North To Alaska

Well....well....well....on Thursday we took the 12 hour bus ride (my fanny is sore) and it was fabulous.  I did this because Tim really wanted to go.  I wasn't really looking forward to such a long bus ride, but I signed us up for the trip that goes 92 miles into the heart of Denali Park to Kantishna, turns around and heads back out.  This is a single lane, mostly, dirt/gravel road that goes through valleys, around the edges of mountains and across 2 small rivers on concrete crossing embankments.  Our destination was Kantishna, the name of a mining area that was a bit of a gold rush.  It didn't produce as much as lots of other gold rushes, but it did draw miners to the area.  Denali N.P. was established sometime around 1917 and was originally 2 million acres; but then in the 1980 thereabouts, the boundaries were extended and now it is some 6 million acres.  It was originally preserved because of the Dall sheep and was called Mt. McKinley N.P.  When it was extended the name was changed to Denali meaning "The high one" in the native Athabascan language.

In the actual park, you can dry camp at the last campground within the park itself located at the 25 +/- mile marker; but can not drive back and forth, you must take a school bus shuttle and leave your tow car, if pulling, at the visitor's center.  And, you can only camp at the interior campgrounds for 3 days max.

Just after we passed the last campground we began spotting wildlife.  The first were a few lone male caribou with huge racks.  Then we spotted a wolf trying to dig a red squirrel out of his burrow.  Then a mamma grizzly with 2 cubs.  That was just the beginning.  By the time we got back from the drive, we had seen over 18 caribou and 20 grizzlies; along with ptarmigans and a pair of Merlin Falcons watching their baby hunt and dall sheep.  We are thinking a couple of the grizzly sightings coming back were the same ones we saw going out.  But they were still lots of fun to watch.  Some were pretty close to the bus.  At one point someone at the rear of the bus saw a grizzly come running up out of a river embankment, moments later we all saw a very large grizzly going back up the other side of the embankment.  The driver thought the larger one was chasing the smaller one out of his territory.  One of the nice thing about taking this bus is that the driver is a naturalist and was full of information.  She also pointed out cabins where still today, the rangers use dog sleds going from cabin to cabin to traverse the park making sure everything is good.  They also do a lot by air.

The tour climbed up to a higher elevation and the cloud cover came in with fog and light drizzle.  Close to the end of the trip going into the Kantishna, we picked up a park ranger who rode with us telling us the history of the park and some stories about the people who lived here during the gold mining days.  At Kantishna, they have restored an old cabin that was used by Fanny Quiggly a gold miner, who loved to cook, hunt and prospect.  She was a character.  She was married twice, divorced twice, finishing her life in this one lonely cabin.  She was the first (or so they say) to figure out that if she dug down a few feet she would hit permafrost and it would keep perishable things either frozen or very cold.  She harvested berries in the summer and kept them in the  permafrost hold and they would keep all winter.  She was known all around as a great pie baker.

Also at Kantishna  are two or three lodges where you can either fly into or take a bus from the Park Headquarters.

We never did see Mt. McKinley but it was still a fun ride with outstanding scenery and lots of wildlife.

Tonight is the dinner/theater.  BTW, we woke up to 45 degrees this morning.....burrrrr!

Marsha~

Great report, Marsha.  You really made the trip come alive!

Margi

Ok, pictures.  Each one is labeled.  One thing I forgot to mention in the write-up was that a Ranger in one early spring had found the skeletons of two large moose.  They had fought and got their antlers entangled.  They both died and he carried both racks back for the Visitor's Center.

Some of the long distance pictures aren't as sharp as I had wanted.  If I had that new camera lens that I'm "lusting" after, the shots would have been much better.....hurry Christmas!

Marsha~

Cool story and Pics Marsha!  Just tell Tim that in Alaska, since it's so close to the North Pole that Christmas always comes in August!

Marsha/CA said:

Ok, pictures.  Each one is labeled.  One thing I forgot to mention in the write-up was that a Ranger in one early spring had found the skeletons of two large moose.  They had fought and got their antlers entangled.  They both died and he carried both racks back for the Visitor's Center.

