Day 4: Fairbanks

Our next set of tours were both right down the street from our hotel, so we walked down to the Riverboat Discovery Sternwheeler.





You only see two tour buses in this picture, but shortly after this photo was taken, the whole parking lot was filled with buses. This is apparently a huge attraction for tourists.





Here is a picture of the original Discovery Sternwheeler, as well as the 2nd "Discovery II". We were on III, which can be seen in the first two photo's.





We got good seats right outside on the 3rd deck in the front.
When we turned around to head down the river, the first thing they did was show a bush plane demonstration. It took off and landed twice, on both sides of the sternwheeler.





We were told about the houses and history of Fairbanks, and I took pictures of odd homes I saw. Everyone seemed to have trampolines for some reason too.

We continued until we came to a dog sled kennel, owned by Dave Munson. His late wife, Susan Butcher was an Itidarod winner, and had died last year unfortunately. She was the one who usually gave this portion of the tour.

He demonstrated attaching the dogs and doing a loop with them, as we had seen before. He used an ATV without an engine as his summer sled. He let them loose when they were done, and they all ran into the water. It was nice to see that they had play time. He also showed a fun toy on their front lawn which they could be hooked to, and it was something like a merry-go-round for dogs. They ran a circle, and then could jump up onto a platform and go for a ride.





We continued on. When we came up to the village, we stopped briefly as we watched them let the reindeer out onto the bank to graze. Instead of going to the village gate, we went slightly beyond that to see a fish wheel, and where the Chena and Tanana Rivers met. You could see where they met, because the water colors were different. The Chena is a clear river, but the Tanana is glaciated, so the water is silky looking and grayish-white. It was very interesting to see the mix of waters.





We back-tracked slightly and stopped in front of the Chena Indian Village for a quick demonstration on cleaning a fish. When that was done, we exited the sternwheeler, and were split into 4 groups as we were shown around to different area's.

The first area we were brought to was where the reindeers were kept. They told us about reindeers and hunting. There were also shelters made from different materials around us, which they went over. The girl in the picture below was demonstrating how to call moose. "Here moosey moosey moosey."





We moved on to the sled dogs (now the 3rd time we were told about them, and then the trappers. On the way to the trappers though, we walked by very large vegetables, including this cabbage. Notice in the background someone's leg for a comparison. Since Alaska has so much sunlight in the summer, the vegetation grow quite large.





Last we were shown some garments made and worn by the natives.





We were given 15-20 minutes to look around on our own after that. We were lucky to have another beautiful day because the forested area was a little chilly, but when we got back out to the sternwheeler, it was very nice again. Once we loaded, and started back, they told us they were giving free samples of smoked salmon. Yum.

We had an hour to wait for our next tour, when we arrived back at the gift shop area. This tour was put on by the same company, and was called the "El Dorado Gold Mine Tour".

When it was finally time, we headed to the El Dorado Shuttle bus. The bus driver was very lively, and had a funny laugh (he found almost everything amusing), but unfortunately the ride was long with numerous other stops to pick up other people. There may have been a total of 6 stops, and ours was the first pickup point. People were getting upset by the length of time, or maybe by the bus driver himself. I found him entertaining though, and he had a lot to say about the area, since he worked at a mine and lived there himself. He even went into great detail about new constructions and buildings we passed by. Along the way, we also spotted a section of the Alaskan Pipeline.





When we finally reached our destination, the Gold Mine, we got our boarding passes, and boarded immediately. A man near the front of the train was entertaining people by playing the guitar and singing. We couldn't see him because we were too far back, but they provided people with TV monitors so that you could see what was going on. He broke out the fiddle after playing some Johnny Cash. He played an Alaska song to the tune of a popular song, called "I've fished everywhere," instead of "I've been everywhere" I believe.

When the small train finally had loaded, we were told we'd be making a few stops to look at things along the way. The first stop, was in a permafrost tunnel. A man there told us about mining and the types of rock and things mined.





We stopped a few more times to hear about the history, and different methods of the mining.





We finally arrived at the El Dorado Gift Shop/Mining area, where we were brought over to an area to watch them show us how it's done. It was a husband and wife who taught us about the modern way of digging for gold, and had a crane drop dirt and rock into a machine at the same time they released water into it.






4 people stayed in a little pathway where these materials joined together and rushed by their feet. They panned for the gold, and the lady said she found a small nugget, so she was happy. My mother thought she had planted it, but who knows..





When they were done with their demonstration, they sent us through a small tunnel to the gold panning area. They handed us each a small bag of dirt and we found our way to a seat where we could start panning. They guaranteed if we didn't find at least 8 flakes, that they'd give us a new bag. I found $16 worth, according to their gold scale, and they cleaned my gold for me, which was nice. It was pretty fun, and I'd like to do it again some time.

