Lots to do

I think we have mentioned before how much there is to do in the area and we have been very busy the past few days.

Sunday morning we were washing clothes and relaxing around the RV when the RV park manager knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to go white-water rafting in 30 minutes (!!!). At first we weren't going to go since we were using 3 of the 4 washing machines. Then Tom insisted on staying to take care of the laundry and so Sally took off with 3 other workampers.

The Nenana River is a glacial river - very cold. We all had to wear dry suits. Even so, the cold of the water splashing on the suit can make you chilly. Fortunately the day was nice and sunny so were very comfortable. The trip involves several class II and III rapids. It was a lot of fun and very scenic. No pictures yet since I used a film camera and have to send it off for processing. Tom is hoping to get a chance to go soon - he will probably decide to take a swim in the 35 degree water - brr!

Monday, Tom sang at the open mic night at the Salmon Bake near Denali Park. It was a lot of fun and he sounded great. He sang several CCR favorites and two of his own compositions. As we left about 12:30 am, we noticed that the sky was very clear off to the southwest and thought we might be able to see Denali (Mt McKinley). Only about 20% of visitors actually see the mountain so we decided to take a chance, drive down the park road and see if we would be lucky - and we were! It was very quiet in the park; we only saw one other car. And the views were really neat. Note how light the picture of Denali is - that was taken without a flash at about 12:45 am. The mountain is in the center of the picture - it may be hard to see since the background was a little cloudy.

..........

The moon over Denali Park (1 am)............Denali Mountain at 1 am

Then Tuesday, we got the chance to go "flightseeing" to Denali (Mt McKinley). We rode in a 10 seater plane and it was the most exciting thing we have done so far on the trip. It was a bit cloudy on the way, but the views of the mountains and glaciers were spectacular. We even saw some climbers coming down off the summit. Words just are not adequate in situations like this..

Sally in the air

Denali above the clouds......and.... The Summit

A view of one of the glaciers and mountains

Thursday was the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. We stayed up past midnight again to celebrate. The sun set at 12:24 and rose again at 3:37. There has been 24 hours of daylight up here for several weeks - that will last till the end of July, I think.

Our next adventure will be a drive up past the Arctic Circle on our days off this weekend.

Stay tuned for more...

At Denali

We are "home" for the next two months - at Denali RV Park and Motel. The park is right next to the George Parks Highway (mile 245.1) which runs between Fairbanks and Anchorage. We're only 8 miles north of the park entrance.

This picture shows the RV park from a ridge right above. Tom and I are trying to hike the trail up the ridge daily to get in better shape for hiking in the park. At the same time, we get to see some beautiful scenery and a lot of real tiny tundra wildflowers. It's amazing how much grows up here.


The past week we've been settling in, enjoying the area and learning our new job. We have already worked one day and start for real on Wednesday.
We are really glad we decided on the Denali for our longest stay in Alaska. I don't think we will run out of things to do on our off days!

So far, we've been into the park almost every day this week:
--We checked out the visitor center the first day
-- We hiked the Taiga Trail in the visitor center area and drove out 15 miles on the park road (as far as you can go in a private vehicle)
-- We attended the sled dog demo

--We went to a ranger discussion about day hiking in Denali.

• The ranger explained that there are very few formal trails. The idea is to reduce damage to the fragile tundra by spreading out the usage across the park instead of concentrating the usage via a trail system. That's a different concept than we are used to and we welcomed an explanation of how to enjoy hiking in the area.

--Then Saturday, we rode the park shuttle bus out to the Toklat River. While we haven't seen Mt McKinley (Denali) yet, we did see the "big four" or wildlife viewing on our trip:

Grizzly bear


Moose


Dall Sheep


And Caribou (no good pictures this time)

We got to make a short hike up the Toklat River valley and plan to go back for a longer hike later this summer. Locals and summer workers can get a deal called a "six pack" - six tickets for the shuttle bus for only a few dollars more than a single trip. So you'll definitely see more pictures of the park over the next couple of months, plus more about other local attractions. We even hope to go flight-seeing and land on a glacier before our stay is over.


Happy hiking and stay tuned for more...

The End of the Alaska Highway

.............................
End of Alaska Highway..............And that's what our poor vehicles feel like
Another milestone - we finished the Alaska Highway. The official end of the highway is in Delta Junction, AK, about 100 miles west of Tok.

Before we moved west, though, we visited Chicken, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon.

Chicken started out as a Gold Rush camp. These days it is a very small community of miners and people who provide services for tourists driving from Dawson City to Tok. There one place there called Downtown Chicken - a souvenir store, liquor store, bar, gas station and cafe all in one building.


........


Tom at Chicken...............................................Original Miner Cabin



The original mining camp is still there - they offer a daily tour of the townsite. It was in use up till the late 60's. Earlier in the century people lived there year round. They dug up "paydirt" in the winter and "sluiced" out the gold in the spring. Later on, they shut down in the winter. One year, they packed up for the winter and the company that owned to claims just never went back to do any more mining. The gold is still there but it costs too much to mine and they can't make a profit. Many of the cabins and buildings are in pretty bad shape, but you can still go into some of them and get an appreciation for what it meant to live up there. If you want to know more about Chicken in the time period, there is a book called Tisha - a true story about a teacher who taught in the school in Chicken in 1927.



Dawson from the air....The Ferry.............Tom on Stage



Dawson City is another mining town - it was once the biggest city in the west of Canada, over 30,000 people lived there but the mining is very limited these days and the main industry is tourism. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit - Tom especially. We went to the show at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Saloon and Tom participated in one of the acts. As a prize for being a good sport he got to keep the dancing girl's garter. You guessed it - he had to take the garter off in order to keep it! Well, we have a garter souvenir.

.................On Top of the World .............

The drive back and forth from Chicken to Dawson is called "The Top of the World Highway". Not sure whether that's because it's so far north or because so much of it is above treeline. At any rate, the views were spectacular. The road was pretty good - mostly gravel but not too rough.

Reunion at Tok

After visiting Chicken and Dawson City, we stayed in Tok for an extra day in order to meet up with Warren and Carolyn. They worked with us last summer in Bethel and are going to work this summer down in Homer at the Fish and Wildlife Service Visitor Center. We had a nice visit and made plans to head down to Homer after we finish up our job in Healy.


Speaking of Healy, we are less than 150 miles from there right now. We're spending a few days in North Pole visiting museums and stocking up on "stuff" we'll need. Yes, that's right - the North Pole. We are parked right next to Santa Claus House.


See you!






Travel Log:

5/25 - Tok
5/26 - Chicken
5/27 - Dawson City
5/28 - Chicken
5/29 - 31 - Tok
6/1 - Delta Junction
6/2 - 6 - North Pole (Fairbanks)