Wednesday, August 6 - Driving to Copper River

We awoke to dense fog, checked out of the Best Western and drove over to the Cookie Jar, a coffee shop Bob had discovered on Trip Advisor.  It was a classic place with a very nice heart-of-gold waitress, decafe, and a very good breakfast of home-made corned beef hash with two over-easy eggs on top that we split.  Afterwards we drove out of Fairbanks, heading southeast on the Richardson Highway.

We stopped for gas at the junction of Santa Claus Lane & St. Nicholas Drive in the town of  North Pole, a Fairbanks suburb.  Every pole is candy cane colors, and the main economy is collecting fees from answering Santa letters from around the world!

The Pipeline

The fog gradually lifted, becoming a partly cloudy day.  We joined the Pipeline as it flows from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to Gulf of Alaska.   As we drove along the large, full Tanana River flowing to the Yukon River and the Bering Sea, The Milepost recommended a stop at Rika’s Roadhouse, built in 1910 and now part of Big Delta Historical Park.  As soon as we pulled in, Bob heard the call of the White-winged Crossbill and eventually we saw the red bird with white striped black wings - another new bird!   We walked around Rika’s admiring the very well-done park with vegetable gardens, antiques, workshops and informational placards.

Rica's Roadhouse

We gradually climbed to 3200’ from Fairbanks’s 500’ and soon were seeing fantastic views of snowy mountain tops. After 170 miles we passed Summit Lake and started down - all the water now flowing towards Prince William Sound.  We were pretty hungry by now and were counting on the Paxson Roadhouse…but it had closed in late-2013.

After 255 miles we arrived at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitors’ Center - I had never heard of this park, but it’s the largest NP in the country and covers 13 million acres of beautiful ranges of mountains and countryside.  Most of it isn’t accessible, but it’s great to have it all protected.  We watched an informational film and got some pamphlets and may hike a bit on our way to Hatcher Pass tomorrow.

Gulkana Galcier

Shortly we arrived at Copper Center and found the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge where the Princess Cruise Line busses some of their passengers who want a land option after cruising.  We got a lovely room with an amazing view of glacier-covered Mt. Drum, a classically conical volcano.

Mt. Drum from our bedroom!

We relaxed a bit and then went down to dinner and got a booth with a Mt. Drum-centered view so we could spend our dinner watching the cloud cover dissipate and the volcano come into full view in the twilight.  We both had salmon, a bottle of pinot noir, and huckleberry ice-cream for dessert.

Bob has us booked into a rather primitive "Alaska Experience" for the next two nights - no wifi, no running water!! So we'll see!