A dry, sunny day as we drove from Tok to Fairbanks. The Alaska Highway was straight and smooth. Wildlife along the way included three snowshoe hare (OK, they're not why people come to Alaska!) and two moose. You'll have to take our word for them, however, as they took one look at us and ran from the ditch into the trees. No one got a picture. We continued on to the Delta Junction area which was chosen in the 1970s for a large scale
farming project. Only marginally successful, it is still beautiful to see cleared fields of (very short) barley with the snow-covered mountains of the Alaska Range in the distance. In the town of Delta Junction we stopped at the Visitor Center with the official end-of-the-Alaska Highway
flags as well as a pig. Not the four legged pig, however. This one is a device that goes through the oil pipeline to clean out accumulated paraffin. As it goes through, it squeals and thus the name. Our next stop was at Rika's Roadhouse, a beautiful setting right along the Tanana
River. The Tanana River was also the first place we saw the Alaska Pipeline. Later on this afternoon just outside of Fairbanks we were able to walk up to the pipeline and have a talk given by our driver. Some of us took advantage of the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap at Santa Claus House at North Pole, AK plus look at the reindeer outside the building. Our last stop of the day had us all panning for gold. We got a sack of dirt, sat down at long troughs of water, put the dirt in a gold pan and tried our best to get rid of only the little rocks and dirt. Gold was
supposed to stay in the pan, being heavier than all the rest. We got to keep what we found. Some are now wearing new gold jewelry. After checking into our hotel with the huge, glorious hanging baskets of flowers outside, we went to the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Land. We had outstanding food and enjoyed the first night of activity for the annual celebration of Golden Days. With sunset tonight at 11:55 PM, a few are going to stay up and take pictures.
farming project. Only marginally successful, it is still beautiful to see cleared fields of (very short) barley with the snow-covered mountains of the Alaska Range in the distance. In the town of Delta Junction we stopped at the Visitor Center with the official end-of-the-Alaska Highway
flags as well as a pig. Not the four legged pig, however. This one is a device that goes through the oil pipeline to clean out accumulated paraffin. As it goes through, it squeals and thus the name. Our next stop was at Rika's Roadhouse, a beautiful setting right along the Tanana
River. The Tanana River was also the first place we saw the Alaska Pipeline. Later on this afternoon just outside of Fairbanks we were able to walk up to the pipeline and have a talk given by our driver. Some of us took advantage of the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap at Santa Claus House at North Pole, AK plus look at the reindeer outside the building. Our last stop of the day had us all panning for gold. We got a sack of dirt, sat down at long troughs of water, put the dirt in a gold pan and tried our best to get rid of only the little rocks and dirt. Gold was
supposed to stay in the pan, being heavier than all the rest. We got to keep what we found. Some are now wearing new gold jewelry. After checking into our hotel with the huge, glorious hanging baskets of flowers outside, we went to the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Land. We had outstanding food and enjoyed the first night of activity for the annual celebration of Golden Days. With sunset tonight at 11:55 PM, a few are going to stay up and take pictures.
2 comments:
Je ne comprends pas tout mais l'Alaska semble une très belle région.
Bizzzz de France.
English translation- I do not understand everything but Alaska seems a very beautiful region.
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