June 30, 2012 – Caribou RV Park, Whitehorse, Yukon Ter. Canada

We have officially traveled all of the Alcan Highway. If you recall, when we were headed up to Alaska, we went to Dawson City from Whitehorse and then across the Top of the World Highway to Tok. This morning we left Tok at 8 and planned on stopping about 400 miles later at Whitehorse for the night. 10 hours later we checked into the Caribou RV Park. When we were discussing going to Dawson City on the way up, or waiting for the trip back, I talked to a couple people at Watson Lake who make the trip every year. They told me that Dawson City and the TOW would be a smoother journey then going north for Whitehorse to Tok. After taking the TOW, we both could not understand how the ALCAN north of Whitehorse could be worse than the unpaved end of the TOW. WELL, we can now say that they were absolutely right. Leaving Tok this morning, the first part was good road until just south of where the TOW joined the Alcan south of Tok. Then we started hitting some road damage from frost heaves.

Most of the Alcan of Whitehorse is built on top of Perma Frost. The Perma Frost will thaw from the road heat and liquefy the soil. The road sinks into the soil and you now have a roller coaster roadway. During the winter the soil freezes and will heave up or split the road and cause it to move sideways. When we were in Fairbanks the tour guide told us that when they went to redo a road there, they found 12ft of asphalt that had been used to fill one area of the road that kept sinking in the Perma Frost. Now you are driving on a road that has sudden dips and also cracks that run length wise in the road to cause only one side to dip. To repair the road, they asphalt over the dip/cracks or they break it up and pile a mixture of rock and dirt on it which is then smoothed and compacted. The repairs can go on for miles at a time. Since we woke up to rain, and it rained through most of the drive, when we hit the areas of rock and dirt repair the road was a muddy mess that was now full of water filled potholes. Almost the whole trip today required us to drive between 25 and 45 mph. Even at 5 or 10 mph, the RV shook enough to move the couch away from the wall, against the chairs and move anything around that was not fastened down.

What the rock/dirt repaired road looked like today.

Did I say that we hit 38 degrees at one point in the drive and saw fresh snow on top of the mountains? When we got here the temperature was back up to 58 degrees. Had a great supper of pork roast, mashed potatoes, corn, and strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream for desert. Now I will post this and just set for what is left of the evening. The truck and RV need to be sprayed off, but I decided to wait until tomorrow morning to see if it is raining again before tackling that project.

I think it needs a bath.

June 29, 2012 – Tok RV Village, Tok, Alaska

We are back at the Tok RV Village after making the 2 week circle around the inside of Alaska. We saw a fox in the campground before we left this morning and it posed for us to take its picture. It was a short drive with nothing of interest to report, just more scenery (trees and mountains). We got here about noon and Karen has been up to do the laundry. (Karen says: Appreciate your home washer and dryer. I think I’ll kiss mine when I get home.) Right now it is sunny and 69 degrees.  The mosquito's have not been bad until we reached Kenny Lake.  Since it was out in the coundry, you had to fight them off as I filled the tank with water upon arrival and empted the tanks today (or anytime you were outside).

Okay, this is my good side!



Tomorrow we will head back across the boarder to Whitehorse and then back into Alaska at Skagway the next day.

June 28, 2012 - Kenny Lake Mercantile & RV Park, Kenny Lake, AK

We took a drive to Valdez today. It was a beautiful sunny day, about 50 degrees when we left. It warmed up to about 65 this afternoon. I report this because we had an e-mail from Kathy this afternoon saying it was 107 degrees at home. I know – I have a cruel streak.

The drive was beautiful. The mountains down there are still really snow covered. One curve must have had 12 to 15 feet of snow still at the side of the road where they had cut out for the road. One rest stop still had snow covering the handicap ramp. Valdez had approximately 400 inches of snow during the 2011-12 winter. There were still 3 piles near the downtown area where they had piled it when cleaning the streets. One pile was still probably 20 feet high. The rivers are all really high and running fast. I guess we’re just a little early for the salmon to be running.

Snow along road at the top of the pass.

Harry on the snow at the rest area for a glacier.

Snow in the center of Valdez

June 27, 2012 - Kenny Lake Mercantile & RV Park, Kenny Lake, AK

Today’s excursion was to visit the Kennecott National Historic Landmark. We were picked up at the RV at 6:45 this morning and were to return by 9:30 tonight. Since we were to be gone all day, we hired Angle, a girl that works at the campground, to walk Penny and Harry 3 times while we were gone.

