A day in Denali National Park

July 23, 2015

Today we rode the shuttle bus through most of Denali National Park. The shuttle bus is a hop on/hop off type of bus, but for our purposes, it was a tour bus through the park to the Elision Visitor's Center, 66 miles into the park. The total time spent on this bus was about 8.5 to 9 hours. We had a fantastic driver and even though the shuttle isn't suppose to be a narrated tour, she did a great job telling us what we were looking at and spotting wildlife before we got to it.

Phil took hundreds of pictures all of them great, I will try to narrow them down some, but this one is going to be a little harder! 

We enter the great Denali National Park 

Part of our caravan gets ready to board the shuttle bus, we are all anxious to see some wildlife, especially a MOOSE!!

 Our driver stopped the bus and everyone starts snapping their cameras. I could not find what they were taking pictures of. Finally, after a few minutes I found the antlers of a Caribou. Do you see them? 

 He is just laying in the bush, but his head moves. I couldn't believe our driver was able to see this while she was driving down the road!

Our shuttle bus

We see our first bear in the park and it's a Grizzly! 

The gravel flats, it's hard to imagine what this looks like when the stream becomes a raging river!

 The sun peaks out of the clouds and lights up a wider part of the river. I love this shot.

The colors of Denali 

 This one may need to be blown up in order to see the top of Mount McKinley through the clouds. We didn't get to see all of it, but it was still thrilling.

We had a few sprinkles, but not the heavy rain that threatened all day 

 At this point we could look ahead and see where the road was going, we could also see that it was literally carved out of the side of the mountain

 The highest point of the road in the park

 A dream come true, another item off of the bucket list, Denali National Park, in Alaska, the last frontier

 High on the ridge above the road sits a Mountain Goat

Phil tries on a pair of antlers...not horns

 Another Grizzly, still has quite a bit of his winter coat

 Another young Caribou

 This one was in the road, and didn't want to give it up. The bus drivers are not allowed to honk the horn to get an animal to move. Ours knew how to move the bus from one side of the road to the other so each side of the bus could take a picture. She was great!

 We finally arrive at Eielson Visitor's Center. Our driver got a 35 minute break here, so we had time to walk around and take some pictures. We could have waited for another bus, but none of us wanted to.

 The story of Mt McKinley, it's peaks and valleys and glaciers

 Adult Male Caribou with full racks, isn't that majestic?? But can you imagine carrying that around all day???

We came across this big guy walking down the road, he was in no hurry, so Phil got some good shots of him.

He stepped off of the road, and our driver started to move on, but then he started back to the road, so she stopped the bus. He then came closer and ran right along the length of the bus 

Phil was trying to take pictures over my head because he was sitting on the other side of the bus, but he couldn't get close enough to snap him alongside the bus.  

When the bear got to the front of the bus, I guess he decided he had had enough of this, turned and started down the hill. 

 Then things start going to the birds...possibly a hawk or falcon?

 A family of Ptarmigan come out of the bush and cross the road in front of the bus. These birds turn white in the winter to help protect them, but now they are colored to blend with the bush

A young one hurries to catch up with the rest of the brood

A small herd of Mtn Sheep or Goats make their way down the mountain

 Another mature Caribou

 And, FINALLY!!! We see a MOOSE!! This is apparently a young female as she doesn't have a baby with her. We were very glad to see her!!

Then, on the way back to the RV Park, we passed a couple of ponds and I was looking, as I always do, for more moose. Just past the two ponds, in the brush was a Mom and her baby casually walking through the brush feeding. We pulled off and watched for a little while.

Good shot of the baby, Mom wasn't as accommodating with a frontal shot 

 

July 22, 2015

A short drive today from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. Beautiful drive and a nice park to spend a few days in.

Although on the main road, we are away from the bustle of the Denali Village area, and the campground is actually pretty quiet

 Our campsite, view isn't bad!

Lots of road construction between our RV Park and Denali Village where the action is, so have to allow extra time to get where we are going

 Lots of color, seems that if you plant it it grows!

