Alaska 2017 Larry & Bev

Fairbanks Excursions All good things do have to come to an end and today is the final day of our Alaskan adventure.   We started the day by going to the Gold Dredge 8 site.   Here we took a “train” to the dredge site   where gold was mined  using the dredge, which was a floating “ship” that clawed out earth using a bucketline of digging buckets with a giant trommel, which is a revolving cylindrical screen set at an angle and used for sizing rock and gold ore, and a series of sluice-boxes.     These sluice-boxes, which separate heavy gold from lighter sands, also contained mercury to amalgamate the last traces of gold. Gold Dredge 8 operated from 1927 until 1959 when profitability dropped.   Much of what was done to get the gold would never have survived OSHA or EPA regulations.  I don't want to think about the mercury contamination in the area.  We had a gold panning demonstration and then received ...

Leaving Denali for Fairbanks Today was another beautiful day in Denali.   We caught the shuttle to the park visitor center and then the next shuttle to the dog kennels where we see the Alaskan Huskies that are used in the park during the winter.     Denali uses no motorized vehicles during the winter months for park maintenance.   Rather, everything is done with dogs.   The park has a breeding program and has a couple dozen dogs.   Each dog is used for about 9 years of service before being retired and put up for adoption.   There was also a demonstration. We then spent some time with the exhibits before heading back to the lodge complex to relax before catching the Alaska Railroad train to Fairbanks for our last two nights of the trip.    The train covered the 120-mile trip in about 4 hours and took us from the mountainous Denali area out through a gorge  and then into the heavily forested b...

A Day in Denali National Park We woke up this morning to a gorgeous “sunrise” on the mountains that we could see from our room.   After a quick buffet breakfast, we boarded our National Park tour bus for a day in Denali with gorgeous weather and fabulous views of everything – mountains, streams, animals, and Mt. Denali (McKinley).   We were one of the very fortunate few who could experience Denali with such weather.  Also, Denali National Park is 100 years old this year. The map of Denali NP shows where we went in the park for a 60 mile trip on the NP road (gravel road) – directly through the wilderness.    National Park Ranger Welcoming Us To Denali We had a break after traveling about 1 hr at the Teklanika River overlook where we had good views of the braided river.     Shortly after the Sable Pass area, we had some great views of Mt. Denali (20,020’ of snow-covered mountain with two summits).     Ptar...