The ride to Kennecott takes about 3 hours with stops. About 60 miles of the McCarthy Road is unpaved and is built on top of the railroad that serviced the Kennecott Copper Mine during its operation. Since this is an unpaved road (I am being kind) and built over the railway without removing the rails, it is not unheard of to puncture a tire or two with spikes that come to the surface periodically. It was very rough and we were glad it was their vehicle taking the pounding. We took a van from the RV to a waking bridge that crosses a river and met a second van which took us to the town of McCarthy and then up the road 5 miles to the Kennecott smelter. There is a private bridge that crosses the river, but the owner charges about $200 to cross it one way. So everyone who visits walks across the bridge and then either walks or catches a second van on the other side.

It was a cool drizzling rain when we got there and continued throughout our stay. We first visited the town of McCarthy, but with the rain we did not do much more than buy a cup of coffee and make a circle through the town. Then we were back in the van to head for Kennecott.

McCarthy in the rain

From 1911 to 1938, nearly $200 million in copper was processed at the Kennecott smelter. The copper mine itself was 4.5 to 5 miles from the smelter, which is the historic landmark, and about 4000 ft higher. Copper ore was moved from the mine to the smelter by means of cable cars. Kennecott was a self-contained company town that included a hospital, general store, school, skating rink, tennis court, recreation hall, and dairy. When it was shut down in 1938, it was to be demolished. But, the person given the contract took the money, demolished a few railroad bridges to stop anyone from going to the smelter, and walked off with the money. Most of the buildings are what you would expect with the smelter being abandoned in 1938. But, some have been restored and others are in the process of being stabilized.

Kennecott Smelter from the bottom

Smelter from the top

Since we were the only ones in our van we had been told the time was ours to do what we wanted, but we needed to head back by 6 pm. After spending several hours looking around, having lunch, looking around some more, and having desert we decided to cut the day short and meet the van at 2:30 to take us to the walking bridge.
On the way back we stopped at Chitina to look at the fishwheels. Fishwheels are a large wheel shaped apparatus with 2 baskets and two paddles that is floated in the river. The current turns the wheel which in turn will scoop up salmon from the water and then the basket will dump the salmon out onto the floating platform. The rains here are about a month late and when added to the record snowfall, the rivers are running VERY high. None of the fishwheels were working and several had been damaged by the high water. We did see one woman who was using a dip net in an attempt to catch some salmon in the Copper River. She had a pole that was maybe 12 feet long with a square frame at the end which had the net attached. She would extend the pole into the river and let it move down stream in hopes a fish would swim into the net that was headed upstream. Because of the rushing water she had a rope tied around her self and to a tree in case she was pulled into the water. It looked very dangerous.

Fishwheel

Karen’s version: The van came to the campground to pick us up at 6:45 this morning. We were to be gone all day, so we hired a woman who works at the campground office to let the dogs out 3 times during the day. We drove about 10 miles on a paved road, then 60 miles on an unpaved road. Imagine the worst pothole filled, muddy country road you have ever been on, then imagine driving on it for 60 miles – in an old rattlely Chevy Astrovan. This drive took about 3 hours. Then we came to a foot bridge that went across a river to a few old shacks on muddy streets, there we were to meet another van that would take us the last 5 miles to the copper mine. We were told there was a public restroom at a little restaurant, there wasn’t. It was barely a restaurant. The only tables were outside. – Did I mention it was about 50 degrees and raining? We walked a couple of more blocks thru the mud to find a public pit toilet. Then we got on the second van – an OLD barebones Ford Econoline. They should have required any passengers to wear ear protection. It squeaked, rattled and shook the whole way there which took about 20 minutes to go the 5 miles. There must have been some kind of metal trays or something in the back, because every so often it sounded like symbols crashing together. That driver had planned to pick us up around 5:00. At least we had the foresight to say we would probably be done by 2:30 or 3:00. This Kennecott mine smelter area was just a bunch of old dilapidated buildings on –guess what - muddy potholed streets. I had seen all I needed to see by noon, but we were stuck there till 2:30 when we were able to get the driver to come back to get us. We luckily found our other main driver early too and finally got back to the campground and our clean, warm camper around 7:00. I get to plan the next vacation!

Karen's version of Kennecott

June 26, 2012 - Kenny Lake Mercantile & RV Park, Kenny Lake, AK

Our drive today was about 220 miles up and down hills through beautiful scenery.  We did see a Coyote, but could not get the camera up in time for a picture.  We also saw a Lynx and did get somewhat of a picture of it.  We are at Kenny Lake Mercantile & RV Park for the next 3 nights.  This is about 90 miles from Valdez and we plan to make this home base for the trip to Valdez and a tour to the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark (abandoned copper mine).