Some of the long distance pictures aren't as sharp as I had wanted.  If I had that new camera lens that I'm "lusting" after, the shots would have been much better.....hurry Christmas!

Marsha~

Click to expand...

Loved the pics, especially the moose antlers.  Your "hearing aid" expression was great!  Thanks for making me laugh.

Thanks everyone.

Linda, I thought of you when we took off on that long bus ride.  If I'm remembering correctly it was you who had said something about missing a lot of the wildlife in Denali when you were here because of timing.  I was thinking early August would be too late.  However, all the locals are saying everything is about 3 weeks later than usual because of the colder/wetter weather than usual.

Re the ram horn in my ear.  My hearing has gotten much worse in the last year or so and my kids are telling me to get a "miracle ear".  Thus the picture. 

We really enjoyed the Kantishna trip we took in 2010.  We were very fortunate that we were able to see Denali and quite a bit of wildlife on the way in and out.  The bus ride is tiring, but since there are no crazy tourists jumping out of cars to take pictures and scare the animals, they seem to pay little attention to the a bus.  Our daughter flew up from Houston for a week and this trip was one we were able to do during her visit.  I think her being with us made it even better.

The rest of Denali N.P.

It was cool and cloudy but we braved the wind to take Charlie out for a quick walk.  Tim is trying to come down with a cold so we took it easy this afternoon.  The ?Cabin Nite? dinner theatre was actually lots of fun.  The food was good and served family style with ribs, salmon, corn, salad and barbeque baked beans.  The actors had great voices and sung many of the songs acapella (spelling).  The theme took place in Fanny Quigley?s cabin.  It was fun for Tim and I because we had been to Fanny?s cabin the previous day.  We had heard all the stories and tales of how she lived both summer and winter in the heart of Denali.  The play had a lot of slap stick and also audience participation.  At least this time, Tim did not get picked?.<whew>

Saturday we were supposed to go white water rafting.  Tim decided he wasn?t gonna go, so I went alone and had a great time.  It was a 4 hour event, but at least 1 of those hours involved getting suited up.  We were put in complete dry suit garb.  I had to squeeze my head through a rubber gasket type of thing along with my hands and feet.  Then the entire suit was zipped up from hip to opposite shoulder.  They stuck rubber gloves on my hands and a knit hat on my head.  We waddled out to the raft and slid into our positions. 

This was not float where I had to help paddle.  It was on a raft type catamaran and the guide did all the rowing.  We were given safety instructions and learned what certain hand signals meant so that if we did fall out, we would know what to do.  They also told us the water was 38 degrees and that we would be rafting over Class II and Class III rapids down through the canyon.  Oh joy!  The real story is that Tim and I had signed up for a leisurely float trip with no rapids; but since they only had a few people they asked if we wouldn?t mind going with the other group who were rafting.  We acquiesced and went along.  There were 5 rafts and we were the last raft.  It was actually fun, but as the water hit, it felt really cold; but then instantly wasn?t a problem.  The dry suit kept me completely dry and warm.  Near the end of the run, someone fell out of the boat in front of us.  Then we began to see others in that same boat slide into the water, grab hold of the ropes on the sides of the raft and float downstream.  They actually chose to go in.  Our guide asked if any of us wanted climb in and we all responded?.?NO?.  After being pulled out of my dry suit, I drove back to the campground to a sniffle-coughing husband. 

Sunday Morning we pulled out of the campground heading north to Fairbanks.  About an hour later, the sky cleared and it was big clouds and sunshine all the way to Fairbanks.    We didn?t really know what to expect in terms of the terrain, but began to climb rolling hills and deep green forest.  We didn?t see much tree damage from the Spruce Beetle as we have been seeing through Alaska.  We'll spend at least 4 days if not more here before we make the swing and begin our trip back South.

Marsha:

Fairbanks was one of our favorite stops up north, enjoy!

Outstanding Marsha, glad you were still able to take the rafting trip, even without Tim.  We have already headed south with the after burners on. We may be in Washington in the next few days...

