Wednesday—Friday June 25-27, 2014
The 2,204 mile/3,547 kilometer trip to Fairbanks was via Seattle. We arrived at Fairbanks Airport in the afternoon on Wednesday. Our computer reported that the sun will set about 12:30 am on Thursday!
On Thursday morning, we drove south towards the entrance to Denali National Park. The highway runs close to the Alaska Railroad, and when we got to the town of Nenana, we came upon a passenger train running next to us.
We got off the highway and drove down into the town. The train had to cover a big loop before coming into the town, giving us time to find the railroad depot. Which had a monument we didn’t know about.
Here is a map of the first part of our trip. The train pin is at Nenana Depot.
We started in Fairbanks and are going to Seward, which is the same route followed by the Alaska Railroad! 59 miles to Fairbanks, 411 miles to Seward. Here is the depot, and the monument is in the second photo.
The monument has a gold spike, and it says, “First Presidential Visit President Warren G. Harding, First U.S. President to visit Alaska, traveled here to pound the golden spike signalling completion of the Alaska Railroad from tidewater to the interior on July 15, 1923.” Who knew?
President Harding’s trip didn’t end well for him, as he died in San Francisco on the way back to Washington, DC.
Here’s the passenger train pulling past the Depot.
It is cloudy, which doesn’t bode well for seeing Mt McKinley. The entrance to the National Park is on the map, where the blue and red lines meet. Enlarging the map a few clicks will show the park headquarters. We stayed nearby.
During the afternoon, we we took a short bus ride to where a ranger was going to give a talk about Alaskan husky dogs.
Up until the early 1950s, the dogs were used to pull cargo sleds in the winter. The park service decided to get rid of dogs in the 1950s and use cars equipped to operate in snow and ice. That experiment lasted two years, as the cars didn’t do well at minus 40 degrees! The dogs were brought back. Cars would not be allowed now, as it is a wilderness area.
They are a special type of dog, according to the ranger. Not only can they pull heavy loads a long way in freezing weather, they also have to be friendly with people. We were able to walk around and see many of the dogs. They really were friendly!
At one point, a ranger hooked up seven huskies to a sled and drove it around for the visitors. Here are the back three dogs. The one in the rear weighs 100 pounds/45kg.
The head ranger was asked how long they could pull a heavy sled at a steady 15 miles per hour. “Until they drop dead,” he said. The dogs like the work so much that the sled drivers have strict time limits for each team of huskies.
After the dog demonstration, we drove around in the small area where cars are allowed. Despite the clouds, it is a beautiful place.
Back at the park’s headquarters, we set out on a few hikes. Here is a sign that caught our attention!
Some hikers talked a lot and others had little bells on their backpacks—the idea is to let the bears know in advance that a human is coming. A surprised bear is not friendly.
Here’s another picture of one of the trails.
The next morning at 2 am, a freight train rumbled past our motel. Which led to looking outside and seeing that it was light enough to read a book outside. Sunrise is at 3:15 am.
On our second day in the park we took a tour 60 miles towards Mt McKinley in a converted school bus. The trip was scheduled to take about 8 hours, in and back out to the park headquarters. It was raining, but we went anyway, on the hope the sky would clear.
There were a lot of pictures that would have been great, if it wasn’t raining! Here is a Dall sheep.
We saw quite a few caribou. We learned that when domesticated, they are known as reindeer. We did see grizzly bears and a moose, but they were too far away for a good photo (given the rain).
A small visitor’s center at Eielson is at bus pin on the map. We were supposed to eat lunch there and then return to the park headquarters, but a construction accident had closed the road (fortunately we were at the visitor’s center and not, like some, out on the highway stuck in a damp bus with no restroom). We spent a couple of hours at Eielson watching the rain before the road was cleared and we road back to the park headquarters. The view of Mt McKinley from Eielson is supposed to be fantastic.
The scenery was remarkable, even with the rain.
The start of our route tomorrow is marked in red on the map.
After we landed at Fairbanks, we rented a car and drove south to Denali National Park to see bears and Mt McKinley.
Next—A long drive south through Anchorage to the village of Girdwood on Turnagain Arm.