J-Squared Comes to Town!

Morris Thompson Visitor Center museum

On Wednesday, July 4th, Ken and I celebrated our nation's independence by liberating the RV of clutter and filth. Truly. We spent the entire day cleaning in excited anticipation of Janine and Joel's arrival. When their plane finally landed at 11pm in the bright sunshine, we picked them up and headed back to the campground, chatting incessantly the whole way. For the first time, we noticed Mt. McKinley way off in the distance with the evening's pink glow shining on it. With our two wearied travelers, though, we didn't stop to take pictures. A quick goodnight and we were all asleep.

Lunch at the Fudge Pot

Riverwalk beside the Chena River

On Thursday, refreshed from a good night's rest, we four awoke with a long day of sightseeing in Fairbanks ahead of us. We started with the Morris Thompson Visitor Center, now a stalwart of our time in the city. We toured the museum in its entirety this time, taking in the history and culture of the Fairbanks area, as well as the industries that have played a part in its growth. Not wanting them to miss something we found so fascinating, we turned their attention to the Dick Proenneke film "Alone in the Wilderness", which they enjoyed as much as we had. We walked outside and took pictures under the antler arch and strolled along the riverwalk beside the Chena River. We made our way to lunch at the Fudge Pot a few blocks away where we dined on sandwiches and ice cream.

Moose!

After lunch, we drove down Chena Hot Springs Road in search of moose. We were in luck! We spotted 9 different moose along the way and Ken was gracious enough to slam on the brakes and turn around so we could all get a better look at every one of them. What fun!

Chena Hot Springs....mmm, warm.

Snowballs...in July?

We continued to the end of the road where the Chena Hot Springs flows into a small rock pond for swimmers and soakers. We swam and soaked for a couple of hours while the clouds rolled in and the steam rose above the water. After boiling for a time, we walked around the grounds of the resort and found a couple of small gardens where herbs of all kinds sprouted toward the sunshine. We headed back to the car, near the Aurora Ice Museum, where we saw a man unloading wheelbarrows full of snow near the street. Janine, Joel and Ken proceeded to throw snowballs at each other (and then me!) while I tried to take pictures of the inanity.

We headed back down toward Fairbanks and spotted a few more moose. We then detoured to show them the Alyeska Oil Pipeline just north of town, along with the two pipe scouring 'pigs' standing sentry nearby. Tired from such a fun day, we made our way back to the RV where Ken cooked us a delicious salmon dinner. And, of course, we roasted marshmallows afterwards. Yum!

Alpenglow on the Alaska Range

Around 11pm, after several rounds of cards and with the sunshine still filling the sky, we drove to the campus of the University of Alaska to see Mt. McKinley again. We found the snowy peaks of the Alaska Range bathed in the same pinkish glow as the night before. The 'alpenglow', as it is properly called, is best seen around midnight when the slant of the summer sun casts its warm light on the mountains. Wow. What a sight.

Muskox!

From there, we continued our midnight trek and headed to the parking lot of the Large Animal Research Station to see if we could spot the muskox and caribou from behind the fence. We saw one muskox laying in front of the trees, and 5 or 6 more way up on the hillside behind the rest of the farm. They looked like little black muskox-shaped dots in the green grass. We returned to the coach to ready ourselves for the drive south the next day. What a fantastic day!

At a scenic overlook along the Parks Hwy

On Friday, July 6th, we packed up the camp and drove to Healy, Alaska, a tiny town nestled in the hills about 14 miles north of the Denali National Park entrance. We stopped along the way at several overlooks to take pictures of the beautiful scenery before setting up camp at the Denali RV Park and Motel. After settling in a little, we wandered down the Parks Highway toward Denali and found the gray glacial waters of the Nenana River flowing under a big bridge with the Alaska Railroad nearby. We hiked around the edge of the steep embankment overlooking the river and took pictures of the bridge and each other.

J-Squared!

Bridge over Nenana River

From there, we raced over to the Wilderness Access Center at Denali National Park to buy our tickets for the shuttle bus tour the next morning. Not wanting to be unprepared for hiking in the Denali backcountry, we researched and bought backpacks to hold all our worldly essentials.

Hiking around the Nenana River

We had dinner at the Lynx Creek Pizza place in Denali, a town just outside the park entrance. The pizza and calzone we ordered and shared were pretty respectable for a wilderness area in the middle of Alaska. We enjoyed the beautiful golden sunshine for several more hours while we walked around the gift and tchotchke shops lining the Parks Highway in Denali. We returned to the RV to pack our new backpacks with PB&J sandwiches, snacks, water, bug repellent and extra clothes before heading to bed early.