July 7, 2014 Denali, AK

Since we only had 130 mile to drive today, we didn't leave North Pole until 11 AM. The drive was uneventful – which is a good thing!!

We have noted before that the streams and rivers are running bank full. They still are. Not only that, but the ground water level has risen as well. There is water standing everywhere. Although the mosquitoes are not bad yet, we are glad we will not be here when the hatch occurs!!

We arrived at Denali around 2 PM, set up the trailer, and headed to Denali Natl Park. Vehicles inside the park are restricted to the first 14 miles of roadway. After that, you must ride an excursion bus. We obtained our tickets for tomorrow and drove the 14 miles. The Park is beautiful but in order to see Mt McKinley, you must ride the excursion bus.

At the turn-around, we were able to see 3 caribou grazing along the Savage River, but they were about ½ mile away. We did manage to get a photo.

On the way back to the RV Park, we stopped at a visitor village to do a little shopping and then stopped at the 49^th State Brewing Company for dinner. We had a great day!!

Sunday July 6, 2014 – North Pole, AK

We had a great day!!! No rush about anything for a change!! This morning we did our bi-weekly chores – laundry, cleaned the trailer, and generally spiffed up.

After lunch, we went to the Santa House at the North Pole (AK) - where Christmas lasts all year long. This is a large store and believe me VERY busy!! We spent the better part of 2 hours there. (Which I am reminded by Gayle that after the drive to the Arctic Circle I owed her that much time in a store of her choice :-) Gayle started her Christmas shopping with gust and zeal!! We also got to see some of Santa's reindeer.

In the late afternoon, we went to see the movie Tammy. It was humorous, but on a scale of 1-10, we rated it a 6. After the movie we re-visited Pikes Landing for dinner. Another great time. And of course, we went back to our newest best ice cream shop for a treat before returning to the RV Park at 8:30.

Tomorrow we head to Denali Nat'l Park and stay for a couple of days. We only have a 130 mile drive so it will not be an early start.

Saturday July 5, 2014 North Pole, AK

What a beautiful morning!! Here we are in the middle of Alaska – 57° and not a cloud in the sky. The forecast is 82 today and 84 tomorrow. Unfortunately, our A/C is not working. Oh well, the forecast for Monday is 68 and rain for the rest of the week.

We had a leisurely morning. I took the pickup to the car wash while Gayle got ready. We left at 11 for Fairbanks.

We had lunch at a Chena River-front restaurant – Pikes Landing. The seating was on a large deck built out and over the river bank. As I said yesterday, the rivers are at their seasonal high so the feeling was that we were right on the water. Our lunch and the ambiance was excellent.

After lunch we went to the Discovery Landing for a 3 hour cruise aboard the Discovery III stern wheeler passenger boat on the Chena River. When we arrived at the landing, there were 5 or 6 large Greyhound-type tour buses that had already unloaded their passengers – all of which were there for the cruise. We estimated there were 300 people on the cruise. However, the seating was very comfortable.

During the gold rush and for some time after, there were 250 stern wheelers carrying cargo from the Bering Sea, up the Yukon River system to many gold rush cities including Fairbanks. These boats can operate in very shallow water (39”) which makes them ideal for these rivers. The owners of the Discovery I recognized the demise of cargo boats in the 1950's and converted the boat to passenger boat. This operation grew to what is is today.

We left the landing and visited several sites including the importance of the bush planes to Alaska, the home of the 4-time winner of the Iditerod dog sled race (Susan Butcher), a re-created Indian village, and a small herd of reindeer (caribou). All in all, the cruise was every enjoyable.

After the cruise, we went to a place called Pioneer Park. This is a re-created gold rush town aptly named Alaskaland. The “town” has several shops and a carousel. They also have an outdoor salmon bake that included a salad bar, crab legs, halibut, prime rib, and dessert. This was an excellent meal!!

On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at a home made ice cream shop. A two scoop cup of mocha almond & coffee hit the spot!!

