The next stop on our travels in Alaska was to to the city of Fairbanks. It was a great place to visit museums, drink some microbrews, and stock up on supplies. Following Fairbanks we knew we’d be entering Denali National Park for nine days, which meant immersing ourselves quite deeply in wilderness, very much removed from such luxuries! Since our visit to Denali would be followed by a visit to another big city, Anchorage, it occurred to me as I wrote this that what we got to enjoy in these last three weeks was a great big Denali sandwich with a “slice” of city-things on each side!
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| Welcome to Fairbanks |
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| Welcome to Denali |
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| Welcome to Anchorage! |
Fairbanks is located in about the geographic center of the state. Its population is 32,000, only one ninth the size of Anchorage and just a hair smaller than Juneau which you’ll recall is the state capitol. We loved Fairbanks. Although a major city and the home of the University of Alaska, it retains a small town feel with low-key, friendly people...very much so! One interesting thing we learned about Fairbanks is that because of permafrost, most residents do not have running water, but rather, have to haul their water to their homes in tanks! Think of that! And this is a cold, cold place in winter—minus 50 degrees is not uncommon! All the parking places had receptacles for automobiles to plug into, both on city streets and in parking lots. Also, this is a very DARK place in winter! So close to the arctic circle, Fairbanks has some of the longest dark nights in the world. The payoff, however, is that one can count on seeing the aurora borealis here on 8 out of 10 clear nights from August through April! The major supplier of goods for most people who live in the Alaskan interior and arctic regions, Fairbanks is on the edge of “civilization”. Fairbanks is where your twice yearly order for groceries and other necessities is filled and transported to your place from. Primarily these supplies come by float plane but in years past, the rivers of central Alaska--the Yukon, the Tanana, the Nanana--were your lifeline. We enjoyed learning about river transportation in the early 1900s and got a private tour of a sternwheel paddleboat heavily used at that time, now dry-docked at Pioneer Park. The University of Alaska has one of the finest museums we’d ever seen—full of information and exhibits about Alaska's indigenous cultures, wildlife, dinosaurs, art and, of course—gold! In separate facilities the university has a botanical garden and large animal research station which the public is invited to tour. So much to say about Fairbanks, but I will emphasize that friendliness rules here! Even the visitor’s center had a large community garden from which were were allowed to pick any vegetables that were ripe and that we thought we’d enjoy! They must’ve seen us coming is all I gotta say!!
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| "Hot stuff", Bernie stands by a plug-in in for Fairbanks cars in winter |
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Fairbanksians make it abundantly clear they are not to be pitied living in this place of midnight sun, aurora borealis, natural beauty, and endless outdoor pursuits year-round
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Dogsledding is big here in interior Alaska. Fairbanks is home to the Yukon Quest annual dogsled race. 1000 miles-- Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon--it is even more challenging than the famous Ididarod.
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Peggy and Denali sled dog, "Sitken" eye each other |
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| "Nenana" on display in Fairbanks is a national historic monument. She is the largest stern-wheeler ever built west of the Mississippi, and the second largest wooden vessel in existence. |
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| We had private tour of every inch of Nenana and loved it! |
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| Nenana plied the waters of the entire Yukon and Tanana Rivers, delivering people and goods to interior villages and communities. |
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| 300 foot diorama of life along the Tanana and Yukon rivers in the early 1900s |
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| The detail of every little village was astounding... |
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| Right down to people hanging out laundry, prostitutes in the red light district throwing men out in the streets on their butts, and families having picnics as above. All this "life" going on, in each of 50-some little communities! We absolutely loved it! |
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| The University of Alaska in Fairbanks world renowned Museum of the North |
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| Bernie and a grizz |
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| Peggy and a real arctic fox--Lily's namesake!! |
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| One highlight of the museum was "Blue Babe", a 36,000 year old steppe bison mummy found here in Fairbanks area. |
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| State's largest public display of gold complements exhibits on the history and techniques of gold mining from the earliest years to the present. Here is a collection of gold gravels of different grain size. |
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One of many, many exquisite paintings by Alaskan artists in the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery presenting 2000 years of Alaska art. This painting was called "Sourdough Breakfast".
