Denali to Fairbanks

Midway through our stay in Tek, the weather turned gray and drizzly…. hey! It’s Alaska, after all… We set up a big tarp and gathered underneath for a potluck. I broke out some of the halibut from Ninilchik, and Dennis and I fried up a big pile of yummy chunks. We also did a bunch of shrooms and onion rings. Everyone brought sides, and we chowed down!

     

  

The campground is nice, with big secluded sites. Each evening, a ranger came and gave a talk in the amphitheater close by. Sitting there on log benches slapping mosquitos reminded me of camping as a child. All too soon, it was time to head on down the road… I was sorry to go!

  

Especially since I knew we had 15 miles of muddy road to travel just to get back out!

  

I stopped again at the park visitor’s center, and hooked up with a tour of the Denali dog sledding kennels. The park maintains a number of dog sled teams, because, in the winter, dog sleds are the only way to travel inside the park! A free shuttle picked us up and deposited us at the kennels.

  

The best thing about the tour was the opportunity to interact with the dogs! They are quite sociable and friendly, and unlike the Iditarod dogs, are closer in appearance to what I envisioned Alaskan sled dogs to be. That’s because the Iditarod teams breed for speed and endurance, and the Denali kennels bread for size, strength, and disposition.

  

  

Most of the dogs are just hanging out, enjoying their summer off…. Hey, it’s a good gig: sleep in the sun, get a daily walk, and let tourists pet you all day. A dog’s life, I guess.

  

They herd all of us over to a viewing area and pick some dogs to hook up to a sled for a demo. Hey, they aren’t sleepy anymore! Every dog in the area is hollering “Pick me! Pick me!” They pick a few and harness them up, then:

Denali Sled Dog Demo

The short run is followed by an interesting program about the dogs and mushers, and what they do for the park in the winter. Very enjoyable, even though I didn’t get a ride!

  

OK, now it’s off to Fairbanks! As I travel north from Denali, I start to lose elevation, and aspen groves begin to replace the pines. Fairbanks is in a kind of big open valley. I also leave the rain behind, and the skies start to clear up.

  

Fairbanks is a nice size… big enough to have everything you need, but not so big as to have traffic, rush hours, and annoyances.

  

I roll into the Fairbanks Elks lodge and park in their RV sites. Nice location, backed up to the Chena river, and within walking distance of downtown. I’ll be here for a few days. I go in to the lodge, lift a couple of pints of fine local draft beers with some of the local Elks, and have an excellent ribeye steak dinner. Hey, I’m going to like it here!