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This starts our 4th week of our 2011 Alaskan adventure. This will cover the return to the ALCAN highway and on north toward Fairbanks. Our plans call for a few days at Fairbanks, but as it turned out we extended a few more days.
6/26/2011
We will miss the Haines AK area, because we had settled in Chilkoot State Park. We liked what we saw each day. Simply spectacular scenery and the abundance of wildlife makes this a must see.
So today becomes a travel day that over the next few days will take us 640 miles north along state highway 3 and the ALCAN highway 1, through Haines Junction, Kluane National Park and Preserve, Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing, Beaver Creek. All of these historic places are in the Yukon Territory. All of these places had their beginnings during the building of the Alaskan Highway. We will cross the border back into Alaska just north of Beaver Creek.
We found a really nice pullout on Kluane Lake and decided that was far enough for the day, therefore we would spend the night there. What a nice view of the lake and Soldier Summit.
6/27/2011
Today is a travel day that will take us to the Yukon Terrority and Alaska border. This was the day for bad road, over a hundred miles of it. Active construction caused many delays and then rain on top of that. We stopped at the Beaver Creek information and had a nice visit with the man in charge. Very nice and knowledge guy. We pushed on the 35 miles to the border and stopped for the night at the pull out under the border signs on the Canadian side. Good view of the border and all the signage.
6/28/2011
Today, after crossing north of Beaver Creek, we are back in Alaska and driving toward Delta Junction, the end of the Alaskan Highway, historic mile 1422. We spent an hour there visiting the museum and seeing the sights at the junction. Then we take state highway 2 due north to North Pole and Fairbanks. When we cross the border we lost the road construction, gained an hour time, and got cell phone service. We spent about 3 hours at North Pole having a late lunch and shopping at the gift shop. Just another 30 miles to Fairbanks where we will spend the rest of the week.
6/29/2011
We are in Fairbanks and have several days of activities planned. First we head for the University of Alaska Museum of the North at Fairbanks. This is a world class museum. We bought a Toursaver coupon book that gives us half price on several tourist adventures in Alaska, and the museum was one of them. We spent most of the day at the museum that also includes a botanical gardens and a wildlife research center.
6/29/2011
It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it. It would be a few hours before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today. Brad purchased a Sony camcorder so he could do some video recording along the way.
6/30/2011
Barbara and Beverly did some shopping at Fred Meyers and Brad and I did some work on the rigs. We met up with a friend of Brads that owns 600 storage units in Fairbanks. Ken and his wife Anna are also world wide game hunters and have a very nice trophy room that we were invited to see. Trophies from all around the world and many from Alaska also. After a nice visit in their lovely home, we went to eat prime rib at the Turtle Club.
6/31/2011
We are finding a lot more to do in Fairbanks than we planed, so it looks as if our stay will be extended a few days. More visiting around the campground and more places to go.
The girls decided that it was a good time to do the laundry. Here in Fairbanks you have to wait in line for the washing machines as this is a busy place.
7/01/2011
It is raining here so we are confined to our RV. We watch movies and do some card playing. Also a few trips to the Super Walmart.
It is time for tire rotation on the Suburban and I purchased the tires at Sams Club so that is the place that i will take it. It would be a few hours before they would finish so we had a few hours to shop at Sams. It is always costly when we go there and that was no different today.
7/02/2011
Ken and Anna come by our campsite and we visited with them for a time. It is raining again.
7/04/2011
July 4th is active in Fairbanks. We were planning on attending the 4th celebration at the town park. This is a large park called Pioneer Park. Instead, we decided to drive to the Arctic Circle. It is about 240 miles round trip for us and that will take all day. This historic road is called the Haul Road or Dalton Highway and is about 75 percent gravel. We get an early start so we can take our time with so many stops along the way. The name Haul road name was derived from the role it played in the 18 wheelers during construction of the pipeline. It is the road that follows the oil pipeline to Prudhoe Bay. AK. Common sites along the route are freight haulers, grizzly bear, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, musk ox, and many birds. It also home for many mosquitoes.
Services are few and far between along the Haul road, therefore we must be prepared before we start this adventure. We stopped at the Yukon crossing BLM visitor and enjoyed the visit with the host. Nice place.
Our day was long, but we are glad we made it to the Arctic Circle.
7/05/2011
This is the day that we visit Pioneer Park. It has a aviation museum of the planes that have been used in the building of Alaska. A lot of bush pilots and what they did in the early days. Many are called heroes because they did so much, some gave their life for the betterment of the small communities.
The park has also dry docked a restored stern-wheeler called the Nenana. She carried freight and passengers on the Nenana river and Yukon rivers in the '40 and '50s.
We spent most of the day at Pioneer Park. Very nice place and no entrance fee, so free is good.
7/06/2011
This is the day that Brad and Bev strike out for the El Dorado Gold Mine tour and the stern-wheeler Riverboat Discovery cruise down the Chena river. We did the same adventure in 2009 so we op out on this one. Nice, but costly.
Barbara and I spent the afternoon at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. This is a "five star" auto museum that showcases the best of the best before 1930. Truly an unbelievable auto museum. Many autos displayed are one of a kind and all are American made.
7/07/2011
Today is a travel day to Denali National Park, about 4 to 5 hours south on the Parks highway. On our way out of Fairbanks we again stopped at Sams for a few last minute items and fuel. Brad purchased a Sony video camera so he could record some video along the way.
We stopped along the way at the Nenana visitor center. We are actually a day ahead of our reservations in Riley Creek campground, we spent the night at the Denali visitor center parking lot and then to the campground the next day.
That's all for now... Next report will be from our activities in Denali.
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