2019 Alaska - Uncommon Ground

A couple of weeks before we left home, we realized we had an entire free day in Fairbanks before our late evening departure home. So we got up this morning at 4:05 AM for our Arctic Circle Fly/Drive adventure. It was before sunrise, but looked like this from our hotel:

We were on the road north by 5:30. Our group of 13 traveled with our driver/guide Gabe in a nicely equipped coach that could have accommodated twice as many people. 

It is a straight run from Fairbanks all the way to the Arctic Ocean, though the highway name changes. We started on the Steese Highway, which changed to the Elliott Highway at Fox (where the gold dredge was yesterday). A bump in the road marked the transition.

Because of the permafrost and the cost of running pipes, most homes on the outskirts of Fairbanks and beyond are dry cabins. As the name implies, dry cabins don't have running water. They usually have small (kitchen sink) or large (plus shower and toilet) water tanks. People have gym memberships and can shower and do laundry there. (Yes, gyms here have laundry facilities.)

7:06 AM - Arctic Circle Trading Post

The Griffith family came from Minnesota to homestead north of Fairbanks in the 1960s. They homeschooled their eight children, and fostered and eventually adopted 18 more. After some of the kids set up a lemonade stand for the truckers on the new highway and made $100 in a day, the dad realized there was a potential market passing by and built the trading post.

It's  bit of a misnomer, as the Arctic Circle is several hours away. But everything is relative, as compared to Philadelphia, we are close. 

Their 10 bedroom cabin is still nearby, but the family has scattered as the kids grew up. 

The door is labeled "Women", but fortunately nearby upgraded facilities were unisex.

The 8 hour ride was much more interesting than I'd expected. We made frequent stops to explore and saw videos during the drive.

North of Fairbanks, we passed several mining sites ranging from solo operations to corporate endeavors. A video on stacker dredge gold mining had archival footage showing in detail the process we learned a little about at the Gold Dredge #8 site we visited yesterday.

We reached the Dalton Highway at 7:53 AM. The highway, packed gravel and occasionally washboard and pothole surfaced, was constructed in the 1970s to build and support the Trans-Alaska pipeline. It was a private road until 1986 when it opened as far as Coldfoot (our destination today). It fully opened in 1994, except for the last 6 miles approaching the terminus at Prudhoe Bay. To access the final stretch you need to submit to a background check at least 24 hours in advance, and if approved, travel the last bit by shuttle. 

The highway, as shown in the reality TV show Ice  Road Truckers, is dominated by trucks hauling heavy equipment and gear between Prudhoe Bay and Fairbanks. Trucks have the right of way. We were cautioned to never step on or cross the road during our stops, as the road twists and dips and visibility is not necessarily sufficient for the heavy trucks to stop.

8:42 AM  Viewpoint and pipeline

We took a walk up a hill to an overlook from which we could see several distant mountain ranges. 

The pipeline, as throughout today's trip, paralleled the road. Gabe had a permit to cross the gate and walked us over to take a close look. 

The inverted U's on either side of the pipeline are nicknamed headache bars, and are present wherever a road crosses under the pipeline. They assure that only vehicles that can safely pass under the pipeline will get through. 

The pipeline was designed to last 20-25 years. It's now 43 years old, and still running, although at a lesser rate (500,000 barrels a day) than originally.  We saw maintenance crews inspecting and working on the pipeline as we drove along.

The pipeline is suspended above the supports, allowing for expansion and flexing as the permafrost thaws and refreezes. The vertical supports are filled with ammonia gas which acts as an insulated heat exchanger to minimize movement due to changes in the permafrost. Every few supports, like these above, have earthquake bumpers flanking the pipeline.

9:52 AM  - Yukon River Camp 

The Yukon River is the 5th largest river in the world by volume, and 21st in length. Until the Dalton Highway bridge was built, it was crossed in winter by driving across the ice, and in summer by barge. We crossed the easy way and stopped at the Yukon River Camp to pick up sandwiches we'd ordered before departure this morning. 

I was intrigued by the possibilities of the plywood Fur Shop / Birch Bark Shop, but alas, it was not open. 

Gamely growing zucchini along the Yukon River

10:42 AM - Quick stop to fill water bottles at an artesian spring

We saw another video on Athabascan Indians and their relationship with nature, including the food they hunt.

Our route passed several federal lands. The Yukon Flats Wildlife Refuge, at 8.6 MM acres a bit bigger than Maryland, is home to 126 bird species at various times during the year.

11:50 Granite Tors 

We stopped for a short hike to explore these formations of volcanic rock which have been forced up over eons through the stable permafrost. This is the same process of frost heave that causes havoc on highway surfaces and had to be carefully considered in constructing the pipeline.

