To get to Northern Alaska from Skagway, I had to enter the west corner of British Columbia and then cut through the southwest corner of Yukon. Leaving Skagway and heading up the Klondike Highway towards Fairbanks, you climb from 0 to about 4000 feet in less than 10 miles, a real hard pull but the views are gorgeous at the top. This highway runs parallel to the White Pass and Yukon railroad (the train ride I did while in Skagway). At the summit I crossed over into British Columbia and then into the Yukon. The first town you come to in the Yukon is Carcross (used to be called Caribou Crossing), which was the main terminus for the White Pass Railroad. From there you used to take a lake steamer into Whitehorse. An old depot and lots of ancient railroad equipment here. Carcross is also famous for having the “world’s smallest desert” which turns out to be about a square mile of dunes formed by an ancient lake.
On to Whitehorse, the Yukon capital. In Whitehorse I toured the SS Klondike, a riverboat restored by Parcs Canada. The steamer used to sail the 2,000 miles or so up the Yukon River from the coast bringing miners and supplies and connecting to the White Pass Railroad to Alaska.
Another treat in Whitehorse is the Beringia Center, a museum devoted to that part of North America that arose during the Ice Ages of 10,000 years ago allowing people and animals to travel between Asia and North America and later sank. Lots of displays of Mammoth fossils, Saber Tooth Cats, Lions and also primitive human tools and artifacts. 
From Whitehorse I headed towards Alaska again stopping at Destruction Bay, so named because of a storm that occurred there when the Army was building the ALCAN Highway which killed many workers and wrecked a lot of equipment. I also visited another very nice Natural History Museum in Burwash Landing along Kluane Lake.
After crossing the Alaskan border I had another overnight stop in Tok, (say “toke”) Alaska. Not much in Tok, just a major road junction.
Next it was on to Delta Junction, the “true” terminus of the Alaska Highway, There is a monument there commemorating the highway and the people who built it. Also the Alaska pipeline, another engineering miracle, crosses the Tenana River here. Before and during our trip to Alaska we were warned several times about the mosquitoes in Alaska. At the Delta Junction I ran into some giant mosquitoes. I never saw anything so big. We are going to need to get a lot of bug spray.
August 5 – 8, 2009 FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
I had one day in Fairbanks before Jo was to return from Orlando. I explored a few places, but was waiting for Jo to join me before exploring other sites in Fairbanks. The weather was rainy and there was a great deal of smoke from various forest fires in the vicinity. Despite it being wet, it was very hazy from the smoke and along with your eyes burning; you could smell the smoke everywhere.
I visited a wonderful museum at the University of Alaska, a combination of natural history, art and Alaska history plus it was housed in a beautiful new building.
I also took a trip to the Large Animal Research Station, a part of the university, where they house and study a large number of Caribou, Reindeer and Musk Ox. I finally learned the difference between Reindeer and Caribou (Reindeer are tame, Caribou are not) and that Musk Ox are really related to Sheep (not cattle). Another Reindeer factoid, both male and female Reindeer (and Caribou) drop their antlers in the late fall and are bareheaded in the winter with the exception of pregnant or nursing females which keep theirs for protection. Makes you wonder just exactly who is pulling Santa’s Sleigh doesn’t it ? What is the real difference between Caribou and Reindeer?.......Reindeer can fly.
Jo, who had a great deal of trouble getting back to Alaska, joined me again on the 7th. Here is her story:
August 6 – 7, 2009 - JO RETURNS TO ALASKA – THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS (and ends)
On Aug 6th I got on a plane to return to Alaska and continue my trailer tripping. I made it to Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport and was getting ready to board my connecting flight to Fairbanks at 5:30pm, when the flight was cancelled. While I was in Florida, parts of Alaska were being ravaged by several forest fires, with some being around Fairbanks. Due to all the smoke covering Fairbanks, visibility was almost down to zero. Most flights departing or arriving at that airport were being cancelled.
My flight to Fairbanks was rescheduled to 6:00am the next morning. I stayed the night at Quality Inn nearby and on the way there on a shuttle, we passed ‘The Mall of America’. I had no idea I was so close to the MALL that I have read and heard about and have always wanted to visit. I had a few hours before it closed so I took a shuttle from the Inn to the mall and spent the next two hours exploring this place, despite being exhausted. The best part was finding a bead and gemstone shop where I found and bought some unique beads.