Marsha, right now I really wish I was with you on this trip because these extreme heat conditions lately have been horrible. Lake Isabella is suppose to get up to 108 the next couple days so you know what that means for us here in Ridgecrest. Reading your posts help cool me down at least mentally and I have really enjoyed all your journeys and photos. Thanks for sharing your wonderful adventures.

You are SO BRAVE!  What a rafting trip!  (not on my bucket list ;-) lol)  We liked Fairbanks and could have stayed longer there was so much to do and see.
We are waving at you as we leave Skagway for Hyder today.  Hope you enjoy your Arctic Circle quest - can't wait to read about it.  I'm loving reading your blog.

Don, Jeff and Anna,  We LOVE Fairbanks and as everyone has said there is lots to do.  I'm finishing up my write up, but wanted to say that the Arctic circle was great.  It was a long ride, but we stopped along the way at some very interesting sites.....more later....   Hopefully I'll get it posted tonight.

Don, we have extended our trip just to get to the places we wanted to see.  Today, we are doing the museum at the University, then going back to the North Pole and to the "bowl" place to pick up a few gifts for some friends who are taking care of things at home.

Anna, when you were in Muncho Lake, what is the name of the campground you stayed?  We have had several people mention we should stop there.  I just wanted to make sure we could fit.

Marsha~

Fairbanks (August4, 2012 to August 11, 2012)

We settled in to our campsite at River?s Edge RV Park along the Chena River about 5 sites from the edge.  We are also close to a Fred Meyers and a Safeway store.  The Chena looks like a slow moving river, but it has strong undercurrents so there are warnings posted along the river?s edge.  We have 50 amp service, water, sewer and yippee?..cable TV.  Our air cards are working great so we also have internet.  This is great.  We?ve also checked the long range weather forecast and it?s supposed to be warm and sunny.

There is a lot to do here, more than we have time for.  We want to do the Arctic Circle drive/fly or fly/drive which ever you want; dinner cruise in a paddle wheel boat along the Chena River, go to the State Fair, visit the University of Alaska ?North? Museum and do some day drives outside of Fairbanks.  What to start with???  We think we'll extend our stay from 4 nights to 7.

The night we arrived, we found a dog park for Charlie, which he thoroughly appreciated.  He ran and played and had a ball. 
On Monday we drove to the North Pole, found the visitor?s center and looked for Santa.  He doesn?t work on Mondays, so we missed him.  However we did drive around the town on ?Mistletoe Lane?, ?Sugar Plum Drive? and several other cute Christmas names.  We also wrote a post card to our granddaughter and dropped it into Santa?s red bag to be mailed postmarked: The North Pole.

We then headed onto Chena Hot Springs, about 60 miles outside of Fairbanks.  Several people have mentioned that moose are everywhere, so on our ?great? moose quest, we take off.  We see several road signs warning of moose.  We slow down, peer into the dark woods and also along the side ditches, but we don?t see a one?..not a one.  Around the mid-point of the drive, we notice a car pulled off to the side, so we slow down and they begin to point out into a marshy area and by golly, there is a female moose.  We were thrilled, snapping pictures and having a great time.  We drive on into Chena Hot Springs.

Chena Hot Springs is a vacation resort area with different hot spring pools, a green house, a polar house and a restaurant.  We did not plan to go into the hot springs, we peeked into the green house and avoided the polar house.  The polar house is where you can experience the feeling of being in -40 degree weather.  We decided to pass on that, we?ve lived in Chicago.  We did however go into the restaurant.  It was fabulous.  All of the vegetables were grown in their green house, the flavors were excellent.  Tim had a seared tuna salad and I had a sesame chicken salad.  We both had clam chowder that was great.

On the way home, once again we drove slow, searching out moose in the woods, marshy areas and bogs.  We stumbled onto another female moose, tried to take a picture but it was too dark.

