  During the race, the musher has to set up shelters and food for the dogs before they take care of themselves. Also, there are veterinary checkpoints all along the way, so the dogs can be checked and changed out if needed. 

Bolto & Fox were the last set of lead dogs of a series of mushing relay teams, that took part in the “Great Serum Run” right after WWI. This significant real story is the inspiration for the Iditarod. 

Mushers come up with all kinds of creative ways to keep exercising and training their dogs even during the summer.

Fun ride! It was interesting to watch the different speeds of the dogs and how the harnesses are balanced across their backs...Definitely happy, healthy dogs with their owner. 

The calmer part of the Nenana River.

Here we come racing back in...Couldn't believe how fast they are!

                                              Jesse with a local Native group that were darling!

Not Princess approved, but still a popular roadside bar and gift shop. LOL!!!
Ester was a Gold Rush town, very likely named after a “lady of the evening” who built a hotel here. They used dredging to get below the permafrost layer to get to the gold. By using this method it created new lakes and valleys. Still finding gold up here today. 

University of Alaska is the premier school right outside of Fairbanks that has the fabulous Museum of the North. Miami U of OH use to play this hockey team.

The 800 mile long Valdez pipeline took three years to build. It cost about 8 billion, but it paid back that money in app. 18 months. Sixty five percent revenue for the state comes from this pipeline. After the Gold Rush, the building of the pipeline created a second huge boon for the area with so many coming in to assist with it since the oil company was paying big money.  

We really enjoyed this lodge sitting right on the Chena River

I know you must really be surprised by this photo?

 It was a really smart move on our part to relax here for a couple extra days and unwind. We had wonderful weather and we were able to visit a couple fascinating museums and talk to Uber/Lift drivers (mainly off duty military) and our lovely wait staff. 

We found most of the wait staff up here were from Bulgaria, Montenegro, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia and a couple from TX, CA, AZ and MA. (the majority of the Eastern Europeans college students then, spend their money traveling in this country afterwards...Maui, NYC, Miami, CA were all popular destination spots...ahhh, the travel bug is alive and well around the world.