The next morning I was up early to get to the airport for my 6:00am departure. Just as I was boarding the plane, that flight was cancelled; for the same reason it was cancelled the day before. I could not believe it. In all my years of flying, I have never had this kind of thing happen to me. While some passengers just sat there in shock; others lined up at the counter making other arrangements. I walked down the hall and found an empty gate with someone behind the counter and booked a flight for 3:00pm to Anchorage (and got the last seat, I was told) and then on to Fairbanks. So I had 7 hours to kill.
All I wanted to do was sleep. And I did, for a few hours, and then I worked on my laptop, ate lunch, called a friend in New York and waited. Finally, while holding my breath, at 3:00pm, I boarded my flight and found that my seat assignment was in first class! Without realizing I was assigned to first class, I tried three different times to get my seat changed from a window seat to an aisle seat. Thank God I was not successful. For the next five hours I was in heaven. I had two glasses of wine (at no charge), a hot pasta dinner with chocolate fudge cake (at no charge) and watched the movie “My Life in Ruins” (a great movie) and slept. To top it off, as we flew over Alaska I had some spectacular, magical views of snow covered mountains and glaciers from my ‘window’ seat.
Well, these last 30 hours were quite an adventure. But I finally made it to Fairbanks and back to my ‘home on wheels’ where I hugged my kitties, my little dog, and Dave too. Not necessarily in that order.
August 8 – ARCTIC CIRCLE
Dave arranged to stay an extra day in Fairbanks. One of things I wanted to do while in Fairbanks was to drive north, from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle. This is an unpaved road called the Dalton Highway that is about 400+ miles long and ends at Prudhoe Bay on the north slope and the Beaufort Sea. It follows the Alaska Pipeline all the way north. The Arctic Circle is the ½ way point and that is as far as we drove and that was enough for the day considering it took us about 4 hours to get there and another 4 hours to get back with an hour lunch and gas stop when we crossed the Yukon River at the Yukon River Camp. The day started out very foggy and wet with rain in some parts. But the fog cleared up by the time we got to Arctic Circle. It did remain smoky the whole drive and we even came upon a small fire that was left to burn out on its own.
The Arctic Circle is the point where it is sunlight for 24 hours a day during the summer and dark for 24 hours a day during the winter. It was a very scenic drive and we had hoped to see a lot of wildlife, but we saw none.
August 9 – 11, 2009 - DENALI NATIONAL PARK & MOUNT McKINLEY
Going south out of Fairbanks, we traveled about 150 miles to Healy, AK. and a pretty tacky RV Park, well you can’t win them all. Healy is about 9 miles from the park entrance. That evening we went into the park and as far as we could on the park road, surprising a bear that ran across the road in front of us. We then went to the Denali Visitors Center to get a sense of what we needed to see and do. We decided to get tickets for the following day for a shuttle bus ride to Wonder Lake and return, about 85 miles into the park (there is no automobile traffic allowed beyond 15 miles from the park entrance).
The following day we boarded the bus and had a very long but very interesting trip through Denali. The driver was very astute and knowledgeable and would stop for views and wildlife during the day and gave an interesting travelogue throughout the ride. The day was cloudy so we were among the 75% of visitors who don’t get to view all of Mount McKinley, but we still saw a lot of beautiful scenery and a lot of wildlife. We saw Caribou, Moose and several Grizzly Bears and their cubs, Dall Sheep and lots of bunnies. We returned late that night tired but very happy with the ride and had a great time.
Mount McKinley is behind those clouds.We came upon this big Grizzly rolling on his back on the side of the road. Got a close-up picture of it.
Just kidding…
This is actually a picture of a picture.
The next picture is the real thing. All of our animal sightings were far in the distance.
The second day we drove into the park as far as we could go again but no wildlife this time. We also visited the Denali Princess Lodge Hotel for lunch, very nice. In the afternoon we attended a sled dog demonstration at the kennels. They use sled dogs regularly in the park each winter.
Stay tuned to Vol 6 - South Alaska. Here we visit Anchorage and then down into the Kenai Peninsula.