Chena Hot Springs, Fairbanks, AK

July 21, 2015

The last couple of days were free days and we had to do some of the mundane sort of things, like grocery shopping and laundry.

Last night the caravan had dinner at "The Salmon Bake" in a place called Pioneer Park. The park is a collection of a bunch of small shops with a collection of antiques dating back to the 1800's. The Salmon Bake is an all you can eat dinner with prime rib, salmon, salad bar, bread and of course, desert. It was pretty good, served buffet style, but kept hot. We enjoyed it.

Today, Tom and Sandy joined us for a ride to Chena Hot Springs, which was about an hours drive east of Fairbanks. As we started out of town, we passed sign after sign of warnings for moose! One sign even said it was a moose danger zone. Of course, we saw nothing!!! Not one single moose, nothing that lived and breathed and 4 legs, much less a moose. After we got to the hot springs, we got reports from a couple of our members that they saw a mama and two babies. It's disgusting how everyone has seen multiple moose but us!!!

After arriving at the hot springs, we decided to have brunch before doing anything else. They had some very unusual tables in this restaurant, but we ended up with a normal table. The food was delicious and reasonably priced, we really enjoyed it. 

 The flowers everywhere are prolific, with so much sunshine it's like everything that grows is on steroids!

 The big ice house

Everyone had to put on a heavy jacket, we were about to enter the deep freeze. At 25-30* even Phil put on one of the jackets provided

 The ice sculptures all had colored lights behind them, or in them to show the detail of the carving. It was amazing!

 The pictures don't do the carvings and the detail justice, but hopefully you will get the idea.

 The lights are inside the Christmas Tree

 One of the ice beds. they had pieces of carpet on anything we could sit or lay on so that we could experience it without freezing to death in the process.

Proof positive that Phil had one of their heavy jackets on.  You can't see the carving real well in this one, but he is standing in front of the Coca Cola Polar Bear

A view taken from one end of the ice house, even the chandeliers were ice carvings

 Another Ice Bed. There were four or five bedrooms within the ice house, and each had a different type of decor 

This is the ice bar, Tom and Phil had a drink in glasses made of ice, our guide and bartender even said that the guys could take the glasses home if they wanted too!!

 Another view of the Ice Bar

One of the stools at the bar, decorations within the carvings

 More ice carvings

 Live flowers in ice, this was one of several on display

The work stations to the left and below, along with the tools of the trade.

 Outside once again, on the grounds of the hot springs, we find a piece de art, a dragon made of metal scraps with a flower basket in his mouth.

Below is one of the natural hot springs in the compound

On our way home Phil drove at about 45 mph all the way so that we could closely examine both sides of the road looking for a moose. They were as elusive as three dollar bills. Didn't see a one!! This is getting really ridiculous!!  

Discovery Boat Tour, Fairbanks, AK

July 18, 2015

Today we went on the Discovery Boat Tour on the Chena River. The Discovery Boat is a modern day version of the gold rush days paddle wheel boat that plied the rivers, brought supplies and hauled the gold out of the fields.

Our ride for the day, overcast, but thankfully, no rain!fangled

The "Wheel House", where the wheel is housed, along with all the new age electronic equipment 

 We had a demonstration of a float plane taking off and 'landing' alongside the boat.

 A 'cabin' on the river...Alaska style

 This dog sled place put on a little demonstration while we went by

We stopped at this compound for a little while where we learned about the life of the trappers and Indians, back in the day 

Raindeer 

 Smoking salmon

Real??? I don't think so!!!


The one below is real, and keeping an eye out for his next meal!! 

Gold Dredge 8, Fairbanks, AK

July 17, 2015

Our tour for today was the Gold Dredge 8 in Fairbanks. This was an interesting tour that showed us how the dredge system of mining worked, and is still used today.

We boarded an open air rail car to take us back to the dredge area. On the way we watched a video about the operations of a dredge 

This is the #8 Dredge 

 The explanation of how it works

Now comes the fun part, we are going to learn how to pan for gold!! 

We harvested $57.00 worth and I put the nuggets into ear-rings