July 19: Tok to Delta Junction (End of the AlCan) to Fairbanks
Bob: After a night of relative luxury in our own, private log cabin (an attempt by RV parks to horn in on the motel trade, I presume), we drove the last section of the AlCan highway to Delta Junction. There we stopped to use the bathrooms at the Visitor's Center and look around the small town. The huge statues of mosquitoes at the Visitor's Center were a joke in one sense but when I talked with native folks I found that we were visiting in a "good year" for mosquitoes. We were bedeviled by them a bit and several were often buzzing around our heads, but usually an application of insect repellant was sufficient to keep them at bay. Apparently, a "bad year" for mosquitoes is when they are thick enough to cover your face as soon as you get out of your car! I would not want to visit Alaska in a "bad year" for mosquitoes! |
Monika: We woke up to a nice sunny day. After breakfast of cereal we sat on our verandah for our one hour free internet. We send off our emails and checked the arrivals, especially Judson's that told us about their visit. Sounds like everyone had a great time. We hit the rather good road to Fairbanks but then the weather clouded over and it started to sprinkle and rain. So we could really not see too much of the nice country we were driving through. We stopped at Delta Junction, the northern terminus of the AlCan, where we were greeted by two large statues of Alaska's favorite insect. |
Bob: We stopped at Delta Junction to see one of the old "road houses" or country Inns. The museum was a perfectly preserved log structure of two large rooms plus a smaller kitchen, all furnished authentically in 1900-era equipment and cheerfully explained by the docent. Curiously, purchasing fresh eggs and vegetables from the port of Valdez was far cheaper in the winter, when sleighs could be used for transportation , than in summer, when the stagecoach road became a morass. |
Monika: At Delta Junction, the junction of the road from Valdez and Anchorage with the AlCan, we stopped at the Visitor's Center. This was the northern terminus, because the U.S. Army just wanted the AlCan to hook up with the road going south to the port of Valdez. It was spritzing and a cool 52 Fahrenheit, but we did not see a likely restaurant for lunch. Instead we visited an old "road house" that had been turned into a museum. |
Bob: All together it was a nice relaxing day finishing up the AlCan. Still I was somewhat tired after several days of constant driving, so I was just as happy to be able to pull up to a modern Motel Super 8 in Fairbanks and kick back for the afternoon. Note: Any decent hotels in Alaska are $100++ during tourist season! This evening we walked a bit on the river walk along the Chena River that bisects the city of Fairbanks, and found that the River is at flood stage so some parts of the trail are closed. Still, the part along the Founder's Park was quite nice and gave us panoramic views both of the River and the skyline of the adjacent central business district. We will stay a couple nights to see a bit more of Fairbanks before heading South to Denali National Park. |
Monika: I started driving on to Fairbanks while the weather was still cloudy and rainy. South of Fairbanks is the hamlet of North Pole, a purely touristy place, but they did have a Wendy's and we were getting desperate. Of course, even the Wendy's had a Christmas tree. Oh well. In Fairbanks the weather had cleared up so we looked at a couple of campgrounds but decided on comfort and got a room in a Super8, where Bob immediately lay down for a nap. I don't think either of us sleeps that well in the car/tent and the cumulative fatigue is catching up. We ended the day with drive into downtown Fairbanks and a nice walk along the Chena River that flows into the Tanana River a little north of here, and the Tanana ultimate joins the Yukon River which flows westward to the sea. |
