Archives for 2014

With Denali checked off the list, we decided to head back to our favorite place so far, Talkeetna, and take the Hurricane Turn train, which had been our original plan for last Thursday, but we scrapped when the clear skies drew us to K2 aviation instead. On our drive down, we were about 50 or 60 miles south of the National Park when we turned a corner, and there she was!! Denali (aka Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North American) as clear as we'd ever seen it, absolutely gorgeous!! Starting to get spoiled seeing it so many times, so clearly, since only about 30% that visit ever get to see it, and now we've seen it more than once! We pulled off on several occasions to get good pictures, and the trip was made even more gorgeous because of the beautiful weather. As we got further south, though, it clouded up again, and the mountain was again obscured. Definitely have to take advantage whenever it comes out! We left Denali early so that we could make the train, and got there with a little time to spare. They gave us a permit to park the RV, which they said was good until tomorrow morning, so we decided we would probably just stay the night there, and before we knew it, we were off and running! ANOTHER great day, with unplanned stops all along the way, as this train is one of the last flag stop trains in North America, meaning that in order to catch it, all you have to do is stand by the edge of the tracks and flag the train down! It still services many old homesteaders in the area, and takes many hunters, fishermen, and even rafters up river for a few hours, a few days, or whatever, and they either float down the river or pick up the river on the return trip. Beautiful scenery once again, though we didn't see much wildlife, and the trip back wasn't as leisurely as normal, as one fisherman we had dropped off was suffering from chest pains when we picked him up, so we pretty much had to head straight back to the terminal, with just a few flag stops along the way. We had some interesting chats with the Conductor, though, even delving a little into the taboo subject of politics, and overall had a very good time. Check another one off the list! We opted instead of getting off at the depot to stay on the train until it backed up into town, then had dinner at a little pub behind the main general store that was having a Friday night special, a half pound burger, fries and a beer for $6.95, can't beat that! Then I persuaded Hubby to walk with me down to the edge of the river, where we were rewarded with a gradually clearing view of Denali, as the sun was setting, and got into a conversation with a couple from Oregon, I think, and we were literally there standing on the beach until 11:00! It gets dark so late here, that was just about when twilight was fading! Finally we walked back the half mile or so to the depot, where we spent the night, with only a couple of freight trains going through to disturb us before it quieted down for the rest of the night. Another GREAT day in (still) our favorite place in Alaska!

Decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity to see the other sights of Denali, so we started out by going to the visitor center and catching a bus to their Dog Kennel, where we watched yet another demonstration of how much sled dogs love their work. This time, it was a pretty laid back session, with the dogs only going on short run around the track before stopping for a photo op in front of the crowd. This was preceded by a short presentation by one of the young female rangers, and the dogs were obviously not racing dogs, but rather heavier pack dogs, more Malamute types. Didn't learn anything really new, but it's always fun to see what kind of digs the dogs have, and to see the 3-week old puppy curled up with Mama. After we got back, we decided we had to see Denali Central, which is really just a row of retail shops set up along the main highway, but Hubby had seen a Fish and Chips shop the other day, which got him in the mood. We also wanted to get into one of the two musical revues they perform here, but one, Cabin Nite, would only let us in for both the meal and the show, but their menu wasn't suitable, and we didn't need that much food, so we passed. The Denali Music Revue, however, let us in their 5:30 show after dinner was served, and didn't even charge us because they had a whole table of no shows, and didn't seem to mind slipping us in (though they had told us the show only was $15 each, which we would have paid), so we saw the show for free. The show was okay, nothing to write home about, not as good as the one in Fairbanks, but typical community theatre level work with a show designed to educate. By now, we've done enough homework where there wasn't really anything new for us, but I'm sure many of the tour folks hadn't heard it all yet, so I guess they were entertained. In any event, we had our fish and chips (actually a sample of fried salmon, which I wouldn't recommend, fried halibut, which seems a waste of really nice fish, and cod, the standard and excellent fish for the purpose), and we had our musical revue, so our trip to Denali was all but complete. We got back to the campground around 8:30, and I took a walk, discovering a great and historical trail down to the original site of the Savage River Campground, with placards once again describing the history of the place, with photos of how it looked in the 20's and 30's, really a tent city. Beautiful views of the mountain range, though non of Denali itself, being the elusive and shy mountain that it is. Once I got back to camp, another quiet evening, very nice!

