Roaming the Red Rock Country

 

 

Hello, once again, from the Red Rocks of St. George, Utah.  This is one of our regular stops each fall (or every other fall) to visit relatives, take care of doctor appointments, and enjoy the area.  This time it was rather low key (no side trips to Vegas – but did make it to Mesquite – a little Vegas) with a few trips to the desert -hiking, sightseeing and a bit of geocaching.  One of the areas that we have worked on geocaching is just a bit west of St. George and in the Joshua Tree National Landmark (not Joshua Tree National Park).  In this area, controlled by the Federal BLM, is a very large piece of Geo Art in the form of a Kokopelli.  We worked on it two years ago but only finished the head – so this time we worked on the flute and arms but didn’t get quite as far as we wanted to.  Maybe next time.

The Joshua Tree Natural Landmark was formed in 1966 and is located on the western slopes of the Beaver Dam Mountains.  The most prominent feature are the Joshua Trees (go figure!) but it does have a number of interesting critters such as the Gambel’s Quail, Kit Fox, the Mojave Desert Tortoise and the dreaded Gila Monster.  But all we saw were a few of the quail and lots of cactus. 

 

 

 

 With endless sandstone to climb and play on, combined with unique attractions like Boy Scout Cave and Dixie Rock, Pioneer Park is a great destination, found just above the busy-ness of St. George.  Many trails wind through the park offering visitors a variety of route options.  This area is suitable for hikers of all abilities, but we had to watch our step around those cliff edges, the deep cracks, and the slot canyons.

Trail options at Pioneer Park are limitless.  Some of the more popular spots include a hike to the top of Dixie Rock.  Dixie Rock, also known as Dixie Sugarloaf, is the iconic large sandstone dome rock on Red Hills Parkway with big white letters that say “DIXIE”.  We enjoyed a spectacular view in every direction!

 

 

 

 

During our visit to Pioneer Park we happened onto one of the local residents from the whiptail lizard family.  We disturbed his sun-time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boy Scout Cave is found by hiking a well-worn trail with railings on the cliffs above. Kids (and adults) love going inside and exploring the cave, which also provides a welcome break from the sun on a hot day.  Of course we checked it out! 

After exploring Boy Scout Cave, we took some time to discover the surrounding rocks. There is plenty to see and do just by following the various trails and climbing around on the rocks and through the narrow canyons. A few small but interesting arches are perched high on the rim of the park along the Pioneer Rim Trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed over to Snow Canyon after exploring Pioneer Park – just to reacquaint ourselves with one of our favorite Utah State Parks.

 

 

 

To delve into a bit of a history lesson, Snow Canyon was created in 1958 and has a long history of human use. Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the region from AD 200-1250, utilizing the canyon for hunting and gathering. Paiute Indians used the canyon from AD 1200 to the mid-19th century.  Mormon pioneers discovered Snow Canyon in the 1850s while searching for lost cattle.  The canyon has been the site of Hollywood films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Electric Horseman, and Jeremiah Johnson. Originally called Dixie State Park, it was later renamed for Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, prominent pioneering Utah leaders.

 

 Two canyons, West Canyon and Snow Canyon, begin side-by-side at the north end of the park gouging deeply into the sandstone of the Red Mountains, each canyon then winding southward, slowly but surely converging and finally meeting in the middle of the park.  Red rock formations add to the beauty of the canyon.

 

 From there Snow Canyon continues southeastward as a single, larger canyon. As you near the park's southern entrance, the canyon ends, its mouth opening out onto what’s called the Santa Clara Bench near the west side of St. George or otherwise known as Ivins, Utah.

 A paved two-lane road enters the park from Ivins on the south, winds up the canyon a ways, then climbs up the eastern edge to the bench above Snow Canyon, where the road joins State Route 18.  Ancient lava flows spill over the eastern edges of Snow Canyon from above, where the road climbs out of the canyon.  Lots of great photo opportunities here! 

