Tuesday Travels - Fairbanks Alaska

We left the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and headed for Fairbanks.  We stopped at a small town called Nenana on the way.  Our bus driver mentioned that there was a snack bar and a gift shop because it was against the law for a tour bus to stop somewhere without a gift shop!

I don't follow the Iditarod, but this town was a checkpoint for several races...

Nenana holds an Ice Classic and takes bets on when the ice in the river will thaw.  This tripod is frozen in the river and attached to a timeclock.  When the ice breaks up, the tripod moves and stops the timeclock.  They gets thousands of bets each year, and last years winner won over $300,000 dollars!

 

We finally made it to Fairbanks, ate lunch and then boarded a paddle boat for a cruise/tour.  Although it was showy, it was fun and educational!

They had a float plane take off and land near our boat so we could see it in action.  Most everyone in Alaska has a plane because that is the easiest and quickest way to get places. They will add skis to it in the winter time to land on snow. 

We stopped at an iditarod kennel to watch the dogs run a little.  Again, they don't like the weather right now, so they only ran a short distance for us. 

After their run, they cooled off in the very cold water!

Next we learned more about the Athabaskan way of life.  Here a lady is catching and cleaning salmon for drying.

This is our paddle boat...

This is a reindeer.  Athabaskans would have reindeer in their villages to provide transportation, meat and furs.  This reindeer still has the velvet on its antlers.  Antlers are shed each year and grow back larger.  The velvet is a skin that covers the antlers while they grow, providing nourishment.  Once the antlers are full grown, the skin will be shed.

An Athabaskan dress coat made of fur

Typical home

We met Susan Butcher's husband and bought copies of the book Granite which he signed.  Granite was an iditarod dog and champion.

That night, our hotel called and said the Northern Lights were visible, so we all went down to see them.  The photos don't do them justice.  It would have been nice if we could have gone somewhere really dark to see them, but we were in the parking lot of the hotel, so there were lights on.  It was still a wonderful experience! 

The next day, our flight wasn't until 9:45 pm, so we had another whole day.  I booked us a tour of the city.  We started off going to a migration field to see some birds.  The guide said during the main migration season, the field is filled with birds of all types!  I am not sure what these are...

Here are some Canadian Geese...

We went to North Pole, Alaska to meet Santa Claus.  We also saw his reindeer and shopped for Christmas ornaments.  The town embraced their Christmas theme and even the McDonalds had candy stripe poles!  For their senior project, the kids at the high school, respond to the letters written to Santa each year!

We went to a couple of museums and then to the Pipeline.  This was my favorite part of the day. The pipeline is an engineering marvel, and so many obstacles needed to be addressed for it to work.

The pipe is sitting on a support, but the support is not attached to the "H" .  The pipe can slide side to side and can bounce when earthquakes hit.  The "H" has a cooling system inside so the hot oil in the pipeline won't melt the permafrost under the ground.

When the pipeline goes under ground, it was a different cooling system to protect the permafrost.  The pipeline is flown over every day and inspected.  They also clean it out regularly to keep sludge for forming.  The pipeline is large enough for a person to enter, crouched down, of course!

There you have it...our trip to Alaska!  There are so many things I would like to go back and see again, and some new places I learned about on this trip and would like to visit.

Tuesday Travels - Denali National Park

We took a bus tour into Denali National Park.  There is one road going in, and it runs about 70 miles.  We went into the park only 40 miles, so there is a lot we didn't see.  I would like to go back and explore some more.

Beautiful sites...

We listened to talks from an Athabaskan man, and walked a trail looking for lichen and moss.  

We finally saw a couple of moose on the drive out of the park...not a great shot from inside the bus!

His friend on the other side of the road...

Finally caught the head up...

After the tour, we went to the visitor center and to the sled dog demonstration.  Denali is the only National Park with a working sled dog team.

The dogs were quite excited to see people, but they were hot.  The weather was about 60 degrees, but their ideal temperature is minus 10!

They were on chains because they had just been fed, and they need to make sure everyone eats only their food!  As cat people, we can't understand this at all :)

Here's Auntie with Cupcake.  In the summer, the dogs eat about 900 calories a day.  In the winter they eat 16-17 THOUSAND a day!

Here is a sled...the dogs love to run, and last year they each ran about 1400 miles.

The dogs ran a quick circle so we could watch them, then they had a reward.  You could tell how excited they were to run!

Learning all about the dogs and the work they do from a ranger.

This sign was in the visitors center...I'm not convinced :)

Next week - Fairbanks, our final stop.

Tuesday Travels - Whittier to Talkeetna

We had to be off the ship at 6am to catch our train, so it was an early morning!

One last view of our ship...she served us well for the past week.  We will miss you Coral Princess.

We boarded a train to Talkeetna.  It was a beautiful ride.  We were served lunch on board, given activities to do, and learned a lot about the areas we were passing through.

They were having a lot of wildfires in Alaska...here is an area that had recently burned.  Because most of Alaska is uninhabited, they do not worry as much about the fires.  Fires create new life, so unless they are threatening humans, they typically let them burn themselves out.

This is an eagles nest on top of a power pole.  When the state needed to put up new poles, the citizens were concerned about this nest.  Thankfully, the pole was left alone and the birds still live there today.

Our train ride ended in Talkeetna.  This town is about 3 blocks long down one street.  It didn't take us long to visit all the shops :)

There were several older looking homes...I'm not sure I'd want to stay here during the winter.  We didn't see a grocery store anywhere!

Painted Moose dotted the street...so cute!

Don't mess with the Moose...no parking!

Cute store...

We ventured down to the river and spotted Mt Denali.  It was a pretty clear day, so we were lucky to see the top of the peak.  Only about 30% of visitors see the top.

As we were heading to the bus area to catch the bus to our hotel, we found a place where you could hold baby bunnies.  Here's Auntie holding one.  It was a fun way to end the day in Talkeetna.

We stayed at the Mt McKinley Princess Lodge for one night. The lodges were just as fun as the ship.  There were hiking trails, shops, restaurants, and just beautifully manicured grounds...

We had time to do some hiking the following morning before catching our bus to Denali National Park.  Auntie and I found some large sunflowers.

Here is a view of the property from the Tree House.  There were many buildings you could stay in, and a shuttle bus that ran continuously so you could get to the restaurants and such.

This is Fire Weed.  It was blooming because we are nearing the end of summer.  It got it's name partially due to the red color, and also because it is the first plant to reappear after a fire.  We tried Fire Weed ice cream in Talkeetna, and I bought some Fire Weed honey to put on my yogurt.  It has a bit of a berry flavor, and is pretty good.

Another view of Denali from the lodge's back porch.  You could get on a list to be called when the top was present, which was a nice feature.  Thankfully, we saw it pretty much the whole time we were on the property.

The name of the mountain was changed to Denali from Mt McKinley in 2015.

Next week, Denali National Park...

Tuesday Travels - College Fjord

Today is our last day on the ship.  We have all enjoyed our time together.

This is our dinner group.  We loved hearing what each one did during the days, and what excursions were planned for the next day.  The family we sat with was from Michigan. 

Interesting sites again today...more glaciers and ice.

From Wikipedia "College Fjord is a fjord located in the northern sector of Prince William Sound in the U.S. state of Alaska. The fjord contains five tidewater glaciers (glaciers that terminate in water), five large valley glaciers, and dozens of smaller glaciers"

Also from Wikipedia, "Geographically speaking, a fjord is a  long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier."

This, and the remaining photos are all the Harvard Glacier.

Here a chunk just calved off into the sea...

This thing is HUGE...do you see the small boat?