Up bright and early, a quick bowl of cereal before heading out to the bus stop at about 6:30. Our bus arrived a little after 7:00 (and was far from the first bus, numerous Tundra Wilderness buses came by first), and we loaded up onto an old but refurbished (or at least repainted) school bus. The driver got us a couple of lunch sacks, which also had a bunch of snacks in them to get us through the day, and we headed out, the bus only about half full. First order of business was to start spotting wildlife, and did we ever! During the first few hours, we saw Dahl sheep (well, white spots on the side of the mountain that we were told were Dahl sheep : -), caribou, a rare red fox (the woman at the Nature Center later told me she has worked here for 5 or 6 years and never seen one!), grizzlies and ground squirrels. We made several bio stops along the way, and munched our turkey wraps after the Nature Center. Finally we reached the end of the line, Mile Marker 92, which is as far as the road goes. Along the way, we had picked up a ranger who proceeded to fill us in on all the history of the town of Kantishna, and in particular a resident names Fanny Quigley, who sounded like a real character, but whose mark on the place is still evident today. There are a couple of wilderness lodges out there, and a busy airstrip that houses the Kantishna Air Taxi, and was evidently quite a popular place, as two planes landed in just the time we were there, which wasn't long. It was interesting history, but we really didn't need a ranger to walk us through it, so we found that part of the trip a little tedious. Back on the bus, and the trip back was even more wildlife, with lots of bears, including a mama grizzly and her two two-year old cubs, who walked right across the road in front of a bus that was parked in front of us, then up the side of a hill right next to us. More grizzlies were in a ravine below us at another stop, and I spotted a HUGE caribou with a giant rack which the driver stopped for. FINALLY, we saw some moose, the elusive moose I've been searching for ever since we arrived. We only saw females and a few babies, though, no big bull moose, but we saw plenty of those. It was a great day, everything we had hoped for! Except, of course, the elusive Mt. McKinley never peeped out of it's cloud coat, remaining hidden throughout the day, as it apparently does most of the time. Thank goodness we did the K-2 flightseeing last week! Arrived back at the campground bus stop around 5:00, and we had a nice dinner and settled down for the night.

Before we left Fairbanks, we wanted to get a look at the famous TransAlaska pipeline, the one that goes all the way from Prudhoe Bay above the Arctic Circle to Prince William Sound in the south. We headed up the main highway until we came to a pullout around 8 miles out of town, where you had access to the pipeline. We were able to walk all around it, and read about some of the amazing effort it took to build it. Quite fascinating, actually. So, with Fairbanks accomplished we headed south for one of the shorter legs of our journey, to Denali National Park. I had already made reservations at the Savage River Campground, which is the farthest RV campground that you can drive in and out of (though there is one further back, once you're there, you're limited to park transportation until you leave again), and we had no problems checking in, filling with water, getting our tour tickets for the Kantishna Experience, and getting out to and settled into our campsite. We had a little problem trying to get them to pick us up at the bus stop by the campsite, though, for some reason they were trying to insist that we drive all the way back in to the Wilderness Access Center, just so that we could take a bus right back out past the campground again! It took several phone calls and numerous managers before we finally managed to persuade them that picking us up was more logical, not to mention more environmentally friendly, than driving 40 miles round trip just to end up in the same place. That solved, we headed out to the campground, and though sites weren't assigned, we only had a couple of choices that were open, so we found a nice one and moved in. We had a pleasant and quiet evening, with no particular plans other than to get a good night sleep, as our bus would be picking us up around 6:45-7:00. Good night!

Made arrangements to meet a tour bus at the Convention Center, and, after picking up an interesting couple at a local hotel, we headed out to Chena Hot Springs, a resort, campground, bio-energy plant with an ice-house and a full selection of pools and spas, indoor and out. We had a pleasant conversation with the couple, who were South African but had been living in Perth, Australia, him as a mining engineer and her as a teacher. We all took the ice house tour, which is really a gallery of exquisite ice carvings done by two resident (married) artists, including a couple of ice bedrooms for those adventurous enough to stay overnight on a caribou quilt. We also took the bio-energy plant tour and learned how the facility is trying to become geo-thermally independent, helping to design a prototype that may one day be a viable option for energy. After that, we headed to the locker rooms, and spent an enjoyable 90 + minutes in the outdoor spa, where the geothermal water (at 165 degrees) is mixed with creek water to a temperate 105-110 degrees. It was wonderful! We enjoyed the water, and the company, and the conversation, until I'm sure our driver was afraid we'd never leave! We finally headed out, keeping our eyes peeled for moose, which our driver said they saw on nearly EVERY trip, but, alas, this was one where we never did see one. Darn it, still haven't seen a moose yet! We were dropped off back at the Convention Center, and headed down to Pioneer Park, where we enjoyed a crepe (not your usual crepe, these were more like calzone with a lighter crust) before heading down to the Palace Theatre (what else?) They put on a very funny show that had us laughing out loud many times, making it better than average tourist fare. Cute stories told by a cast of five (two guys, two girls and a male pianist) who seemed to be having as much fun as the audience. Broad and melodramatic, of course, but fun nevertheless. The show ran a bit more than an hour, and we were so relaxed from the day, we had no trouble sleeping well, despite it being in the parking lot. In hindsight, we would have driven out to Chena ourselves, as the day pass is only about $15, so the $165 each we paid was mostly inflated transportation costs. Another valuable lesson learned!

