Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

What a week I’ve had! Busy doesn’t even come close to describing what I’ve been up to. Portrait shoots, dancing (belly dance class has started up again), and the coveted Denali Road Lottery adventure have filled the days since I wrote last.  I’ll start with Denali and work my way back.

My friend Sabrina won the *golden ticket* to drive into Denali this past weekend. Her pass was for Monday, so she and Lori (who went with us) had to take off from work. I’m sure their bosses understood, as the Denali Road Lottery is quite the event for many people. Winning a pass is truly like winning the lottery.

To sum up what the Denali Road Lottery is: Every year during the summer, there is a time period when you can apply to win a pass into the park. This summer, it was the month of June. You have the entire month to apply, and there is an application fee of $10 per chance. There is only one chance per person, but you can apply for everyone in your family (to include kids), as long as you’re willing to part with $10 each.  I only apply for Steve and I, although I have thought about applying for my sons to better my odds of winning.  (Passes are transferable, but not permitted to be sold - however, you will see them advertised on Craigslist and other venues by folks who seem to make a habit out of applying for passes they never intend to use - frustrating!)

Names are pulled (not sure how they do the selecting) - a total of 1600. Four hundred cars a day - for four days (Fri-Mon) are permitted to drive into Denali Park; all the way to the end if they want. This allows you to stop when you want, get out when you want, spend as much time with wildlife as you want, etc. (Of course there are rules about getting too close to the animals, etc).

It’s 85 miles to Wonder Lake, and the road continues another 8-10 miles or so to Kantishna Backcountry Lodge. The lottery is a fantastic opportunity to explore the park at your own pace, and the autumn season is especially nice with the pretty foliage, rutting moose, and hungry bears.

Sabrina spent the night on Sunday, so that we could get up early on Monday morning. We met Lori at Fred Meyer on the north side of town, and then went to Sunrise Bagel for our morning pick-me-up. I estimated we’d be at the park by 8:30am and I was pretty accurate. We had our windshield placard and were on our way into the park quickly.

There was no view of Denali in the first 15 miles. That wasn’t a good sign, as the mountain (when *out*) is visible from about mile 6, and then several other places. So we resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be seeing The Great One. Imagine our great surprise when we moved a little deeper into the park and Denali appeared in all her glory (with a few clouds here and there) to greet us! That, alone, made the drive worth it.

The weather, on the other hand, was lovely. While a bit breezy and chilly (40s and 50s), skies moved between partly sunny and mostly sunny throughout the day.

Wildlife spotted included dall sheep, grizzly bears, bull moose, caribou, ground squirrels, snowshoe hares, and a wolf. Photos, however don’t reflect all of these sightings as the wildlife was either at a distance, or moving too fast for us to get our cameras out and focused.  As the driver of the car, I was at a disadvantage. While Sabrina and Lori could bolt out of the car before I was even in Park, I had to worry about safely pulling off the road and then grabbing my camera. If Steve and I win next year, he can drive so I can at least hang out the window for some landscape shots!

I’m not complaining though, as I did manage to grab some good photos, and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive and the beautiful scenery. And just when we thought it was all over… we experienced one of the best sunsets EVER, on our drive back to Fairbanks.

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What I like about camping is you can get really dirty.
Either you’re all by yourself, so no one else sees you,
or everyone you’re with is just as dirty as you are,
so nobody cares. ~Anonymous former Boy Scout~

I just spent a wonderful weekend camping with my friend Stella. We spent two nights at the Kenny Lake campground (on the Edgerton Highway) - which intersects with the Richardson Hwy about 30 miles south of Glennallen. The Edgerton Hwy leads to Chitina, which is known for dipnetting and fish wheels when the salmon are running.

We left North Pole around 10:30am. Thank goodness Steve was off so he could help us load our gear into Stella’s truck. It’s amazing how much stuff we had for a two night camping trip!

We stopped at Sunrise Bagel for breakfast sandwiches before leaving North Pole. The drive down the Richardson was gorgeous. While there were some clouds in the sky, it was sunny for the most part. The Alaska Range was visible as we approached Delta Junction, and was spectacular in the Black Rapids area.

