Travels of Geo Nova: Deeper into Alaska

Fairbanks, our largest town in a long while, gave us a bit if culture shock. Divided highways and traffic lights along with big box stores. The first thing we did was go to the local farmers market. Here we managed to find not only fresh veggies but also baked goods. As usual we found several wildlife sanctuary’s. No new birds but had a lovely walk. Our caravan planned events were a riverboat trip on the Tanana River and Dredge 8 tour with an opportunity to try panning for gold. Both these events were kind of hokey tourist events scripted as well as any Disney Park Ride. There were hoards of tour buses with hoards of tour boat passengers. The events were designed to give us an idea of the local history and culture. They did that in a polished manner. Fairbanks is home to the University of Alaska and they had a world class museum along with a Musk Ox research farm that provided a great and very informative tour. The Musk Ok seem to be a sentinel species that is being challenge by climate change. Fairbanks also allowed us to get another B&B. Lulu’s bakery made great breads and croissants. A small town north of Fairbanks named Fox was home to Silver Gulch Brew Pub where we had a great dinner washed down with good beer.

Next stop Denali National Park. It was on my list of “need to see places”. Just 3 miles before the entrance of our RV Park is the 49th State Brewhouse. In their parking lot sits the old bus made famous in the book Into The Wild. This is where Chris Mc Candless lived his final days of his short life. Despite this somber note the lunch and beer here were good. Mother Nature did not fully cooperates with us for our visit to the Park. Despite the less than optimal weather we did what we came for hiking and a bus trip into the park. This made getting good photos difficult. You can only drive into the park 15 miles. First stop was at the dog sled compound to see a demonstration and learn about the work they do in the park in the winter. The dogs will travel about 3,000 miles per season throughout the park. At mile 15 we hiked along a river and once we crossed a bridge to hike back to the parking lot we saw a grizzly bear loping along where we had just been. Once back the Rangers wanted to see our pictures of the Bear. It was a 4 year old male that has been hanging out in that area. They closed the trail.

The only way to visit the interior of the park was to take a converted school bus. We chose an 11 hour tour to Wonder Lake that, in rare good weather, offers an iconic view of of Mt Denali. When we approached the Eielson Visitors center we were in the midsts of a snow storm. At Wonder Lake we wondered where Mt Denali was because it was completely hidden in the clouds and fog. On the return trip from Wonder Lake the weather improved. No snow at Eielson and the sun came out briefly. This park, more so than any, offers a true wilderness experience.

Anchorage is now our home at least for the next 4 nights. Our first event is a ride on The Alaska Railroad to Whittier. In Whittier we boarded a boat to visit glaciers in Prince William Sound. We had a parks ranger along to share his knowledge about the all the different types of glaciers we cruised past. The Captian took the boat to within a 1/4 of a mile of several glaciers, any closer wouldn’t be safe when the glacier calved. We were lucky to see or hear it happen several times. The boat crew used nets to harvest ice. It was later we learned why, drinks were served using glacier ice! Glacier ice is purer than any water you will ever drink. The train ride back was interesting because we saw a moose and her calf. She couldn’t move very well so everyone was asking David what was wrong. She had a swollen hock and the info was passed along to the train crew. So even in the wildes of Alaska he is still being a Veterinarian.

Today we went to Potter Marsh. Here we did some birding but also got to see salmon trying to go up stream to spawn. We then went downtown to an artisan/ food market after which we had to complete the other half of B&B. We had found a bakery in the morning before the Marsh trip, now for the brewery!

Tomorrow will be more exploring, most likely in the rain, but never the less we make the most of it.