 

 

 

While we were in Snow Canyon State Park we had one of these little guys put on a show for us.  He had a bevy of young ladies he was herding around and decided to keep an eye on us as we walked the trails – just to be sure that we wouldn’t bother his harem. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda found an immature Night Heron at one of the local parks – it did not mind having his picture taken – he was focused on movement in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda found a couple of Wood Ducks during one of her forays with her sister.  These were at a local St. George park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of our favorite drives when we are in the St. George area is one that is disliked by many of the locals, as well as our relatives – the Virgin River Gorge - located between St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada - is quite the sight.  The Virgin River not only created the Virgin River Gorge but is also responsible for the topography of Zion National Park – just up the road a ways.  Interstate 15 twists and turns itself through this canyon which is noted for a couple of interesting things, one is the tricky driving conditions and the other is the fact that it is one of the most expensive parts of the interstate highway system ever constructed.  Regardless of all these little tidbits the scenery is gorgeous. 

 

Well, after a month in St. George we ,were off to southern California.  The winter RV park we stay at (Fountain of Youth or FOY for short) had some unusual visitors shortly after we arrived called “The Gypsy Time Travelers”.  Besides their homemade RV (which was entertainment in itself) he is a blacksmith and she is a master storyteller (with a bit of a Scottish accent).  They put on a couple of shows - which had her telling a story with him blacksmithing items behind her. These items would be given out to those who purchased raffle tickets prior to the show (or you could also buy an item after the show).  They were rather unique and fun shows.

 

Now…….

The World According to Snickers

Hi! I’m Snickers – but you probably already know that.  My sister, Meggs, is taking this blog off, so it’s all up to me to inform you “people” what’s up in our kitty sphere. Meggs and I am growing up – yes, siree buddy!  I’m getting big – close to seven pounds and I’m only eighteen weeks old.  But then I am a “Bengal” (the Vet said so too!). Meggs is only a Calico (or Tortoiseshell) – she’s small.  I like to jump on her – when I can catch her that is.  When I’m not doing that, I work hard on training my people – they need help.

Our people told us that we are in southern California right now at a place called the “Fountain of Youth”.  That is really a funny name for a place like this because all the people (and most of their owners – which by the way are dogs! - Ugh!) are really old.  Fountain of Youth? Really? Might want to check the water in this place. 

Anyway, our people have learned some new words since we adopted them.  They are really very talented when you consider the species.  They learned the word “no” just recently and repeat it a lot along with “stop”, “get down”, “Damn, that hurts” and “Please let me sleep”.  I think Meggs and I got a couple of pretty smart ones, it’s good when you don’t have to spend all your time training them.  It is a work in progress though.

Even with all the training we are giving our people, they sometimes get out of hand.  Every once in a while when they think the training is too hard they sit on me!  I put up with it  (they are quite a bit bigger than me) but pay back will be fun.  A good and rough kitty tongue in the ear at 1 am should do the trick with a little toothy nip on a soft part will add the exclamation point.  By the way, this place called the Fountain of Youth does have some really good sunbeams – for a cat, that makes life very, very good.

 

“Snickers”

 

Well as always, we will leave you with a few sunset pics that give us reason to return to this area.

 

 

 

Home is where we park it, 

Lee and Linda

The Loneliest Road in America

 

 

 

We have traveled many roads during our 10 years of full timing – roads like Route 66, the Mother Road, the Pacific Coast Highway, the Overseas Highway (Florida Keys), the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Extraterrestrial Highway, the Turquoise Trail, and the Bear Tooth Highway just to name a few.  So it was only natural for us to hook up the 5th wheel and head down the “loneliest” road in America.  U.S. Route 50 (or Hwy 50) is a transcontinental highway stretching from West Sacramento, California in the west to Ocean City, Maryland on the east coast.  The Nevada portion (which we were on) crosses the center of the state and was named The Loneliest Road in America by Life magazine in July 1986.  It does live up to its name with large, rather desolate areas with little to no signs of civilization.  One day while we were moving along we climbed (and descended) seven mountain passes – all around 7,000 feet.  The truck worked hard that day!

