Alaska Trip: Day Five, Fairbanks

081015

Monday

8:00 am

Bags out & we are off in an hour to Fairbanks,
panning for gold & a river raft float trip this evening!

It was quite a moment - standing in Fairbanks, Alaska - a childhood dream realized for Greg.

One claim to fame for Fairbanks is that it's the home of the Yukon Quest,
a dogsled race covering 1,000 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska to
Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The route follows
historic gold rush migrations & the Yukon River.

We met dog musher Kyia Bouchard, owner of this museum.

Musher wannabe photo #4 (I think)

This really captured our imagination!

Every kid's winter dream :-D

Another bear photo...

Excursion to Gold Dredge #8 included ducking under the Alaskan pipeline!
They have it raised up to in certain areas accommodate caribou migrations & wildlife.

Amazing to hear how there is an eye on every bit of it.

Off to pan for gold!

G got a little advice on technique.

We ended up with $35 worth between the two of us,

but spent a wee bit more than that in the gift shop...

Dinner and a lazy Midnight Sun river raft float down the Chena River 

with our extreme excursion Arctic Circle partners, Connie & John.

 This bad boy guarded this whole stretch of river.

We startled a family of mergansers as we came in to dock.

Our host shared about what it's like to live in the bush.

Loved the chance to get out & see some local scenery & relax.
Tomorrow? On to the Yukon!

082815 OBW 109-111

OBW 109

Herbs

We just returned from a two week land/sea/air cruise to Alaska,

celebrating my husband's retirement last May.

I was keeping up with the prompts but was without internet much of the time.

This photo was taken on a hike in Whitehorse.

The guide is showing us some wild sage.

OBW 110

Vacant

This one I took once we got home.

I knew right away what the photo would be.

Kind of like when you see the pile of stuff at the curb...

OBW 111

Stairs

This was the end of a tunnel on the White Pass Railroad. 

Those steps go down & under a spooky trestle.

 This was taken on a paddle wheel boat in Dawson City.

Dawson City again...loved those cheeky yellow steps!

 The stairs are at the end on the other side - Yukon Suspension Bridge.

Well, I think that catches me up!

 Won't you join in over at

Sharing the world through our lens

Alaska Trip: Day Four, Chuckwagon Breakfast & Denali National Park

080915

Sunday

7:30 am

Whaaat? 

The plan was to have a leisurely morning & to live stream our home church's Sunday morning service. When we received our welcome packet last night we said, There must be some mistake - we booked a chuckwagon DINNER, not breakfast! sigh... Not our mistake but no refunds so off we go!

New friends Mike & Marge

Our boss of a cook!

Number three wannabe musher photo.

Our teamsters & guide, students here for summer work from
Florida, Serbia & oh dear I can't remember will have to ask G tomorrow, lol...

1:50 pm we head out to Denali National Park!

Once again, God put on a spectacular show for us, with 11 grizzly bears, over two dozen caribou, willow ptarmigans, ground squirrels, Dall's sheep (at a great distance), golden eagles, magpies...

Unfortunately, I had one of those "You can NOT be serious" moments. 

When we arrived at the park I realized I didn't have my long zoom lens with me... 

I was almost sick...

Many of the best photos were taken by G with our little pocket Nikon Coolpix.

I made sure to lug that lens EVERYWHERE for the remainder of our trip.

Bull moose greeted us almost at the entrance to the park.

Caribou

Grizzly!

Dall's sheep near the top of the mountain ridge (see the tiny white dots?) 

Black-billed Magpie

Two more grizzlies - could be mom & a cub as they tend to travel together.

Spectacular scenery

Yes - that's our road at the edge of the landslide-looking place!
And we saw this before we were driving on it...
I love how it looks like gold spilling down the hill side :~)

Unfortunately we didn't get a glimpse of the colossus.
Denali kept herself swathed in mystery...

Great pic by G of a caribou.

Golden eagle - there were three at one point.
Their wingspan is even longer than a bald eagle's at over 7 feet.

Two more caribou on top of a ridge.

We all thought that this would play out like an Animal Planet show...

But they just kept chowing down on veggies.
(They weren't as close together as they appear.)

 High entertainment from the grizzly.

Willow ptarmigan

Mama moose & twin babies, although one is hidden.
Perfect way to end our journey through Denali!

We got back so late that the hotel restaurant had to re-open to feed us.
Off to Fairbanks in the morning!