We planned to be in Fairbanks on 5/30 but we arrived today, 6/5, 6 days behind schedule. BUT, we got here. Whew.
We began the day with breakfast at Fast Eddies in Tok, right next to the campground. OK breakfast, nothing special, like the breakfast we got in Whitehorse. We then got the RV ready, stopped for gas and we were on our way, the last leg to our first big stop in Alaska. Where we don’t have to move tomorrow or the next day, where we will be for 6 days. Well, not quite - we have a 3-day trip up to Prudhoe Bay.
Love the mountains along the way.
And this braided river.
Almost missed this moose and her young one running into the woods ahead of us.
Think this road will bounce us a bit?
Here’s what happens to poles sunk into permafrost.
Since we’ve decided that this is the first day that we might really consider as our visit to Alaska and we were going to take it slowly and enjoy it all, be tourists, explore where we could and talk with people up here. Our first stop was in Delta Junction where we stopped at the ‘official’ end of the Alaskan Highway. Practically, it goes on towards Fairbanks but is called the Richardson Highway for this last little bit. Thus in Delta Junction is this cool monument marking the end of the Alaska Hwy.
and this thermometer marking the coldest temperature recorded in Alaska. And then the thermometer broke.
and, finally, this memorial to the mosquito - the Alaska state bird, or so I’ve heard.
About the cold, there was this interesting article in a local newspaper about square tires in low temperatures.
But there is also the Sullivan Road House, lovingly preserved and maintained by local volunteers.
Built in 1905, on the Valdez/Fairbanks road, it was considered one of the nicest roadhouses on the road, consisting of a main lodge, barn, smithy, guest quarters and stables. Both Jack Sullivan and Florence Hamburg were true Alaskans, having joined the Klondike Gold Rush by climbing over the Chilkoot Trail during the 1890’s. Then they joined the Nome gold stampede in the winter of 1899 - 1900 where they got married. They moved to the Valdez/Fairbanks route in 1905 where they built a roadhouse. At this time, it could take 2 weeks to make the journey, cost between $100 and $200.
Roadhouses were spaced a day’s travel apart along the road, averaged $1 for bed, $2 for dinner and $1 for breakfast. Travel was not for the weak, even in winter, stages were open to prevent motion sickness and passengers were wrapped in fur robes with heaters at their feet. Boy, did they like the sight of that roadhouse.
When the Sullivan’s left their roadhouse they took only their personal belongings and left all the furnishings. Meanwhile the US Army took the property in 1942 and the main lodge was used by soldiers as a temporary shelter. A neighbor was contracted to take the contents and destroy them but he disobeyed these orders, took them home and preserved them for the future museum. Cool. The army took good care of the property, repairing and maintaining it and then supported efforts to move it to a place where it could be appreciated by all.
And what a good small museum it is. We enjoyed all the artifacts but what we appreciated the most was that there was an explanation for each of the artifacts, lots of quotes from others around the house and some really good docents. We certainly hadn’t thought that Delta Junction would have so much to offer.
Nice stop but, ah, but it’s time to move on to our next campsite.
We saw the oil pipeline over a river. The pipeline crosses 34 major rivers and close to 500 other smaller rivers and streams as it traverses 800 miles of Alaskan wilderness. Usually they put the oil pipeline under rivers but in this case they couldn’t because the river is shallow and the currents are swift. This might eventually cause the pipeline to become exposed and then damaged by ice, rocks and other obstacles in the river. This pipeline bridge is 1200’ long and has close to 5 miles of steel cable and 18,000’ of steel pilings. It is engineered to stand an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude, temps as low as 60 degrees below 0 F and winds up to 100 miles per hour. I think it’s here to stay.
You know how I like bridges. Here’s a neat one. I like the regularity of their geometric patterns.
Throughout our trip up through British Columbia and Alaska, we’ve seen many areas where forest fires have decimated the trees. This one was recent and, though the grasses have come back, nothing else has yet grown through the fire.
Here we are in North Pole. Who knew there really was a town with that name. But, back in the 1940’s, a development company bought up a farm and named it North Pole expecting toy manufactures to flock here in droves. Nope, didn’t happen but lots of tourists came with their kids, lots of kids sent their letters to Santa here and thus was born the year-round industry of celebrating Christmas. Street poles are lined with candy canes, lots of local businesses incorporate Santa in their names and and streets are called Mistletoe Lane.
But there is also a nice RV campground. Here we are - hoping to finally start our Alaska adventure.
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