 

We left Fallon, Nevada with only a short little drive with the destination being Austin, Nevada – an old mining town and about as close to a ghost town as you can get without it actually being one.  We stayed overnight on a gravel patch with hookups – it was pretty quiet there.  Austin has a rather interesting history and was discovered in 1862 by a horse belonging to a guy named W.H. Talbott.  The horse, by accident, kicked up a piece of quartz containing gold and silver.  Talbott sent the piece to Virginia City for assay.  He staked out a claim, and when word got out, others followed - and a silver rush was on.  One year later, 10,000 people occupied the town.

Today, the town is lucky if it has 200 or so living people - and a graveyard (a rather large one) with lots of stories and stones.

 

One of the “attractions” in Austin was the Stokes Castle – built 1897 – by an eastern rich dude (who was interested in the mines) as an exact replica of a tower outside Rome and was built out of hand hewn native granite.  The huge slabs were raised by a hand operated windlass.  It was built as a summer home for a son of this rich dude and was lived in for a total of ‘2’ months.  (It took a year and a half to build.)  It has been sitting and rotting, unoccupied, ever since.  As you can tell it has degraded into the extreme fixer-upper category.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All around the Austin area, and this area of Nevada, the old mines and abandoned mining equipment lay where left behind after its purpose was served.  Ghosts of riches and dreams of another era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after exploring Austin, we hit the road again and headed towards the megalopolis of Ely, Nevada and the surrounding copper mines.

 

As we headed into Ely, Nevada the first large signs of civilization is the Robinson Mine.  This large open pit mine covers over six miles when you take the whole thing into account.  The trucks and shovels are absolutely huge!  They mine and process mainly copper with gold as a side product with the annual production being around 120 million pounds of copper and about 75,000 ounces of gold.  Right next to the mine is the little town of New Ruth - an old, rather dilapidated little town where quite a few of the workers live.  It was originally a mine-owned company town in the early 1900’s but has since gone to privately owned properties.

 

 

As with a number of the old/older mining towns, there is lots of old equipment around.  Here is an old road grader from the 1930s – now a lawn ornament.  Not too far from this location is the ghost town of Elijah – the original mining town in the area founded in 1869.  We wandered around there one day as we were watching the big mine trucks haul their loads back and forth, making those slag piles higher and higher.

 

We visited Ely for a few days, wandering around the area, visiting the mines and museums as well as a couple of hikes in the surrounding hills.  We had been here just a couple of years ago so some of the attractions we had seen already.  There is a railway museum or “Heritage Railway” there as well as the “Ghost Train of Old Ely”  and if you are a bit of a train nut, I would highly recommend stopping.  This time through we spent most of our time on the trails and museums. 

Above is a little critter we ran into on one of our hikes – a Jerusalem Cricket – about the size of my thumb and reputed to have a rather nasty bite.

 

Here are a few of the exhibits at the White Pine Public Museum in Ely.  We kind of like the “old” stuff – I guess that's why we are still married.

After Ely, we headed on down the road and our month long stay in the St. George area.

 

St. George is still growing and expanding in all directions – it used to be a little, quiet town.  No longer!  Our stay here is going as usual - doctor visits/checkups, visiting relatives, geocaching, exploring, sightseeing and anything else we can fit in.  We did make a stop in a new spot this time – the old Silver Reef mining town and mines just north of St. George off the I-15.  The displays seem to be fairly new and it kind of looks like it’s a work in progress.  It is interesting though.

 

 

The world according to Snickers & Meggs

 

Meggs here!  We are getting this full timing thing down pat.  Our people provide us with a little home of our own while we are moving down the road in that big wheeled thing.  It’s a good place to sleep and when we wake up we are in a new place – pretty cool!  This latest new place hasn’t been so nice though – some new people came over to meet us - our people said something about a sister/in-law thing.  She tried to feed me to her dogs – that was not very nice!  Then to top it off my female people took me to a place called a vet!  After sticking my brother with that needle thing and seeing what they did to him with that thermometer thing, I wasn’t going to let them stick me or put anything up my butt.  They learned about the Meggs “spaz” mode that day - or as my male people says “going ugly early”.  It’s not nice to treat me that way – if you do, you will pay.  I’m back home now, a treat and a nap helped calm me down, but if I ever see a vet again, I will shred it.

