Updates for July 26th, 27th and 28th.

July 26th

Slept in this morning than we headed for the Alaska Museum at the University of Alaska here in Fairbanks. It is a large, rather imposing, building high on a hill on the campus. One of those they spent $42 million on, but only got the usable space they could have got by spending $2 million. The museum itself was interesting. There were many artifacts on the history of the region, some of which we had been exposed to many times already. I really enjoyed the Indian beadwork and clothing and a film on the Aurora Borealis. The other film I really found informative was a film on the evacuation, during WWII, and the subsequent treatment of the Aleut natives that had lived there. They were treated no better than prisoners of war, but were our US citizens. They were relocated to the Juneau area to conditions that were deplorable.

Left the museum around noon with lunch at McDonalds after which we headed back the way we’d come down to Denali National Park. Arrived at the Park late afternoon to find the campground we wanted to get into was full. So made arrangements for the next eve, Friday, and found another nearby campground. We also went to the Visitor Center to get Dale’s golden age pass and then down to book a bus into the interior of the Park on Friday. You cannot drive your car more than 15 miles into the Park, so you have to take a bus, which is expensive. It is a convoluted set up and not well explained, so it is hard to figure out what you want to do. You can’t change your mind, as no refunds or changes. If you miss your bus, you are just out of luck. The whole set up is very frustrating and not user friendly. They really want to limit the people’s access and make them pay for what access they do get. With 6 million acres you would think they open it up a little more.

July 27th

This morning we got up early to make our 7:30 AM bus in to the interior. There was plenty of parking at the center where we caught the bus so that was easy. We were going to be gone about 6 hours, more or less, so had to pack snacks, water, cameras and coats. I didn’t pack enough food, so we were really hungry when we got back. Anyway, the bus was full and we were on our way. About a half hour into the trip there was a loud bang from the front of the bus. The driver pulled over and went to check the tires; he thought it might be a blown tire. Nope, not that, so he called his dispatcher and they sent out a mechanic. It turned out to be a clamp off a hose. The mechanic did bring out a tire in case that was what we needed and we were sure glad they didn’t put that tire on, as it looked completely wore out. While we waited an hour and half for all this to happen some of us got out and walked around. Had some nice talks with people from Colorado, Indiana, and Florida. One lady and I searched for the names of the wildflowers found along the banks of the road. Our driver had a book on Alaska wildflowers, so we enjoyed doing that.

Finally back on the road. We were headed for Eielson Visitors Center at milepost 66. That was as far as I was inclined to go and IF the weather permitted that was where we could see the mountain well. However, they don’t guarantee seeing the mountain, as there is only 30 % of the time it can be seen due to the weather conditions up there. They were right; we couldn’t see very far when we got there and diffidently not as far as the mountain.

On the way out we saw many caribou several with big horns, big horn sheep fairly close, and some grizzlies. The first grizzly we saw had 2 cubs with her and she was close enough to see without binoculars. Another grizzly just came marching down the road calm as could be right past our bus! Really exciting for most of the bus people. Saw two moose in the distance, but had to use the binoculars to even tell they were moose.

Got back, went to find our campsite, and fixed supper. Then took our laptops down to the camp store where they had WiFi and a nice covered deck with lots of outlets so we could charge as well as surf. There are no RV hookups at this campground and limited generator hours so we made use of their internet connections. I was really tired so didn’t stay long. I tried going to bed early, but couldn’t get to sleep. The days are so long here, about 18 hours, that when we’re ready for bed it is still light out. Even with all the curtains drawn it is still light in the camper!

July 28th.

Today we decided to just walk around, see the sled dog demonstration, and a couple of films. We hiked up to the Visitor center, about a mile and half. We checked out the museum there, watched a couple of films and ate lunch at the café there. From there we went to see the sled dog demo and while there we were given permission to visit with the dogs. The dogs are extremely people orientated, but it was warm today so they were all pretty listless, just lying in the shade. I managed to get a couple of them to respond to me, but the rest just laid there. Of course the ones who were responding to people got lots of attention from everyone in our group. The ranger giving the talk was very informative. She went over the history of the park and the use of the sled dogs during the winter months. They use sleds to take supplies out to the remote cabins, check on winter campers, etc. Then she used people and a clothesline to demonstrate the positioning of the dogs on their harnesses. Afterward they hooked up just 5 dogs to a sled for a short run. They are all eager to go and several made quite a fuss when the trainers went to get some to hook into harness! It would seem like they would use more dogs for this part of the program, as the dogs seemed to really like it.

We had planned on walking back down to the campground from there, but we spied a large ridge the trail had to go over when we were on the bus going up to the dog kennels and I knew that would not be good for me. So we rode the bus back down to the Visitor center and walked the rest of the way back to camp. It was in the 70s with a good breeze so it was very enjoyable. I walked about 4 miles today. After a nap and supper Dale took a hike over to a lake. It was a little more of a hill than he expected, but it was a nice trail. He hiked about 9 miles today.

After Dale got back from his hike we caught the last bus that goes the short 15 mile trip into the park. It was clear and we did get a good view of Mt McKinley, even though it is 73 miles away. We did not see any moose. They are redoing the culverts on that stretch of road and there are 105 in those 15 miles. Even though they have not replaced all of them yet, it seems like they have dug them all up and left rough spots in the road. So even the 15 miles of good paved road in the park, is not good and the rest of the road is gravel and much of it is one lane with pull outs for the buses to meet. We did not like that road much when it went over some of the mountains. In one place the driver said they could have made the road cheaper and better if they had followed the valley, but went up the mountain for the better view.