We arrived back at the RV park at 8:30. This was a fun-packed day and we are ready for a good nights sleep!!

Thursday, July 4, 2014 – North Pole, AK

As long as we are this far north, we decided we should drive further north to visit the Arctic Circle. This is just something you have to do. The location is about 200 miles north from Fairbanks.

We left at 10 AM and followed the Elliot Highway. About 10 miles out of town, we found a roadside access point for the 800 mile Alaska Pipeline. It is amazing that this pipeline was built by 70,000 workers in two years!! The pipe is 4' diameter and insulated as the crude oil is 100 degrees. The pile supports range in depth from 15' to 60' because of the permafrost. We saw portions of the pipeline for the next 4 hours.

We drove on another 70 miles where the Dalton Highway begins. This is the north slope haul road to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, where the pipeline begins. This is also the location where the pavement ends.

The next 120 miles, from this point north, had short sections of pavement,and gravel, but it was mostly unsurfaced. The unsurfaced roadway is treated with dust control and is regularly graded. (The grading process also includes watering, which makes a real mess of your vehicle.) Even at that, the roadway was riddled with soft spots and chuckholes (small to large). The further north we went the worse the road became. The steeper grades were 10%-12% both up and down.

At 134 miles, we crossed the Yukon River. We thought the Yukon was big at Dawson. Boy were we wrong. This river is HUGE. The bridge is about ¾ mile across and maybe 200' above the river. This is the “spring runoff” time of year. All of the streams are bank-full, including the Yukon. At this crossing, the river is probably ½ mile across and running very fast.

As we traveled along, we were able to see the pipeline at various locations, as well as other sites. We stopped at a rest area at a location called Finger Mountain. We are not sure how it got its name.

We arrived at Latitude 66° 33' – the Arctic Circle – at 2:30 PM. There is a BLM sign and roadside camping area for visitors. To our surprise, there were a bunch of people there. A 20 passenger tour bus, several motorcycles, and cars, of course. The camp host said they had greeted 130 people so far today. We took photos, got our official “Arctic Circle Crossing” certificate, ate lunch, and headed back at 4 PM.

We got back to town at 8:30. We were both exhausted and felt beat up from the rough roads. We had dinner and showered. By this time, it was 12:30 AM, but still pretty light outside. Gayle has hung towels over the windows of our bedroom to give us a little darkness.

What a great way to spend the 4^th of July!!! We had a good night of rest!!

Wednesday, July 3, 2014 – North Pole, AK

When we arrived at Chicken, we had to reset our clocks as Alaska is one hour behind the Pacific Zone.

Although the shadows were long, at 11:30 PM, the sun was still shining down on Chicken. When we went to bed, we had to hang a cover over the window to shut out the light.

Today we drove from Chicken, AK to North Pole (a town just east of Fairbanks). We anticipated a slow beginning – 80 miles of roadway similar to that we drove on yesterday plus 200 miles from Tok to Fairbanks. So...we decided to leave at 8 AM – we got up at 6 AM and were on the road by 7:45 – what a great beginning. Gayle finally got cell service in Tok, where she was able to talk with Heidi. During their conversation, they discussed the time difference from Mountain Zone – 1 hour??? Ooops!! Instead of moving the clock back from Pacific, I moved it forward. We were on the same time as Denver!! We actually left Chicken @ 5:15 Pacific. No wonder no one else was up and about!! We arrived in North Pole earlier than expected, too. Funny how that works. Our clocks are now on the correct zone :-). (Oh yah – about the sun at 11:30 last night – it was only 9:30. And we got up at 4.)

We were right about the first 80 miles. It took about 2½ . On the way, we were able to see Mt McKinley – from about 300 miles away. Even at that, it was awesome!!

The rest of the trip was interesting but routine. We saw 2 moose and we stopped at a local shop that has yard art constructed from burl wood. Very artistic, I must say!!