Snickers here!  Yes siree buddy!  I’m a traveling cat – going to see the world.  It’s bigger than I thought it would be - lots of roads and mountains and stuff.  My sister and I do everything together - eat, sleep, play, and even use the kitten box at the same time.  We even got to go see that vet thing, Meggs got real mad at them!  I don’t think I want to talk about it.  Our people said we are going to be here for a while because they have to go see their vets, too.  Better them than me!

 Snickers & Meggs

(P.S Keep that Trump guy away from us – we heard he likes to grab kittens!)

 

 It always seems that we see and do so much more than what I put into the blog but I do have to cut it off somewhere - so we will leave you this time with a view of the cliffs near the entrance to Red Rock State Park just west of Hurricane, Utah.

Home is Where We Park It!

Lee & Linda

Back to the lower 48 and heading South!

 

So with one last stop in Anchorage we puttered around a bit, did some last minute shopping, turned in the car, and boarded the plane home.  As we were gaining altitude we saw it!  We really did see all of Mt. Denali – from the air and in a plane – from way too far away.  And just as quickly, it was out of sight, as the plane turned south bringing us back to the lower 48 and our little condo on wheels.

After getting through the Seattle airport and onto the shuttle to Bellingham, we picked up our truck and settled in at a nearby motel.  Didn’t have much time to stagnate before we were off again to meet good friends, Duane and Debbie, at a nearby restaurant.  After three hours of catching up (and eating), a few urgent looks from the waitress, it was time to go back to the motel and get ready to head toward the Tri- Cities, our sister and brother-in-law, nephews, and their church where we parked our 5ver while we were in Alaska.  Had a good visit with the relatives, helped with a few projects, and then hit the road again after restocking the 5ver and checking it out. 

First stop after the Tri-Cities was John Day, Oregon.  We had never traveled down Highway 395 or stopped in John Day before and were pleasantly surprised with the scenery along the way and this little Oregon town.  It was a bit of a relief after the larger cities and the intense tourist experience of Alaska – time to unwind.

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John Day was a pleasant surprise as far as small towns go.  Quiet, friendly, and easy to get around.  That along with the mountain and canyon scenery made it a very nice stay. 

We stayed at the fairground RV park and were treated to a small rodeo during our stay, but the main attraction we wanted to see was one recommended by our friends, Bill and Rena, which was the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  We were only able to get to and hike one of the units (there are three separate units).  The unit we visited is referred to as the Painted Hills.

 

 

The museum and visitor center at the Painted Hills was quite impressive with all of its information on fossils.  I’m not sure how long we spent in there but I’m sure it wasn’t enough given the information available.  After walking through the museum, we took a ride down Hwy. 19 towards the Painted Hills and Cathedral Rock. It was a slow drive and well worth the time! The rock formations were incredibly interesting.

We took the time to wander the hills and trails while we were there – it was so scenic and quiet.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The scenery is incredible and is well worth a visit if your in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Lakeview, Oregon where we stayed at an RV park that was on a working ranch – complete with cattle and all the associated smells and sounds. 

It was probably one of the most peaceful RV parks we have experienced in the ten years we have been on the road. Hiking one day in the nearby hills we happened upon some fresh mountain lion tracks with the accompanying feeling of being watched – it made the neck hairs stand up a bit. But we never did see or hear anything. 

We wandered into the nearby town of Lakeview and ran into the above sign.  It immediately reminded me of a blog written by Keith, my blogging mentor.  If I remember correctly it was quite humorous with many tongue in cheek references about playing with the “Honkers”.  The stigma these poor high school kids have to face has got to be interesting – let alone the jokes.

 Then it was back on the road and down to the Reno, Nevada area.  We stayed for a  few days and were able to visit with longtime friends, Ron and Karen, (38 years long!!) -as well as good longtime RV friends, Dick and Annie, who live in the area.  Thanks, guys!! 

 

 

We took a drive to Virginia City – another famous mining town from the 1800s.  It was well worth the drive with its twisty roads and excellent vistas of the surrounding countryside.  Once again we “lucked” into a local festival/rodeo/parade that just happened to be in progress – it was quite fun.  Virginia City itself is similar to Deadwood, Tombstone, parts of Alaska, and a few other western mining towns that we have visited.  Always lots of fun with the activities, shops and eateries.  But touristy!

