Tok to Fairbanks

The drive from Tok to Fairbanks was on a good road (Richardson Hwy). The road was wet but we must have been just following the rain. We had mostly sun. The scenery is good but not as spectacular as we have had through the inside passage. Of course we had to stop at Delta Junction for the pictures at the end of the Alaskan Hwy. This trip we will not be driving the beginning of the highway since we will be returning via the Cassiar.

  

 

We are staying at the Riverview RV Park which is located between Fairbanks and North Pole along the Chena River.  It is a good location for us to do our sightseeing in and around Fairbanks.

We visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North  which featured a special exhibit on the Denali Legacy: 100 Years on the Mountain along with their permanent exhibits focusing on the cultures, wildlife, geography and history of Alaska.  This was one of our favorite stops from our last trip to Alaska and as museums go you can never absorb everything in one visit.

On our tour of Gold Dredge 8, a National Historical Site, we rode to the dredge site on a replica of the Tanana Valley Railroad, we learned about the Trans Alaska Pipeline and panned for gold.  Alas we struck it rich--$49 worth of gold--maybe we should stake a claim and stay in Alaska indefinitely!  I know for a fact that will not happen as we have had a major battle with the mosquito population. There was also a presentation about the pipeline as it passes through the property.

   

The first night we stayed in Fairbanks we went to bed with the windows open and woke up 2 hours later because we were being attacked by the mosquitoes. They were easy to spot on the white curtains in the trailer and Terry started swatting at them only to have them explode and spurt blood all over our nice white curtains.  So at 2 am Sue is washing the bloody curtains and we continue to hunt down the rest of the bloodsucking varmits.  Meanwhile we closed the windows and turned the air conditioning on.

The Robert E. White Large Animal Research Station (LARS) of the University of Alaska Fairbanks proved to be a worthwhile tour to see the musk ox, reindeer and caribou.  In 1960 when the musk ox were nearing extinction, they transported musk ox from Greenland to Alaska.  Now there are currently around 4,000 musk ox in Alaska and LARS has a herd of about 30.

  

The pictures can be found here.