The rocks were gradually lifted up through the tundra and eventually tumbled apart in rough circles.

12:36 PM Arctic Circle 

Finally we arrived at the Arctic Circle, 66.33 degrees latitude north. Gabe told us that we are now part of an elite group, as only 1% of people who come to Alaska - including Alaskans! - ever come north of the Arctic Circle.

Sticker graffiti on the back of the sign 

Max the Arctic dog hangs out at the sign with his Bureau of Land Management owner.

1:31 PM Viewpoint Gobblers Knob

Where Gabe stopped because he knew a geocache was there.

As we watched our next video on Arctic seasons, we drove between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in our left, and Gates of the Arctic National Park off to our right. ANWR, at 19.2 million acres (slightly smaller than South Carolina), is the largest animal refuge outside of Africa. 

2:00 Grayling Lake

The lake is in the Brooks Range, the only part of today's drive that was carved by glaciers. It's the northernmost mountain range in Alaska. The rest of the land we've passed though is too far from the coasts for glaciers.

2:20 PM - Visitors Center

We arrived at the Arctic Interagency Visitor's Center after another video about the origin of Gates of the Arctic National Park. The visitors center is shared by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The rangers explained that there is no sign (!!!!) for the National Park, so we had to improvise. But they did have NPS passport stamps. 

3:00 PM Coldfoot

Coldfoot is 246 miles from Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean. It has the distinction of having the most northern saloon in the United States. Everything north is dry. We hung out in the saloon / gift shop / snack bar for a while waiting for our pilots to show up and then boarded our 9 passenger plane to head back to Fairbank. 

Coldfoot is also the base of operations for the sole trooper assigned to patrol the Dawson Highway. However, he's been on paternity leave for a couple of months.  I guess if anyone is crazy enough to go over the 50 mph speed limit on that road, have at it!

4:46 PM - Airborn

We got our last glimpse of the pipeline and Dalton Highway from the air, and saw some of the wildfires in  the Fairbanks area as we neared the city. 

We were back on the ground by 5:50, in plenty of time for our first leg home. Mission accomplished!

Before and after pictures of our coach

2019 Alaska - Fairbanks

We had a trio of activities planned for us today. First was a stop at the Alyeska (not a typo) pipeline, which runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. Built from 1973-1977, the 4 foot diameter pipeline runs underground in flood zones, known caribou migration routes and river crossings. It's above ground where the ground is unstable such as in permafrost areas susceptible to frost heave (a phenomenon seen with thawing and freezing above the permafrost). The pipeline is designed to withstand earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter scale.

Alaska gets 65% of the state budget (education, infrastructure, salaries, etc) from pipeline revenues. Each Alaskan, man, woman and child, also receives an annual dividend from the invested pipeline fund. The payment has ranged from $300 to $2200.

From the pipeline we took a short rail ride to Gold Dredge 8. There were Disney-style demonstrations of dredging activities, ending with the rusty but still impressive dredge itself. The dredge was built by Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania and shipped in pieces up to Fairbanks. It was designed to separate the gold from tons of rock, in more or less an assembly line fashion. 

We had a demonstration of how to pan for gold and then got to try our luck. Greg and I pooled our take and were told we'd collected $34 worth of gold, but that sounded like a stretch to me. 

And lastly, we took a ride on the Chena River on the Steamboat Discovery. Mark and I did this 19 years ago and saw a demonstration by 4 timer Iditarod winner Susan Butcher at Trailbreaker Kennels, owned by Susan and her husband. Susan passed away in 2006, but the tradition continues. Today her daughter, Tekla Monson, talked about the dogs and did a brief training run with them.

These puppies were just starting their training, eagerly trying to climb over the log. They were so little and wagging so energetically that most of them needed help getting enough forward momentum.

Nine of the adult dogs were hitched to a ATV with the engine removed. As at the Denali kennels, the other dogs went wild with excitement. You can see one jumping high behind them.

Susan Butcher's lead dog for her Iditarod victories was named Granite. The runt of his litter and recommended to be given away to be a pet, he lived to 17 and ran over 41,000 miles during his lifetime. 

There were also stops for a float plane demonstration and at a Athabascan fishing village. 

They had a fish wheel which is used to catch salmon, and a fileting, drying and smoking fish demonstration.

And so ends our tour and almost our Alaskan adventure. One more self-scheduled activity tomorrow

2019 Alaska - Denali to Fairbanks

We had a leisurely start to our day, as nothing was scheduled until our 2:15 departure to Fairbanks. After breakfast we took the shuttle into Denali to hike a couple of trails and then walk back to our lodge. 