 

We wandered the town peeking through the various shops and then noticed that a parade was starting.  It was a rather short one put on by a Steam Punk group from San Diego – one of those groups similar to what we had happened onto in Bellingham, Washington.  This one had the same Harry Potter/Johnny Depp/Alice in Wonderland/Bordello theme and when Linda talked to some of them, they were not even aware that other people in different parts of the country were doing similar things.  It seems every time you try to be different there is someone else in some other location with the same idea.

 

 

The area around Virginia City is still loaded with old mines – a reminder of days gone by.  It has evolved now, like most old western towns, to mining for American Express, Master Card, and Visa from the tourists.  They seem to be doing quite well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The world according to Snickers & Meggs

We acquired two new family members once we got back to the lower 48 – meet Snickers and Meggs.  They will be traveling the country with us and looking at it with brand new eyes – it should be interesting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi!  I’m Snickers.  I’m a boy cat – yes siree buddy, got all those boy parts.  I’m part Bengal, and I think I have a bit of Tabby in me too, - but my mom didn’t want to talk about that, so it’s just a guess.  Meggs and I adopted some new people a couple of weeks ago – when they came and visited - they looked so pitiful that we just had to go with them and try to make them happy.  So far it seems to be working.

 

Hello, I’m Nutmeg (my people call me Meggs).  I’m the girl cat and will grow into a most beautiful and loving feminine feline in a bit of time, but for now I’m just a kitten.  I’m trying to teach my people that we kittens have no bounds – none what-so-ever!  What is theirs is mine, mine, mine.  My current project is the “flying leg leap – claws bared”.  Their legs are mine too!  I try to see how far I can jump up on my people before sinking my new and very sharp claws into them.  It’s fun to watch them jump around until I let loose.

 

It’s nice meeting all of you and we will be telling some stories as we lead our new people around the country and teach them about life.  Time to go – it’s nap time.

Snickers & Meggs

 

As we make our way south through Nevada, Utah, and California, we leave you with a sunset from the Tri-Cities area of Washington state.

 

Home is where we park it!

Lee & Linda

Fairbanks and beyond to Denali – The High One!

 

After our adventures in Tok and Chicken we got back on Alaska Highway 3 and headed towards Fairbanks.  Along the way we were able to view the mountains of the Alaskan Range and were experienced enough now to discern the difference between the areas that had permafrost and those that did not.  The trees and vegetation are extremely stunted in the permafrost areas.  Even after being here for over a month now we can’t get over how vast and scenic Alaska is!

When we got to the Fairbanks area, we settled into a room at Eielson Air Force Base.  Then off to visit a place called North Pole, Alaska.  This is a real place and the residents there promote it constantly.  It all started when a couple named Con and Nellie Miller arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1949.  Con became a merchant and fur buyer in the surrounding native villages.  He would put on an old red Santa suit each Christmas as he made his rounds and earned a bit of a celebrity status as Santa Claus in the eyes of the village children - the very first St. Nick any of them had ever seen.

After a few years, the Millers had decided to build their own trading post thirteen miles south of Fairbanks, in an area newly dubbed "North Pole".  Then one day, while Con was hard at work on the new store, a young native Alaskan boy recognized Con and said, "Hello, Santa Claus!  Are you building a new house?"  The thought stuck and the new store ended up being called the "Santa Claus House!"

Now many years after it started it is quite the tourist (trap) attraction and the entire town feeds off of it in many ways.  Quite a few of the businesses have adopted the North Pole theme and you will see gift shops, welding shops, light poles, homes and all sorts of other businesses decorated as if it was Christmas.  And if you make the trip to visit the real-life North Pole, it would be hard to miss seeing jolly old Santa Claus.  There are currently three white-whiskered men who don the big red suit and sit in the big Santa chair.  One of them being the president of the local chamber of commerce who even legally changed his name to Santa Claus.