More Scenery

Lynx

June 25, 2012 - Golden Nugget RV Park, Anchorage, AK

We started the day by dropping Harry off at Petco to get groomed. He was getting so dirty from all the gravel campgrounds and roads. Now he is white again and got a haircut so we can see his eyes again. Next, we took the truck to get the oil changed. We have driven about 5700 miles at this point and I think we are about half way through the trip. A stop at Fred Meyer for groceries, a quick lunch, and picking up Harry finished the jobs.

In the afternoon we headed back into town to take the city tour. This turned out to be the highlight of our time at Anchorage. The tour driver was a retired school teacher who is married to a man who grew up in Alaska. She has lived here since the mid 70s, talked a mile a minute and kept everything extremely interesting. Her father-in-law is a retired judge who was the last appointed judge to the territory before it became a state. So she had a lot of background, personal stories of her life here, and stories from her husband and his family. Her husband was 11 when the earthquake hit in 1964. He was setting in a dentist chair on 4th Street and had to climb out the 2nd floor window, which was now at street level, when the shaking stopped.

We had a reindeer sausage hotdog at one of the little stands downtown, then went to the Federal Visitors Center and looked around for a while. They would be showing a movie called “The Day the Earth Shook” at 5:00 which meant we had a couple of hours to do other things. We drove around a little so we could take a couple of pictures of things we had seen while on the tour, one of them being a “Moose Gooser”. This was a small engine that was originally used in the construction of the Panama Channel and than shipped up to Alaska for use in building the Alaska Railroad. As the railroad was completed it was used to go in front of the larger train pull rail cars to push the moose in the rump and get them off the tracks. This was when we also got the picture at Earthquake Park. At Earthquake Park you can see where the ground has dropped away (the forest had been the same level as the street) and waves in the soil from the quake. This was a housing area built on silt and during the quake the ground liquefied and the homes slid down the hill into the bay.

The Moose Gooser

Earthquake Park - Foreground is road level and ground drops away in waves.

We then went back to the Federal building to see the movie. We were in time to see one on the gold rush in 1898 which was interesting and then we watched the one about the earthquake.

June 24, 2012 - Golden Nugget RV Park, Anchorage, AK

We woke up to pouring rain this morning and Resurrection Bay by the campground was really closed in by clouds. We felt like we had seen about all we needed to of Seward, so we got an early start to Anchorage. We got into Anchorage about noon and after getting set up, we went to the business district to look around. Every weekend (at least in the summer months) they have a “Saturday Market” near downtown (lasts Sundays too) which is kind of like a flea market. When we were here before it was more like a Farmer’s Market, but either it has changed or it is just too early in the season for them to have vegetables and fruit. We walked around there for a while, then walked on to look into a few stores.

Downtown Market

As fascinating as anything downtown are the flowers that are so abundant. The visitor’s center had such a beautiful garden all around their rustic sod roofed building. It’s early in their growing season, so some of the gardens and planters weren’t as full as they will be a little later on, but they were gorgeous. Most of the gardens in Anchorage contain vegetables as well as flowers. I think cabbage is what I’ve most often seen planted among the flowers. The garden at the visitor’s center had several flowering cabbages.

Visitor Center

Flower Bed at Visitor Center

Another Flower Bed at Visitor Center

Cabbage in flower bed

Hanging flower baskets that line the street

Today’s weather was quite a change from yesterdays. It was sunny and in the 70s yesterday, but it has been overcast and kind of chilly all day, around 60 degrees. We had a chuckle at the TV weather forecast a couple of evenings ago. The meteorologist said that Seward was going to have a “sizzling” 75 degrees. I guess they probably did get to about that yesterday, but compared to what we’ve seen from St. Louis, it was hardly sizzling.

June 23, 2012 – Resurrection Campground, Seward AK

It was another sunny day and a short drive from Homer to Seward. We left Homer at 9 this morning and we were at Seward about 12:30. We decided to see if we could get into the one city campground which offered water and electricity when we got to Seward. We lucked out and found a spot on the 3rd row that offered us a great view of the ships going in and coming out of the bay. The campground is pretty much a rock parking lot, but the spaces are large by Alaska size and the view is great.