Compared to other National Parks like Rocky Mountain, Denali has a pretty sparse trail system. There are a few trail heads in the vicinity of the visitors center, but the vast majority of the park is true wilderness. People with backcountry permits are assigned a zone in which they can camp, and need to navigate with a topographical map. Sometimes people get lost, and search and rescue operations are launched to find them. We stuck to established trails near the park entrance, so no worries.

We hiked to this suspension bridge which was recently rebuilt. Sled dogs hauled the construction materials to the site.

We also hiked the Horseshoe Trail down to a lake built by overly diligent beavers. 

The beavers had built a succession of dams across a creek, and decimated a lot of the trees surrounding the lake.





A moose, looking a lot like a bay horse, swam across the lake.

Fireweed is in full season for a week or two.

It was overcast this morning, with low lying clouds. Perfect for hiking, though not so good for Denali sightings. We're glad our tundra wilderness tour was yesterday.

It's the Fourth of July, but we'll see no fireworks tonight. First of all, I don't think it gets dark enough for good fireworks. Secondly, that's all become moot as the drought has necessitated a ban on outdoor fires. and fireworks. Thirdly, I went to bed at 10.

2019 Alaska - Denali

With our alarm set for 4:30 this morning, of course I woke up throughout the night. We left a window open and now I can verify that it indeed doesn't get truly dark here this time of year. At 1:30 AM it was light enough to navigate outside although in black and white instead of color.

We picked up our box lunches and boarded our bus for the 5:30 AM Tundra Wilderness Tour. Converted school buses ferry park visitors 62 miles into the Denali wilderness, only 30 miles from the end of the single road which goes deep into the park. The first 15 miles of the road are paved and are open to private vehicles. The rest of the road is well-maintained gravel and requires a hard-to-obtain special permit for private cars. By far, most people use the park buses to visit the interior behind the visitors center.

Our chatty bus driver provided a running commentary on the history, wildlife and geology of the park. (Most-repeated fact: caribou do not like the heat.) The park has been hazy with blown-in smoke from distant wildfires, and in the 80s within the last week or two. But we had a nice day in the 60s with continually brightening skies, great for wildlife viewing.

Denali was founded as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917, specifically to provide a refuge for the heavily hunted Dall sheep, the only white mountain sheep. It was expanded in 1980 to its present 6 million acres, 3 times the size of Yellowstone and roughly the size of Vermont.  Also in 1980, the park name was changed to Denali National Park, using the native American name for the namesake mountain.

Because of strict policies regarding wildlife and access to the wilderness, the animals of Denali seem largely oblivious to the humans passing through on the buses. We encountered a moose with her week old calf standing smack in the middle of the road and happily watched and waited until she meandered into the brush. We slowly followed a yearling caribou for about a half mile until our driver was able to edge around it, as the caribou was determined to stay in the roadway.

A mama bear and her two overgrown (2 1/2 years old) cubs obligingly showed up across the valley. Most female grizzlies and cubs are light colored.

There were lots of snowshoe hares, mostly in the road where they would freeze to avoid detection, which is a good strategy for the danger from birds of prey but not from buses. 

Located just 240 miles from the Arctic circle, Denali is in an extreme subarctic environment. It's considered a desert environment, with little rainfall. The glacial rivers, called braided rivers due to their constantly shifting and winding channels, are heavily graveled and silty.

Braided river

Caribou resting in the gravel river bed.

Attractive views ranged from the big to the small.

Rhyolytic mountains

Bluebells 



Our end of the road - or our tour - was Stony Hill, 30 miles from Denali. We had a good view of the lower part of the east face. 

And then as we headed back towards the park entrance, we saw the snowy twin peaks from the south side. Most visitors to Denali do not see the big mountain (at 20,310 feet, the highest peak in North America), so we were quite lucky. 

We asked to be dropped off at the park's sled dog kennels, which are a couple of miles in from the visitors center. Denali maintains about 50 Alaska Huskies, a special breed of freight dogs that are stronger and heavier than the racing dogs used in competitive dog sled events. Like all sled dogs, they love to run and pull. The special rangers use the dogs to patrol the park in the winter and haul supplies and building materials where needed.

The dogs are exercised and trained throughout the warmer months using wheeled sleds. The rangers and dogs put on demonstrations/information sessions 3 times a day. 

The dogs get their kibble in little puzzle containers that they have to play with to work the food out. They went crazy with excitement when their keepers came to get some of them to hitch to the sled. Pick me! Pick me! they barked.

After the demo, we met up with my nephew, Jaz, at the visitors center. Jaz is a backcountry seasonal ranger, working his third year at Denali. We were so happy he was able to arrange his schedule to be back in civilization for dinner tonight. We had a nice visit catching up over pizza and beer, and time for a walk in the long evening sun. It's been pretty amazing to connect here with people we know.