Yes, boys and girls, the North Pole is not only real, but has the motto - "Where the spirit of Christmas lives year around.”  It is the home to the Santa Claus House where children's letters are received and promptly answered, candycane-striped street lights line Santa Claus Lane and St. Nicholas Drive, not to mention a 45-foot-tall Santa surrounded by fencing topped with barbed wire welcome the visitors.  It's safe to say the 2,200 residents of North Pole dream of sugar plum fairies and the coming tourist season on a nightly basis.

Fairbanks is not a large city by any means but is the largest in the interior region of Alaska with about 33,000 hearty souls.  One thing we found interesting here in Alaska is that they have boroughs rather than counties or parishes.  And being Alaska, they are big – the Denali Borough covers an area about the size of West Virginia.  I don’t believe that I would want to spend a winter here being just 120 miles from the Artic Circle – it would make North Dakota seem like the Banana Belt.   

The history of Fairbanks, the second-largest city in Alaska, can be traced to the founding of a trading post on the south bank of the Chena River on August 26, 1901. It’s really like any small city in the states, only further north.  I couldn’t help but smile when I heard (multiple times, mind you) the local folks tell the tourists - “We are part of the United States.”  Then with a side look of disgust and a mumbled “dumbass” they would return to their work with a smile.

It turns out that Fairbanks has an antler arch similar to the one in Jackson, Wyoming.  Only this one is made from over 100 moose and caribou antlers rather than elk.  If you are ever in downtown Fairbanks along the Chena River you should check this out.  It is very Alaskana!

Also there are a number of other attractions in the downtown area with one being the SS Nenana.  It is a five-deck, western style river sternwheeler paddle ship.  You can wander through it at your leisure and check out all the interesting stories throughout.  It is 237 feet long and 42 feet wide and she was rated for loads of 1,000 tons.  I kind of fell for the name Nenana.  Pronounced Ne-na-na, it is the name of the river that runs through Denali.  But the sternwheeler Nenana sits in a park now, for the locals to play on and the tourists to ogle – no more water for this old girl.

Soapy Smith’s Restaurant was an absolute hoot to visit in downtown – not only did you get a good lunch, you got a running vocal history lesson from the owner who just happened to also be a state legislator and son of the first governor of the state.  I really think he is practicing for a comedian act later in life.  Also he is one of the grandsons of ‘Wise’ Mike Stepovich (look this guy up!) who entered the Fairbanks mining district during the Alaska-Yukon gold rush and turned into an Alaskan version of George Hearst of the Comstock and Deadwood gold fields. 

All the public restrooms in the downtown area have the women and men signs dressed for the normal weather for Alaska and is something you don’t  see in the lower 48.  We thought it was kind of cute.

In the downtown park, where we wandered around, there is a memorial to the Women Air Force Service Pilots from World War II.  As I read the informational kiosks, I learned some things that I had only briefly heard about but never took the time to appreciate.  The female pilots of the WASP ended up numbering 1,074, each freeing up a male pilot for combat service and duties.  They flew over 60 million miles in every type of military aircraft.  

Thirty-eight WASP fliers lost their lives while serving during the war, all in accidents.  Eleven died in training and twenty-seven on active duty.  Because they were not considered military under the existing guidelines, a fallen WASP was sent home, at the families expense, without traditional military honors or a note of heroism.  The army, at that time, would not allow the U.S. flag to be placed on the coffin of a fallen WASP.

After reading this, even I was humbled! 

 

The further north we came the more native Alaskans we ran into.  The natives to the Fairbanks region are Athabascan Indians.  Though there was never a permanent Alaska Native settlement at the site of Fairbanks, the Athabascan Indians have used the area for thousands of years.  A bit longer than we have been in the area.

We made a stop one day at a small wildlife refuge in the area because we had heard there were quite the gathering of Sandhill Cranes there.  It is Alaska's largest game bird, and yes, they are hunted here – where they are protected in most other areas.  Residents of the Yukon Delta area have affectionately nicknamed it the “Sunday Turkey”.

They are one of the most comical birds we know of when doing their famous “mating dance”.  We saw a couple of the young males practicing while we were there – it is rather entertaining.   