Caught the shuttle out to the riverboat launch, which, as we've noticed the pattern here, was quite early, to give you plenty of time to spend in their gift shop (whether you want to or not). We sat around for an hour, helping ourselves to free coffee and browsing until we finally boarded the sternwheeler. The narrator was a local radio guy, and he told a number of fun stories, and though the ride itself was pretty bland and short, the stops along the way were interesting, albeit standard tourist fare. Just after heading out, we had a seaplane demonstrate a couple of landings on the water right next to the boat, and a conversation with the pilot by remote. The next stop was at Susan Butcher's kennel, where we saw the dogs hitched to a sled and run around on a track. Her story was very inspiring, being the first woman to ever win the Iditarod (every town in Alaska seems to have a champion, and they are definitely the home town heroes!), before succumbing to cancer years later. I have to stay that it was intriguing to see the different strategies for dog training. While Seavey's was all business and seemingly no play, these dogs were let off the harness as soon as their demo was finished, and allowed to run free around the yard and down to the river, where they all splashed around for awhile. They seemed a lot happier than at Seavey's, more like family dogs that worked rather than simply working dogs. We both liked that a lot. We also saw a fish wheel where, instead of being counted by scientists, they were caught and shunted into a box, so the indigenous people could use them, preserve them, and generally survive in the way they have done for generations. That was combined with a demonstration of how they were cut and smoked and generally used. We got a history of the river and some other interesting facts, before eventually making our way back to the landing, passing by numerous, very well appointed homes, as one would expect in any city on a river in America. We picked up the shuttle and asked about going to Pioneer Park, but was told they didn't stop there, which was a surprise to me, as I was sure I read on their website that they went there. Instead, we had to go back to the campground and pack up the RV and drive over there ourselves. We walked around Pioneer Park, which an odd combination of museum, amusement park and playground. There is an old sternwheeler grounded in the middle that is now a museum, with some of the best dioramas I have every seen, with details so incredible, they actually look real in my photos. Many of the buildings are original log cabins that used to be in downtown Fairbanks and moved to Pioneer Park, and are now used as local retail outlets for food, clothing, and arts and crafts, There is an old train that circles the park, an area that's supposed to be a replica of a gold dredge, and a picnic area that offers a salmon bake buffet for the unreasonable price of about $65 per person. An air museum in a geodesic dome also offers some interesting history of avionics in Alaska and beyond, so we had plenty to do for the rest of the day. We discovered they let you park overnight for $12, so we revised our plans a bit, and decided to leave the RV park tomorrow, take a tour out to Chena Hot Springs about 60 miles away, then come back and see a musical revue they do at Pioneer Park, then spend the night there before heading south. A fabulous, fun-filled day!

After breakfast, we headed north, with a long journey today, all the way to Fairbanks. We had a reservation at a local RV park, primarily because we needed to do laundry, and because they're website indicated they had a free shuttle to most of the sights we wanted to see. It was a beautiful drive, with incredible scenery once again, but cloudy and mostly raining until we got near Fairbanks, so no Denali sightings today. Arrived by mid-afternoon, got a little turned around thanks to a misunderstanding with my GPS, but arrived safely at a place right along the river that goes through the city. Had dinner and did laundry for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately, their change machine didn't take "new" $5 bills, and the only other bill I had was a $20, so I ended up with WAY more change than I anticipated. They charged a lot for their laundry, though, so in retrospect, I would have parked at Walmart and found a laundromat, it wasn't worth the expense. Plus, we had to change spots once, because the family next door was kind of encroaching on our spot, and had noisy kids and rowdy drinking buddies hanging around, and kept a campfire going, despite rules to the contrary. We had planned to stay for three nights, but now we are reconsidering. Kind of noisy right be a major road, too. Miss being out in the woods!