Tuesday, we laid low for most of the day with Tim trying to get over his cold and me beginning to get it; but then drove down to the dock and boarded our paddle wheel dinner cruise boat.  At first we weren?t sure of what we were getting into.  It was cold, rainy and only about half full of guests.  The cruise went up and back down the Chena River and was about 2 hours long.  They served salmon, prime rib, salad, potatoes au gratin, pasta salad and a vegetable.  It was all very good and it was fun watching the paddles pushing the boat, and viewing the houses along the shore line.  Oh forgot, they served rhubarb pie with ice cream?.oh my, my low carb diet is in trouble.

Wednesday, we did a drive around the outskirts of Fairbanks covering most of their freeways/expressways.  It is very easy to get around Fairbanks.  Did you know that if you look at a map of the city of Fairbanks that their expressways actually make an outline of a sled?  Have a look sometime and you?ll see it.  We drove out toward Fox which is really just a couple of buildings along the roadside, but on our return we stopped at an area where the Alyaskan Pipe line is there for you to look at.  There are signs explaining how it was built and other interesting data.  For example the pipeline is something like 800 miles long.  It goes both above the ground and below it.  Where it is above the ground is due to permafrost.  The pipeline also has support columns which removes the heat created by the pipeline so that it doesn?t melt the permafrost.  Where it goes underground there is no permafrost.  Tim was proud to read the P.E. (professional civil engineer) who designed the entire pipeline is a fellow alumnus from Purdue University. 
Before we got to Fox and the pipeline, we stumbled onto a farmer?s market.  Prices were very high, but getting fresh vegetables was worth it.  I got home grown tomatoes which are to die for.  We also picked up fresh onions, lettuce, cucumbers and LARGE rhubarb.  We noticed most of the produce was larger than we usually see.  We also drove past the fair, so now we know where that is.  That night we try to go to bed early as we are to meet the van for our drive/fly trip to the Arctic Circle.

Man how we hate to get up early, but we jumped up got ourselves together and out to the van by 4:30 am.  We drive to the air field, check in and load onto another van.  There was only one other couple with us a young medical doctor and his wife.  They are fun to be with and we begin our 8 hour drive due north on the Dalton Highway also called the ?Haul? road.  Trucks use this route exclusively from Fairbanks to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay.  They drive fast and hard.  It is almost all dirt, hard packed and somewhat narrow at some spots.  We see trees and more trees.  Our first stop was at a ?wayside? roadhouse that offered rolls, coffee and outhouses?.real outhouses.  The terrain doesn?t change much; we go up and down hills and the pipe line is following us all the way.  We make several other potty breaks and eventually reach the Yukon River crossing.  Here there is a cafeteria, a gas pump, rooms to rent and that?s about it.  At this point we pick up a hitch-hiker who wants to go from the Yukon River Crossing up to Coldfoot, our destination.  It seems everyone knows everyone else up here except us tourist.

There is a local native selling her wares out of a square box building with a blue tarp over the top.  She is selling wolverine hand bags, scarves, lynx slippers, brackets and other gadgets.  She comes up from down river where her family lives alongside the Yukon.  They live there all year long.  It amazes me.

Shortly we are on our way going further up the Dalton Highway.  We learn a little more about our guide.  She is the daughter of a Japanese hunter/trapper who also drives tour vans.  Nat, our guide, said she is still going to school and lives in what is called a dry cabin.  Apparently many people live in dry cabins according to her.  There is no running water, it is a one room house with a center stove to keep it warm.  She takes her showers and does her laundry at the University and only needs about 6-10 gallons of water per week.  She lives in her cabin all year round and loves it.
We make a couple more stops.  Close to the Arctic Circle we stop on a high bluff and it looks a lot like our California deserts except there is low green foliage.

On one stop she carries a spade, gloves, and handy wipes.  She finds her location, digs a hole, inserts a large plastic kitchen bag and we stick our hands into the hole.  We can feel the cold icy water and then hit the permafrost.  It is hard.  It?s also here where we pick wild blueberries, cranberries and search for crowberries, which are black.  We didn?t find any of those.  And we have not seen any wildlife.