We went through the gift shop, where they showed us a $25,000 lump of gold, and we were able to pick it up. It was heavier than it looked.





They also had complimentary cookies (4 kinds), and beverages. We filled our water bottles, after asking, with the wonderful "Fox" spring water, before leaving. I had already helped myself to at least 8 cups..it was very refreshing, and was the best water I'd had in a long time.

They gave plenty of time to wander around the gift shop, and then we were boarded back onto the train. We were entertained with the fiddle again and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". It was a short train ride back, but a long shuttle ride back to our hotel.

Day 2: Denali National Park

This was our only full day at Denali. This is such an immense park, and it just seems to draw you in. The day we left, I had already begun to miss it, and I hadn't even spent much time there. We were again, very lucky, and were able to see Mt McKinley.

I'll start off with a photo of one of the many buses that are allowed into the park. Beyond a certain point, vehicles aren't allowed, only buses and perhaps photographers/lotto winners (I hear).





Not a great picture, but I didn't really take many pictures in Denali. Not nearly as many as I would have liked to. The problem was, being on the bus, we only made a few stops, and it was hard to set up for any shot with only a small bit of window to poke a camera out of..

The next time I go to Denali, yes, I hope there is a next time, I will be doing some major hiking.

Now, to stay in format with my first day post, just for the heck of it, I'll post the pictures I took of Denali (Mt McKinley) while in the park.





Again, I didn't get to take many pictures in the park, since the opportunities didn't present themselves, and it's really hard to take pictures in a bus when people say they're cold. I don't like taking pictures through glass.





We did spot some wildlife, and were able to stop for those. We weren't allowed off the bus, so these are the best shots I could get. Also, we went later in the day, probably leaving around 8:30AM, and didn't see much wildlife. Apparently the much earlier departures get all of the wildlife! Next time I'll know..

People were saying they saw things that I couldn't see. These people had binoculars, I didn't. My camera can work as a pair of short range binoculars, but since they're just 70-200mm, they can't zoom out too far. Here are a few shots of caribou. These were WAY out there.






And there were a few bear sightings, though one of them was more of a speck sighting. The only viewable bear on the bus, was this one.





Alas, we were nearing the end of the bus ride, after having gone out to Fish Creek Turnaround. We had a few moments of rain, and a few moments of hail, but they only lasted a few minutes each, and the sun was back out. We had all given up hope on seeing any more wildlife, and were all disappointed having not seen that much.

We saw some vehicles stopped ahead, and then we realized there were moose right alongside the road. Everyone went "SHHHHHHHHHH!" at the same time, which sent one moose running. I found that rather humorous myself. We inched our way forward and spotted another one, just taking it easy and chewing on some leaves. It was the closest encounter we'd had all day, so even though it was just a moose..yeah, we get these in Maine, big deal haha, it was still a wildlife sighting, so we left the bus tour feeling somewhat better.





Denali is definitely a place to explore on foot, and I really would love to go back. The shuttle bus is great for people to get out there, but to just stay on the bus the whole trip and only get off for a few short breaks isn't as exciting.

Upon returning to the start of the park, our bus driver told us a dog sled demonstration would be starting soon, but she didn't want everyone to get off at the stop to go see it, because there may not be enough room. Not that many people exited at the stop, so we decided we'd go check it out.

I hadn't realized how into running these dogs were until I saw this demonstration. All of the dogs were going crazy, and standing on their dog houses, trying to be the chosen one.

I took a liking to this one, named Aurora, though Aurora wasn't chosen.





While bringing the dogs they select to run, to be hooked up, they carry them with their front paws off of the ground. They do this so they can keep control of the dogs, because the dogs get very excited and will lead them to be harnessed, rather than the other way around.




And once they're all hooked up, they're ready to go. When the break is released, they're off.




When the demonstration was over, we headed over to the Visitor's Access Center on the free shuttle. We were both pretty hungry, since we stayed at a hostel, so didn't have a real breakfast, or lunch. I would have bought a sandwich at the Wilderness Access Center (WAC) before we left, (not to be confused with the Visitor's Access Center), but the everyday normal sandwiches were over $10. Yep, no thanks.

We ate at the Morino Grill, and I had an "Aurora Burger" with fries for $9. We still had time to waste after that, so we went to the gift shop, and then went down to the Denali Train Depot. They had some information to look at down there, so it was pretty interesting. While down there, a train came in, so I decided to take a picture of that, before finally being picked up by the shuttle to the WAC, and then yet another shuttle to the hostel. Lot's of shuttles.