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| Astoundingly beautiful Athabascan hide and bead garment. |
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| Displays of ancient ivory carvings, coiled grass baskets and other native works of antiquity are displayed side-by-side with modern pieces |
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| Musk ox at the University of Alaska Large Animal Research Station. We had a guided tour of their herds of musk oxen, reindeer and caribou. Learned a lot!! |
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| Guess which is which...reindeer and caribou |
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Kathy enjoys viewing one of the famous Alaskan cabbages at University Botanical Garden
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And then came Denali National Park. What can I say about Denali??? Six million acres of protected wilderness crowned by the highest mountain peak in North America, Mt. McKinley, at 20,322 feet. One of Jimmy Carter’s last accomplishments as president in 1980 was to sign into law the Wilderness Act, which redrew the boundaries of the existing park, tripling its size so as to encompass entire watersheds and the home ranges of wildlife populations within it. Denali National Park and Preserve is beautiful beyond belief and a great deal of effort is put into keeping it naturally beautiful! Unlike other national parks, one cannot drive one’s automobile in Denali, except for the first 12 of a 92 mile gravel road that runs east to west in the northern section of the park, or to have, as we did, reservations to stay at a small campground 30 miles in the park’s interior. In that case, one is allowed a single drive into the campground at the start of one’s reservation, and a single drive out at the end of one’s reservation, and one must stay at the campground a minimum of three days—we stayed seven. All transport of people is otherwise by shuttle bus, and very stripped-down school bus type busses these are! The 92 mile road is quite narrow and rough, and winds up, down, and between mountains, over streams, across vast plateaus, and along the very edge of steep cliffs. The drivers of these busses stop to allow passengers to look at all wildlife they encounter en route—grizzly bears, caribou, moose, dall sheep, ptarmigan, marmots, ground squirrels. It takes eleven hours, minimum, to ride the bus from the east to the west end of the road. If this does not sound like fun—you are right! We made up our minds to get off the busses as much as possible and hike and hike and hike instead! Problem. No trails!! Because trails leave their “mark” in the wilderness, the park has decided not to allow them, and instead, people who wish to hike in Denali are to hike in a dispersed manner, leaving no trace! The expectation is to simply ask the bus driver to drop you off anywhere you say and there you are left alone to explore the most enormous wilderness you can imagine! Then when one has had enough hiking, go back to the road and flag down a bus, again, anywhere, for a ride back. What a concept! It took awhile for us to get our heads around it, but with the help of rangers who took eleven people—and only eleven—out into the wilderness every day, we began to get the hang of it. The hikes we took with them were incredible, beautiful, challenging, and because rangers also know a lot about flora and fauna and geology and fossils, they were very educational! They called them “Discovery Hikes” and indeed, they were that! One day the two of us just took off by ourselves on a hike, however, and it was an amazing feeling to be in an unknown wilderness so vast as this, all alone. We will never forget it!
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| Looking for Denali....will we be among the lucky 30% of visitors to Denali Park to get to see "the mountain"? |
So after our magical time in Denali came a stop for a few days in Anchorage! Microbrews again! World class museums again!
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| Silver Gulch Brewery in Fairbanks |
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| Also Fairbanks |
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| Last Frontier near Anchorage |
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| What fun! |
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| Anchorage Museau was world class |
But sprawling as it does with all the usual big box stores and malls, and a population of 296,000, our experience in Anchorage was not of the quality we had in Fairbanks, so we were ready to move on after just a few days, completing the "Denali sandwich". This Alaska is just too wonderful for words, and we are so grateful to be retired and have time to explore as much as we have! Grateful, too, to have had Jim and Kathy with us to share these amazing experiences. They are leaving us now, here in Anchorage, heading home to Tennessee. We have benefited greatly from their knowledge of this state from previous travels here. We will miss traveling with them and wish them well on their journey home!
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| Fairwell to our dear family and fellow travelers |
Next stop is the Kenai Peninsula in what is called south central Alaska. Back to the land of salmon-fishing and glaciers and the ocean. We’re up for it!
Wonderful! Still reading your postings. Still really envious of your amazing trip.
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