We finally reach the Arctic Circle and the arctic latitude.  She pulls out a red carpet with a dotted line on it and places it in front of the Arctic Circle sign.  We are to step over the line and officially we are in the Arctic Circle.  It was fun, we laugh and she serves us chocolate mint brownies with whipped cream as a celebration.

Back in the van we go and travel close to 60 miles to the town of Coldfoot, AK.  It is a busy place; lots of trucks, several gas pumps, a large cafeteria, a post office, a campground with hookups and an airport.  As we begin to get on the plane, Nat, the tour guide hands us our official certificate of ?Arctic Crossing?.

The plane carries eight passengers.  The pilot is retired and used to fly for Hawaiian Airlines.  He is originally from Los Angeles.  He points out areas of interest, one being an isolated village with no roads in or out.  In the winter they use snow machines to get back and forth and to obtain supplies.  We look for migrating Caribou but don?t spot any.  He also dips his wing so we could see an abandoned gold mine.

We landed effortlessly; and Tim and I are completely bushed.  I have now begun coughing and his cold is now mine?<aaaarrrggg>
Friday, we get the laundry done and go to the State Fair in the late afternoon.  Their state fairs really interact with the schools.  The kids submit their science projects, do projects and items from girl scouts, boy scouts and even brownies troops.  Their items are fun and entertaining.  We visit the ag (agricultural) building and see a 62 lb cabbage with a blue ribbon.  And then we spot large zucchinis and other vegetables.  We continue visiting buildings and end up spending an hour or so in the quilt display where we voted on the best quilt and also bought raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt.  The first thing I asked is, ?if we win it will you ship it??  ?Of course?, they say.

We walked through all the ?easy up? tents for jewelry, dolls, scarves etc.  A hypnotist was doing an outside show so we watched as he hypnotized several young kids and made them do silly things.  We are still not sure it was real, but was fun anyway.
Saturday was a whirlwind day.  We drove back out to the North Pole to pick up some things we had seen earlier, then back to the Bowl store for more stuff.  Finally we get to the UofA Museum.  It was very good with a variety of items.  We even watched a movie on the Northern Lights and how folks live in the winter here in Fairbanks.

Tim and I both remarked how we feel we have really seen Alaska and experienced it.  It?s been a good trip and now we make the swing heading back leaving Sunday to Delta Junction or Tok depending on how we feel.  Before we leave though, we need a trip to the grocery as there is not much in Delta Junction or Tok for that matter.

Marsha & Tim,

So glad you are enjoying your trip. Now you know why I love Alaska so much. Your posts sure are making me homesick!

We pulled out of Fairbanks at oh, let's say 10:30 ish yesterday morning.    We hooked up the little car and drove over to the Fred Meyers store.  This is an excellent store; the produce was fresh, the meat looked great and they had everything we needed.  We fueled up at the "Sourdough Fuel" stop to the tune of $3.93 a gallon for diesel.  As we were finishing up both of us noticed some drips coming from under the front of the coach on the passenger side.  It has warmed up here and we had the dash A/C on so we both that it was just condensation dripping.  The drive to Delta Junction was all of about a 100 miles where we camped at a Alaska State Park called Delta State Recreation Site.  We had a great campsite; easy to get into.  Tim had noticed that we also had a leak in the campground even though we had not had the dash A/C running during the drive.  We were using the coach A/Cs; so now we were both wondering was was going on.  Tim pulled the generator out so he could get a better look and red liquid was dripping out from under what we thought was the heater core.  However it stopped when the engine was turned off.  It was in a very tight location and Tim could only see so much; so we went to bed not knowing what or if we had a problem.

Early this morning he called Tiffin and they confirmed it was probably the heater core and that we need to have a Freightliner Service facility check it out before driving any distance.  Often Tiffin puts in a switch so you can bypass the heating core.  Tim went out to see if we had the by-pass....nope...no such luck.  We looked up the phone number for freightliner which is only in Anchorage, gave them a call to find that they are booked up for the next two weeks.  Plus it would have been close to a 400 mile drive for us to get back to Anchorage.  What to do?  I decided it was worth it to see if there were any repair facilities in or near Delta Junction that could and would work on a motor home.  We called a place thinking they were a repair facility; but found they were only a parts store.  However they recommended "Interior Diesel".  We called; he said he worked on RVs; and yes he could look at it today.