View out back window

After getting set up, eating a sandwich for lunch, and walking the dogs we decided to go to Exit Glacier. This is the glacier that we walked to when we were here in 2000. At that time it was raining and cold, but you could walk right up to the glacier and set on it if you wanted. Today it was warm (72 degrees) and sunny, but the glacier has moved back a long way from were it was in 2000. We kept saying to each other that we did not have to walk as far or climb as high to see the glacier last time. Even though it was on .9 miles, with the climb it seemed much longer. Also, it has moved back to the point that you can no longer go up and touch the glacier. You do get close, but we were really surprised at how far it had moved in 12 years.

Our picture next to the glacier in 2000, on a rainy day

Our picture this time.  This is as close as we could get today.

Karen standing next to a sign for the edge of the glacer in 1998

Graphic shows how glacer has receeded over time

After coming back from the glacier we stopped in town and walked around for a short time. At that point it was time for a Halibut and Rock Fish dinner at a little café. We went back to the RV to feed the dogs, then we went for another drive. We even saw the Bread and Breakfast we stayed at when we came up in 2000. Now we are back for the night. Tomorrow we head back to Anchorage for a couple of nights to see the down town area, get the oil changed in the truck, get Harry groomed, and whatever else we can think that needs to be done.

June 22, 2012 Ocean View RV Park, Homer, AK

We have been on the road for 4 weeks today. Time is going fast.

Sometimes it’s hard to get in some of the side roads while we are pulling the trailer, so this morning we drove back to Ninilchik, one of the little towns we had passed through on the way here. We went to see a Russian Orthodox Church that was located high on a point above the town and to see them launching the fishing boats. The way they launch the boats here is to hook the trailer to a tractor (these are BIG boats). The tractor then will back the boat and trailer down the beach into the water until the boat can reverse off the trailer. The same method is used to recover the boats. The boats seem to come in a full speed and up on the trailer, at which point the tractor pulls the boat and trailer from the inlet. The beach is rock and sand, so the tractors will launch anywhere along the beach. While we were there, we also saw lots of eagles.

Tractor launching boat at Ninilchik.

On the way we also managed to get a picture of a carving that we saw on the way in 2 days ago.

Baby Bear, Man, Mama Bear Carving

We had taken the dogs with us on the drive this morning, so we came back to the trailer with them for a little while. Larry took them for a nice long walk down to the beach below our campground. Harry’s Velcro fur collected a lot of sand and grass, so Larry hosed him off a little before he was allowed back in the camper. We then left the dogs at the trailer and drove to a road high above Homer. There was a beautiful view of the town, the spit and the bay from up there. It’s always a little hazy looking across the bay toward the mountains, but even with the haze, it was a breathtaking view and a gorgeous day. We took one last drive down the spit, then stopped for an early mid-afternoon meal and came back to the camper for a little relaxation time.

View of Homer Spit

June 21, 2012 – Ocean View RV Park, Homer, AK

We drove about 1 ½ hours to Homer this morning. We had spectacular views on much of the drive. Homer is at the bottom of a peninsula and is surrounded by mountains on 1 side and the Kachemak Bay on the other sides. We drove down the Sterling Highway which ran along the edge of Cook Inlet, across the inlet there were glistening snow-capped mountains on an uninhabited section of Alaska. The snow covered mountains included four volcanoes and numerous glaciers.

One of the volcanoes we saw on the drive.

View out of our window.

After setting up the camper, we drove around town a little and went down on the spit which is a narrow strip of land that sticks out into the Bay. We got out and walked on the beach with the dogs for a while. There were several fishermen on the shore. They were catching Flounder and Dolly Varden (similar to trout). One guy who was fishing with his wife and little boy said he was getting tired of catching so many fish. He said he would barely get his line in the water and would feel a tug. We saw a couple of bald Eagles looking regal as they surveyed the water looking for fish.

Eagle

Walk on the beach

We brought the dogs back to the camper and ate a bit of lunch before going back to look at some of the numerous little shops along the spit. Scattered among the souvenir and clothing shops, there were a number of buildings which housed charter fishing businesses. We watched as one group returned with their catch and proceeded to clean it. The business will clean and freeze the fish as part of their services. We then wandered in and out of the various shops for a while, then ate an early supper in one of the restaurants. Larry had fried halibut and I had grilled salmon. It was all very delicious.

Shops on the Homer Spit

Today is the summer solstice which makes this the longest day of the year. We have come quite a way south from Fairbanks, so we don’t have quite as much sunlight as they have there. I doubt that it will get very dark at all there tonight. The sunrise here is about 4:46 am and sunset is about 11:30. Figure almost a couple of hours of twilight beyond those times and we will have, maybe, 1 ½ to 2 hours of darkness tonight. I had made some black out curtains for our bedroom a few years ago, so we are able to keep our bedroom fairly dark, but it always looks like there is a light left on out in the living room area.