We arrived at the very well maintained Riverview RV Park. We will stay here for 4 nights before moving on to Denali. Tomorrow, we will visit the Arctic Circle – about 150 miles north of Fairbanks.

July 2, 2014 Chicken, Alaska

Yahoo!! We are back in the USA!! Happy to be here, too!!

Today we had a 107 mile drive to Chicken, AK via the Top of the World Highway. It was to be a little slow, but we were not in a big hurry. We left the RV park at 10:00 AM. We arrived at Dawson's Yukon River Crossing ferry at 10:05 to find that we were the 15^th RV in line to make the crossing for the Top of the World Highway.

We inched our way ahead as the ferry loaded cars, pickups, semi trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and RV's. I timed the ferry from the Dawson side over and back. 20 Minutes. Lets see, one RV every 20 minutes = about a 4 hr wait. Oh well!!

We disembarked the ferry at 1:00 PM (only 3 hrs wait :-) and headed out of the Yukon River valley towards Chicken. The road was paved (for about 4 miles) then it was gravel with dust control. Not bad. We were cruising at 35-40 mph. Hmmm... we should be in chicken in 2½ hours. NO SO!! The road condition went from fair to not-so-good and we encountered steep grades (both up and down) that required us to shift into 1^st gear and travel at 15-20 mph. Still not bad!!

The road did take us to the “Top of the World”. We had vistas that were absolutely amazing. We could see for 20-30 miles at times. The mountains and valleys were gorgeous. We stopped several times to take in the views.

At 70 miles into the journey, we reached the Canada/USA border. No problem – cruised right through with our Enhanced Drivers Licenses. I asked the guard about the road conditions from the station to Chicken. She said there was road construction for 13 miles (damn engineers!!) and that the surface was rough. The road surface was VERY rough and the grades were steep at times. Our speed dropped to 10-15 mph!! At 83 miles, we left the construction area and traveled an unsurfaced road that had soft spots, pot holes, and wash board. At times the roadway was narrow and the outside shoulders were soft (drop off of 100'-500') and had Gayle on the edge of her seat.

I failed to mention that we encountered rain showers (and one down pour) along the way. The roadway turned to a skim of mud that coated our pickup and trailer from the front bumper back. Maybe we will get more rain tomorrow and wash it off!!

We arrived at Chicken at 6PM (5 hrs) and were ready for the day to be over. There are 2 RV parks here and 3 restaurant - of which 2 of them closed at 7PM. We chose to dine at the one that is famous for their chicken pot pie. (What else would you eat in Chicken, AK?) The service was great and the microwave only took 3 minutes!! However, the pot pie was less than a scrumptious meal!! Of course, what would you expect for $14 bucks.

We returned to the trailer at 7:45, took showers and turned in for the night. (Night??? Did we mention that is doesn't get dark here this time of year??)

Tomorrow we will drive to North Pole, AK  (via Tok Jct.  About 280 miles. We plan to stay 4 days.

July 1, 2014 Dawson City, YT, Canada

Today is rainy and cool (60 F). We had a really laid back day. We started late and finished early.

We went into town (about 1 mile) to see the attractions. Upon arrival, we were reminded that July 1 is Canada Day (similar to our Independence Day). So we got to enjoy the Dawson parade which included the royalty, the RCMP color guard, every child with a bicycle, a cruise line tour bus, and the fire department (2 antiquated trucks and 2 new units). The parade lasted about 10 minutes. The kids were cute.

After the parade we milled around town and went to the ferry ramp to access the size of the Yukon River ferry. Looks like our unit will fit. The ferry runs nearly all day, is fare-free, and is the route for the Top of the World Highway to Chicken, AK.

On the way back to the RV park, we drove up the Klondike Highway east of Dawson. This was the major dredge mining district in the late 1890's. We saw miles and miles of dredge tailings and a few operating placer mines.

The rest of the day was perfect for R & R!!

Tomorrow we will drive 107 miles to Chicken..