We drove all of 5 miles to his shop located at the end of a "CarQuest" parts store.  There were old cars and junk completely surrounding the shop. And I wondered what in the heck had we gotten into, could they fix it, would they do more damage and on and on.  Long story short, we got there about 10:00 am and were back on the road at 12:30.  They found that the coolant tubes running into and out of the heater coil were worn out and the radiator clips were loose so it was slowly dripping coolant.  They put new hoses on, showed Tim how to bypass the heater core if needed and we were on our way.  We were ever so grateful to the "universe" for the quick fix .  It could have been a mess.

BTW, the drive from Fairbanks to Delta Junction then on to Tok was very nice.  The two lane roads are good.  When we pulled out of the campground going to the shop this morning, we saw a mountain range with mountains covered in snow....beautiful.

Tonight we are in Tok at the Three Bears Campground.  Not much, but electric, water and sewer for $22.75 and right across the street is Fast Eddies, which had fabulous pizza.  Tomorrow we are tackling the bad stretch of road between the Canadian Border and Haines Junction.  We don't like to travel far, but tomorrow we hope to do close to 300 miles just to get this overwith.  We have both agreed, if the road is really bad and we start to get tired, we'll pull over and finish the road the next day.

Marsha~

Pictures, the titles should be self-explanatory.

Marsha~

Congratulations on your successful repair Marsha.  It's a helpless feeling knowing that you are a long way from everywhere and might need some kind of service.  Good luck on the stretch of highway.  Just get an early start and take it easy. Long driving days are tough enough, but when you add in the bumps it can beat you up. 

Great pics, the "remote village from the air" is one that Diane will never see!!

Save travels, Marty

We left Tok, yesterday at 8 am planning to go all the way to Haines Junction, Yukon just under 300 miles.  It was a beautiful drive and the road was great until we crossed through the Canadian border.  I'm sorry to say the Canadian Border guard was to put it bluntly, a jerk.  I sure hope our US Border Agents aren't as abrasive.  Tim was real close to telling him off; but held his tongue.

Right after the checkpoint, we hit a horrible section of the road....all washboard.  Even the cats howled.  We crept along at 5-10 miles per hour and I was sure something was going to break loose in and outside the coach.  Finally about a mile or two later, we hit pavement.  Then it was frost heaves and uneven road; but not bad.  Somewhere after that we drove through a very long construction section that was all dirt, with a long delay.  It was sunny and no rain so all we had was dust....a lot of dust.  We kept the coach A/Cs running to help with it getting inside. 

Just outside of Haines Junction is where we were really dreading the road.  When we came through this area in late June, it was a horrible road with pot holes, deep ruts and lots of mud.  I'm glad to say that part has been repaired with chip-seal and is very good.

We decided to stay at Haines Juction in an RV park called Kluane RV park, it was nothing but a big parking lot; but an easy in and out.  They also had a RV/Car wash so we were able to get everything hosed off this morning. 

Except the road from Tok, everything else was really nice.  Since it was rainy when we did the drive the first time, it was nice to see mountains, valleys and rivers.  It's actually very beautiful.  Just after Destruction Bay a grizzly crossed the road right in front of us rushing to the other side.  He was much smaller than the ones we saw in Denali NP.

Tonight we are in Whitehorse at the Hi Country RV Park after driving a whopping 90 some miles with sunshine and warm temps.  It's great to sit out side and feel a bit like summer.  However the leaves are beginning to change, the sun's lighting looks like Fall and the air even smells like Fall/Winter is coming.  Even some of the campgrounds are beginning to close. 

Our plans are to spend a few days here then go on east on the Alaska Highway toward Tanglish/Caracross area where we will leave the coach and then drive down to Atlin with the tow car. 

Marsha~

Marsha:


It has been five years since we made the Alaska trip and the road between Haines Junction and Tok hasn't changed.