June 20, 2012 – Fred Meyer Parking Lot, Soldotna, Alaska

We are trying something new for us tonight! We left Denali this morning and drove with overcast skies for almost the whole day. We have two nights reserved in Homer and talked about going all the way today. But, the drive was getting LONG and we decided to just stop. We’re only about 70 miles from Homer, but Soldotna has a nice Fred Meyer store and is even listed as the most popular campground in the area. So, we decide to try out staying in a store parking lot. I checked the TV and we only have 3 channels if we run the generator. No internet service either, so we will post this tomorrow. But, it is a free night, the sun is shining, and we’re having a great time. Karen has gone into the store to see what they have for supper and to see if there is something we cannot live without. I’ll let her finish this when she gets back.

Karen: I bought us some fried chicken, potato wedges and some broccoli salad. As we were almost done eating, I looked out the window and saw a moose eating on some brush at the edge of the parking lot. Larry grabbed the camera and said “We drive all this way and where do we see a moose but a Fred Meyer parking lot.” By the time he got out there with the camera, we saw there was a bonus, a moose calf! Several people drove up or come out of other campers to take pictures too.

Mama Moose

Mom with Calf

Like Larry said, the drive was getting very long. We drove about 400 miles today and it took about 8 ½ to 9 hours. An additional 70 miles doesn’t sound like much, but it would probably have been another 2 hours on these roads. We had a good drive today even though it was overcast all day. If it hadn’t been so cloudy, we would have had several good views of Mt. McKinley, but as it was, we could only see parts of it. One stop we made along the way was to take a picture of Hurricane Gulch Bridge. It spanned 550 feet and was 260 feet high over Hurricane Creek. We are definitely in fishing territory and it is the beginning of trout fishing season. It’s still a little early for the salmon fishing.

Hurricane Gulch Bridge

Well, we’ll see how we like camping in a parking lot. It is listed in our campground book as the most popular campground in Soldotna. We probably won’t do it often, but an occasional night of cards or reading won’t hurt us. We have a generator, but we’re not sure how long it will run on the gas we have. We’ll need to run it in the morning for coffee. So far, there are about 8 or 10 campers parked on here.

June 19, 2012 – Denali RV Park and Motel, Denali Park, Alaska

This morning we had tickets for the 8:30 bus going into Denali National Park. They have four different bus trip destinations and we had chosen the 66 mile / 8 hour round trip one that goes to the Eielson Visitor Center. Our bus driver was very young looking but is on his 8th year of working here. He pointed out the highlights along the road and would stop at any point if someone spotted any wildlife. It must have been 15 miles or so on the trip when he pointed out Denali (or Mt. McKinley). Mt. McKinley is the highest mountain in North America with an elevation of 20,320 ft. When we first we saw it, we could see the peaks (but not the base as it was behind a couple of other mountains). Our driver was amazed and said that was only the second time this season he had seen the peaks because it is almost always surrounded by clouds.

Denali

We must have gone another 10 miles before any wildlife was spotted. We were beginning to think they were all on strike. The first wildlife we saw were a couple of caribou. Then we saw some Dall sheep, more caribou and then more caribou.

Caribou herd on side of mountain

Karen's favorite road!!!

We got to the Eielson Visitor Center about 12:30 spent about a half hour there. By the time we got there, we could see the base of Mt. McKinley but the peak had become enveloped in clouds. They had a great diorama showing the park which covers over 9,000 square miles. They had several interesting displays, but of course, the ones I (Karen) was most interested in were the two quilts they had displayed. Every year (I think it was the last 8 years) they have a guest artist in residence who develops and donates their interpretation of the landscape. There were a few paintings of varying styles and two quilts on display. (I say “donates”, they may have been paid, I’m not sure of that, but the art work is left for display.)

Quilt at Eilson Visitor Center

Valley Floor on the way back

Soon after we were started back from the Eielson Visitor Center, we saw a mother bear with 2 cubs. They were on a slope above the river and wandered in and out of some bushes. In another 10 miles or so, we saw 2 bears together. Our driver said this was almost unheard of because bears are definite loners. We saw the caribou and sheep again on the way back, then we saw a fourth grizzly (I guess 6th counting the two cubs).

Mom headed into bush followed by two cubs.