 

While in Fairbanks I got caught up in the hype of a tour venue and “just had to go!”

“Hop aboard a narrow gauge train and stake your claim to gold on this two-hour tour of Gold Dredge Number 8.  Learn how 100,000 gold rushers fought the permafrost in their quest to get rich—then grab some gold of your own!”  They had me hook, line, and sinker!

We arrived at the location early - and being the first ones there had to wait around for a while, taking pictures of the Alaskan Pipeline and checking out the cute little train depot thinking that we were going to have a quaint little tour – then reality hit.  Tour bus after tour bus started arriving – cruise ship people!  They just kept coming!  Princess, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and even Celebrity, just to name a few – we were trapped in cruise ship tourist hell.  So at the predesignated time we boarded our (not so little) narrow gauge train to the exclamations of “Where’s the coffee?”, “Where’s the donuts?”, and the often repeated, “When is Happy Hour?” with our thousand “new friends” who were happily snapping selfies with any inanimate or animate object within reach.  (I think Lee’s number of new friends are a bit high, but it was overwhelming!!)

It turns out that this entire operation is owned by Holland America Tours and is set up to dredge the gold out of the cruise ship tourists pockets – “There’s gold in them thar old people.”  (Yes, I have to admit we were two of them.)  Even with all the “new friends” we really did enjoy the tour of Gold Dredge #8 and the methods of hydraulic mining.  The dredge is quite the mechanical wonder.  It “walked” across the gold fields, scooping up pay dirt and mechanically panning it.  It had a huge conveyor belt of gargantuan metal scoops that carved out huge sections of earth as it pulled itself along at a snails pace.

This thing was never moved around to other sites and once it was assembled here – here is where it stayed.  In its entire lifetime it only moved 4.5 miles dredging gold as it went and produced a little over 7.5 million ounces of gold.

 

 

I had thought that this massive machine had been steam powered.  My first surprise came when our tour guide informed us that Gold Dredge #8, as well as the others in Alaska, were electric.  He then went into detail of how the gold company had built a power plant in the city of Fairbanks and had run a giant extension cord from which to run their dredges.  This same electric power plant is still in use in Fairbanks today, almost 100 years later.

These things used huge amounts of water and the gold companies had to build pump houses near the area to supply the dredge with the 6,000 gallons-per-minute it needed to operate – and this was on a 24/7 basis!

The dredge was built on top of a huge barge and didn’t have a propulsion system of its own.  Its only moving parts were the gang buckets (which helped drag it forward) in front of the barge and a large cement mixer-like a rotating steel drum containing thousands of quarter inch holes through which the water, sand, silt, and gold flowed through.  Also the conveyor belts, which then were used to carry out the worthless rock and debris.

 

Here is a photo inside the ship's wheelhouse with the recently certified and fully in control Dredge Master, Belinda.  She could use these controls to control the speed and depth of the gang buckets and the orientation of the barge.

 

 

 

 

 

 Included in the tour was a quick lesson in gold panning.  Here they had literally hundreds of troughs set up – gave you a little poke of “paydirt” and taught you how to separate the gold from the dirt.  I think we ended up with about $22 worth of real (planted) gold between the two of us.  If you happened to catch the fever while doing this the tour company would gladly sell you additional pokes at about $25 dollars each.

 

 

 

So with a short train ride back to the parking lot lined with multitudes of cruise line tour buses, we found our little rental car and headed back to Fairbanks to plan our next great experience.  The riverboat Discovery on the Chena River!

We’ve been on our share of boat rides at tourist spots around the country and were looking forward to this one when we found out about it.  If you are ever in the area this is one well thought out and well run experience.  It's a show along the river... not just a boat ride.  It's all about the culture and history of Alaska and what I would consider a must for a Fairbanks visit.

 

As we left the dock we saw one of Alaska's bush pilots taking off and landing right from the river right up close to the boat.  At a riverside fish camp, we learned how Alaska natives traditionally prepared salmon for smoking and drying. They even gave us a sample of Captain Jim's smoked salmon (tasted like fish!).  Further down the river we stopped by one of the Iditarod dog kennels, run by the family of the late Iditarod champion, Susan Butcher.  There we were treated to how the dogs are kept and trained - and watched a “training sled” being pulled by the dogs.  The training sled was an old stripped down ATV with the engine removed.