Today's adventure started out at Mahays Jet Boat Tour building, one of the first you see when you drive into town. I had asked yesterday where to park the RV and they were quite happy to let me park it right out front, very convenient. Their big bus had broken down, so we had to be shuttled over to the dock in two vans over several trips, but it was so close by it didn't take long (had I know, we would have walked!) We loaded up into their fully enclosed jet boat, a fascinating vehicle powered by three 454 engines, with speeds up to about 45 miles an hour, especially when going downstream. Fully loaded (with about 60+ people), we headed upstream at a speedy 35 mph, gaining about 10 feet of elevation every mile, so you can imagine how fast the current was going! We stopped for wildlife a few times on the way, spotting a bear by the shore, and several bald eagles, as well as to check out a number of fish wheels, devices designed to catch salmon so scientists could count them to insure continuation of the species. After about 90 minutes of pleasant river boating, we finally reached Devil's Canyon, so named because of how treacherous the water was. In fact, the original Mahay is only one of two people who have every successfully jet boated (or any kind of boated for that matter) all the way into the canyon. (What we found out later was he wrecked 11 boats before the 12th one finally made it.) We traversed up Class IV, and then Class V rapids, until we reached a large set of rocks, where beyond lay Class VI (the most dangerous) just beyond. Our driver Israel (who we found out later was the owner's son, though he humbly didn't mention it) tucked the nose of the boat just below the biggest rock, and somehow, with engines revving, kept it there for over 20 minutes, with front windows open, while everyone in the boat had a chance to take their pictures and videos of the raging torrent behind them. It was an amazing rush! The power of the water was like being at the base of Niagara Falls, but we were right on top of it! Eventually, with great care, Israel turned us around practically in situ, though I'm not sure how. He said he used to just back up a ways till he got the hang of managing the waves carefully enough to turn around. Incredible. Then we raced down the river like a roller coaster, bouncing up and down on the waves as if we were white-water rafting without the work of oars, and with the additional speed of the boat, we were up to nearly 45 miles an hour! Whoo hoo!! Eventually the river slowed down (though the boat didn't), and we raced back down the river until we reached a replicate of an Athabascan fishing camp (the local indigenous people), and got out for a tour around the camp, a nice peaceful nature walk which was an amazing juxtaposition to the thrill of the ride. After spending a half hour or so there, we loaded back up into the boat and headed back to Talkeetna. From there, we decided to walk through the town rather than take the bus, stopping off to have a beer at the famous Fairview Inn, then decided to stick around for a show at the Sheldon Hanger Theatre, where there was a show called the "Iditaprov," and improvisation show put on by some locals. Not quite the kind of improv we're used to, but it was very entertaining and we did laugh a lot, albeit an amateur production. Lots of fun. Afterward, we headed out to our little turnout outside of town again, anticipating another good night's sleep.

Had a decent night at this fairly quiet pull-out, though we weren't exactly level, we were fairly sheltered from the road. Headed back to town around 9:30 to see about tickets for the Hurricane Turn flag stop train (which we learned about on Trip Advisor), but as we came over the brow of the hill, we noticed a bunch of cars parked in a scenic view off to the left, and in moments, we knew why. Despite the fact that it was cloudy overhead in Talkeetna, off in the the distance, the mountain range, including Denali (Mt. McKinley) was absolutely clear as a bell. The clouds were moving from the south fast, so immediately after going to the train depot and learning they didn't even open until 10:00, we headed straight for the airport, to K2 Flightseeing. Though we didn't have a reservation, they managed to get us on a flight that took us exactly where we wanted, around the entire summit, no glacier landing, leaving within 30 minutes, perfect! It did leave a little later, but we still managed to reach the mountain while it was still clear, and we worked our way around to the Wickersham Wall on the north side, just as the bank of clouds starting butting up against the south summit, it was gorgeous! What a fantastic ride! We came so close to the mountain, we felt like we could reach out and touch it! Our pilot was a former Cessna test pilot, and the plane was a larger twin engine (two engines always make me feel safer than one), and he did a fantastic job of weaving in and out of peaks and valleys, it was breathtaking. It will be very hard for anything after this to top this experience. Outstanding! We passed over several glaciers, and he pointed out all the highlights without getting overly chatty, we couldn't have asked for more. Worth every nickel! By the time we headed back, we ran into some rain, so our timing was absolutely perfect! Afterward we drove into town and spent a little time walking around, spending nearly two hours in the local historical museum (while other tourists raced around us... their loss) had a bite to eat and a beer at the Brewhouse, before eventually heading back out to a different overnight spot just a bit further out of town than the last one, but it's set back more off the road and has a better screen of trees in the front for more privacy, plus it was more level. A perfect day!