Pair of bear

We saw a lot of Bear Butt!

Last bear on the way back

By the time we got back to the visitors center at the park, then went into town for gas, it was about 5:30. The dogs were very happy to see us even though they had been pampered by the dog walker while we were gone.

June 18, 2012 – Denali RV Park and Motel, Denali Park, Alaska

We took a little more time than usual to get going this morning. Our stop was only 2 hours away, so Karen thought it was a great opportunity to do the laundry before leaving. What a deal at $2 a load for washing or drying. Where we are camped tonight it is $3 a load and where we did the laundry last was $2.50 a load. Since we don’t go to the laundromat, it may not be that out of line, but is seems high. While the laundry was being done, we visited with some people that we have been meeting over and over again since Glacier National park. One couple is from New York, one is from Texas, and one that we have met a couple of times is from Oregon. It is amazing that we keep meeting at different stops and are able to share stories of our experiences on legs of the trip up here, what we each have seen, and where we plan to go next on the trip.

We had another beautiful day today, just like yesterday. The sky was sunny and the high in the low 70’s. We are staying about 8 miles out from the Denali National Park entrance. The location is in the same area our Bed and Breakfast was located during the trip in 2000. Karen commented today that when we were here in 2000, she never thought we would make it back here again. Who knows what life has in store! It is an adventure and we are loving the journey.

After we set up the RV, we left Harry and Penny here and went into the park to get tickets for a bus ride into the park tomorrow. You can drive your private vehicle only 13 miles into the park. So tomorrow the narrated bus tour will take us 54 miles into the park and last about 8 hours. We did drive the 13 miles today and saw a herd of caribou.

Caribou Herd

On the way here, we saw a moose and calf again, but our view was from the back as they headed into the bush. Back at the campground again, we went to the office to arrange for someone to walk the dogs while we go into the park tomorrow. The people who do the dog walking then came over to meet the dogs and get any special instructions. They will come in and take the dogs out twice while we are gone.

June 17, 2012 River’s Edge RV Park and Campground, Fairbanks, Alaska

We decided to take the Historical City Tour and let someone else drive and provide information on Fairbanks. Our tour bus picked us up at the campground office at 8:30 this morning. The tour driver was retired from University of Alaska where he was in charge of the photographic department. The first stop for the day was the same place we went for the Salmon Bake last night, Pioneer Park. You could access the park even though it was not open for business. The stop was more to acquaint us with where the park was located and provide an overview of what it offered. They have buildings which once were residences in Fairbanks that have been moved into a group within the park and set it up like on old pioneer town. The buildings are now leased out to various crafts people. (We went back there later in the day to see what kinds of stores they had. The shops turned out to be jewelry, tusk carvings, a couple museums, food, etc.)

Cabins moved from downtown to Pioneer Park

After driving thru the city and having various buildings and landmarks pointed out, along with the history, our next stop was the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitor Center. This had displays on life in early Alaska with displays of how people lived and survived in Alaska, including how their cabins were set up. They also had a film about life in modern day Alaska and how they enjoy skiing, dog sledding and other winter activities.

This was right downtown.  Orginal shotgun log cabin plus 3 additions and start on 4th addition.

Log Church that was downtown.

Arch of antlers by Cultural & Visitor Center

Several buildings have paintings on the side.

Next stop was to see the Pipeline north of town where it runs above ground. Approximately half of it is elevated above the ground and half is buried. On the way to the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North, we went along the original road north out of Fairbanks. Along the road we could see some very nice log homes, some small log homes with sod roofs, and some homes that were built on the perma-frost soil. Many of the older homes built on the perma-frost soil are now sinking in various sections as the soil has absorbed heat from the home and than thawed to allow the above home section to sink. The University of Alaska’s Museum had displays of much of the wildlife of the area, also additional displays on early life for the settlers and Eskimos, displays of tanned hides, and Eskimo baskets and intricate beadwork. Our guide kept the tour interesting with some personal anecdotes on his life since he and his wife moved here from Texas in 1976. We were back to the campground by about 12:30.

Karen at mile 450 of the pipeline.

Karen and friend at museum. No it is not me!

After a little lunch, we went back to the Pioneer Park to see what all was there. As I said before, it was some old buildings set up with touristy type shops. We then stopped back by the Fred Meyers store for a few things we had forgotten the other day. We came back to the camper for some relaxation time and grilled out for a light supper. After supper we decided to take a short ride to see if we could get pictures of some of the things we saw on the tour, but were not able to photograph.