We stopped at, and were able to get a guided tour, at a Chena Indian Village where native Alaskan guides took us around their Athabascan village, while explaining how everything worked and about their heritage.  We did learn quite a lot during the tour – the native Alaskans providing the tours were all young people - college educated in the lower 48 - then came back home to earn a bit of money during the tourist season and tease any Texans they could identify.  They do seem to make quite the sport of that up here.

 

 We enjoyed Fairbanks but it was time to move on once again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main attraction for us during our stay in Alaska was Denali National Park and Preserve.  It encompasses over 6 million acres of Alaska’s interior wilderness with only one main (sometimes harrowing) road winding into its center.  The centerpiece of the park is 20,310 feet high Mount Denali (formally known as Mount McKinley), North America’s tallest peak.  With its terrain of tundra, spruce forest, mountains and glaciers, the park is home to an array of spectacular wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou and Dall sheep.

 You can only drive about 15 miles into the park before you need a special permit or you hop on one of the shuttle or tour buses.  We did drive that allowed stretch repeatedly while we were there and spotted quite the number of animals.

The pretty little guy above is a Ptarmigan that is just starting to change into his fall/winter colors.  In the winter time he is pure white.  We were walking one of the paths in the park and he let me walk right up to him and take this photo.

 

This bull caribou just happened to be grazing near a river as we were driving by.  There are lots of these guys and gals in the park and I’m sure we had seen at least 50 in various locations during our visit.  They are the wild version of reindeer - or put the other way Reindeer are the domesticated version of the Caribou. 

 

 

 A young female moose that came and visited one day.

 

We took one of the tour buses to get back further into the park and so glad that we did.  Once you get in as far into the park as they allow you to drive the road turns to narrow, curvy dirt with no guard rails.  The shuttle and tour buses go an additional 75 miles on these roads viewing the scenery and wildlife as they go.  We only went in about 50 miles or so more further on the tour bus than what we could drive.  This view is of Polychrome Canyon as we rode those narrow, curvy, no guardrail dirt roads.  Some pretty shear drops on those roads also.  But we did see lots of bear, caribou, Dall sheep and moose along the way.

 

One of the Grizzly Bears that we saw on the tour.  It kind of looks like he is answering that age old question of “Does a bear poop in the woods?” 

One of the things that caught my attention as we wandered some of the trails in the park was the amount of people who had bells tied into their shoes or clothes.  It is supposed to make enough noise so the bears don’t bother you.  We have been told by park rangers that this does not really work and the only purpose it serves is to identify which bear has been eating tourists by the number of bells in their scat (poop).  They act more like a dinner bell to the bears – the small chunky tourists are the bears favorite ones.

The soft jingle of bells as you walk through the forest does put you a bit into the Christmas spirit though.

 

On one of our drives into the park we saw a ranger putting up signs to warn the tourist of the upcoming rut for the moose population.  We didn’t think much of it until just a short distance down the road were two bull moose – not in the fighting spirit yet, just meandering along.  This is the guy that came out right in front of the car.  When he was standing on the pavement his hump had to have been close to 7 feet.  An up close and personal perspective is pretty awesome!

 

One thing that we have been battling since we arrived in Alaska has been the weather.  The clouds and rain have been ever-present, and for people that love the sunshine, this has been a bit tough.  We were told early on that our chances of seeing the entire Mount Denali were about 1 in 6.  Of the 5 weeks we have been here we only heard of one small time frame that the mountain was not covered in clouds and we were no where close.  But one of the last days here the mountain gave us just a little peek and a promise that it is not going anywhere.  I guess we will just have to come back.

We’re bank in Anchorage now doing a few last minute things before we end this Alaska adventure and head on back to the lower 48.  It has been cloudy, wet and cold but we have enjoyed it all and learned so much from this place called Alaska.

We hope you have enjoyed our little adventure and when you next hear from us it will be back to the RV life.

Home – will be - where we park it!

Lee & Linda