Monday, August 4 - Driving to Fairbanks

We woke up to clouds, showing what luck we had yesterday!  Decided to breakfast at the Perch where we had had dinner two nights ago.  We split a delicious plate of marinated steak, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes and a blueberry muffin., and then returned to our room to pack up and head north.  Carlo Creek Lodge turned out to be the perfect place to stay while at Denali as the lodge is simple but comfortable and the three restaurants across the road are all good, and that‘s all there is to the place.  The most popular location to stay is just north of the park entrance, nicknamed “Glitter Gulch,” which consists of several large hotels surrounded by tee shirt joints, hot dog stands, cafes, rafting shops and general chaos.

Bob drove north on the Parks Highway while I followed along in The Milepost book. What should have taken an hour took two as we entered one highway repair project after another.  With such a short season to work on the highways and with such weather and truck abuse as the roads are subjected to, when the weather cooperates, the highways crews are out working!  And usually 24 hours a day! On the good side skies gradually cleared as we headed northward and temperatures rose into the 70s.

Nenana Train Depot

After 70 miles, I suggested we turn off into the town of Nenana as The Milepost suggested that it was interesting.  Bob humored me as we have seen so few charming towns, or at least  ones with a real center, so far, but Nenana while tiny is a real town!  We parked by the historic 1923 train station and I walked a block to St, Mark’s Episcopal church, built of logs in 1905, and went inside to see the hand-hewn pews and the native-beaded moose hide covering on the raised altar.  We stopped in the depot, now a museum, and a docent in 1930’s dress came out and chatted with us.  We bought a locally made Alaskan Ulu, a very lethal-looking curved knife for chopping herbs, or skinning game!

St. Michael's

Native-beaded Moose Hide Frontal

Hand-hewn pews

After 60 miles more we reached Fairbanks and turned north a bit to reach the University of Alaska Large Animal Research Station.  I wanted to go there to see a Musk Ox, not that I could count them on my life mammals list, but I’m unlikely to ever see one elsewhere.  The facility was closed but we could look through a triple fence and there were about six of the wonderful huge horned critters!  It was about 70 degrees and I can’t imagine that they were comfortable with their massive thick coats, but they just wandered about munching grass and chewing their cuds.

Bob’s bird finding book took us to Creamer’s Field, a former large dairy farm run by a family called Creamer, funnily enough.  When they closed in the 60’s, the community chipped in and bought the whole farm as a wildlife park.  A small pond near the entryway was full of Canada Geese and Sand Hill Cranes, but when we walked a mile along the trails and boardwalks, which have suffered some damage from the torrential rains and floods of the last couple of months, we hardly heard anything.  Lots of mushrooms and some flowers and squirrels, but no birds!  Lovely and sunny, though. We have never seen or heard fewer birds than in interior Alaska.   Late May and early June are supposed to be the birdy months, but you would think we would see/hear a few?

Creamer's Dairy farm house

There is supposed to be an “old town” in Fairbanks, but we missed it on the way to our Best Western.  We settled in, relaxed, and I did a load of laundry. Then we drove a short ways to the Pump House, a former mining pump station, now a large restaurant full of antiques and a good menu of fish and meat.  Since we haven’t seen a cow or pig in Alaska, all the meat must be imported from the lower 48.  I had delicious

halibut cheeks on polenta and Bob had grilled salmon, then we split a rhubarb/strawberry crisp.

KBHZ with her flight of Alaskan beers!

The Pump House garden