Alaska’s autumn foliage is exploding up and down the highway. We saw huge expanses of gold birch, punctuated with a few red-leafed aspens here and there. Red leaves on aspens are rare, so when they appear on the landscape, it’s truly an amazing sight to behold.

We hit a little bit of rain around the Rainbow Mountain area, but skies cleared as we passed Gulkana Glacier and Paxson.  We hoped clear skies would be with us all weekend. Temperature wise, it was a beautiful Saturday with highs in the 60s.

We stopped to make sandwiches just north of Glennallen. There were quite a few RVs on the road - Labor Day weekend being the *last hurrah* of the summer season.  I sure wish they obeyed the law against holding up five vehicles or more. We got stuck behind an entire caravan of them on the way home - going only 40mph in a 65mph zone. Exasperating!

These photos were taken on our drive down:

Here’s our home away from home for two nights:

This is Stella stirring dinner. We couldn’t wait to eat!
We had bowtie pasta, chicken, spinach and alfredo. It was yummy:

I love the foliage in the campground. The yellow trees were gorgeous!

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We had a marvelous time while Steve’s sister Julie was visiting. I can’t believe how quickly time passed. We stayed very busy and I hope she had as much fun as we did. We’re so glad she was able to make the trip.

Julie arrived late on Monday the 8th. She was concerned about the late flight until we explained to her that we Fairbanksans don’t bat an eye at very early or very late arrivals. Because flights in and out of Fairbanks aren’t very numerous, and the trip is a long one no matter where you come from, most of our guests don’t arrive until late in the evening. But we’re totally fine with that. We’re always thrilled to have visitors!

Steve had to go to work the next morning, so we didn’t stay up very late. I had reservations for Julie and I to take the Riverboat Discovery tour at 2pm, so we had time in the morning to visit the LARS (Large Animal Research Station) if we were up early enough. They offer a tour/talk three times a day at 10am, 12pm, and 2pm. We decided to shoot for noon.

The LARS tour wasn’t what I expected. While I found it quite interesting to learn about musk ox, caribou and reindeer, I assumed that we’d be touring the facility. Instead, we spent about 20-30 minutes at the musk ox pen, and another 20-30 minutes at the reindeer/caribou pen, while we learned about the history and biology of the animals. The young lady who gave us the “tour” was quite knowledgeable and personable and was very helpful in answering our questions, but I was hoping we’d get to see the animals with the access ports in their side (for checking stomach contents), and see inside some of the buildings.

I’ve come to the facility on “Free Day” and while we don’t always get a formal talk or presentation, we do get to see so much more. That’s the tour I hoped to share with Julie. It was raining (which is why I don’t have a lot of photos), and they provided nice big umbrellas for guests, which was nice.

We had just enough time to get to the Riverboat Discovery. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were at least a dozen tour buses parked. It’s not that I don’t like our tourists - I LOVE that so many people spend a bunch of money and time to visit our state. But as I’ve gotten older, I don’t tolerate large crowds very well, and Steamboat Landing is packed tightly with racks of souvenirs and other items for sale.

There were a few new things going on inside, that I didn’t remember from my last time going on the riverboat. There’s a room set at 40 below for tourists to try out. It’s free to go inside, but a whopping $25 or so for a photograph of you and your group standing in the room. Julie and I ran in so she could get an idea of the cold we have in winter. When we came out, her glasses instantly fogged up.

Also, Lance Mackey is there on a regular basis (a couple of hours a day, I think) to sign his book, sign autographs, and pose for photos. The line to see him was long, and we didn’t have time. If you take a Riverboat tour, get there a little early (or stay later) if you’d like to meet him. He’s a real down to earth guy.

The Riverboat tour itself is entertaining as well as informative, and gives a really nice overview of life in the Interior. It’s more than 3 hours long and you get to see things such as a float plane taking off and landing on the river, Susan Butcher’s dogs pulling a four-wheeler, and you stop at the Chena Indian Village where you learn a little bit about the culture of Alaska’s Native people. I’d highly recommend this tour, and if you’re an AK resident take advantage of the huge discount pre-season and buy your tickets then. You can save about 40%, and the tickets can be used anytime that season.

	There are 29 muskoxen in the herd. Four calves were born this spring.

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