North to Utqiagvik

And a Polar Bear Plunge

But first, Friday getting from Kennecott to Fairbanks

We left Kennicott early Friday, for our flight back over the Wrangell Mountains…a little cloudier than Wednesday, but still gorgeous.  

After a visit to the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitor Center in Copper Center, a little hike, and the arrival of the 2nd half of our tour, we headed north on the Richardson Highway. It is Alaska’s first highway, from Valdez to Fairbanks. We traveled all but the southernmost section, all the way to Fairbanks. Originally a gold rush trail, it follows the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (or the pipeline followed it?), along a section fewer than 5% of visitors get to experience. We made a few stops:

• Lunch at the historic Gakona Lodge & Trading Post.  It was established in 1904 and is considered one of the oldest operating original roadhouses in Alaska, having survived both fires and floods.  In fact, the river behind it was moved by the Army Corps of Engineers to help this roadhouse on the National Historic Register to survive. 
• An up close look at the Alaskan Pipeline, in a spot where it crosses the Richardson Highway
• Santa Claus House at 101 St Nicholas Drive, North Pole, Alaska for a little shopping
• The Trail Breaker Kennel – home of the late four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, where we had dinner and learned a lot about the Iditarod and how a musher dresses and cares for her dogs, and met some Alaskan Huskies.

After checking into Bear Lodge for 2 nights, we hoofed it 1.8 miles round trip to see the Fairbanks Costco (5th of 6 in Alaska, #73). Yes. We. Did.

Saturday, North of the Artic Circle

Saturday was a longish day, the best day so far. We spent 6 hours, in 3 legs, flying over the northern half of Alaska. We flew in an 11-seater (including pilot) Cessna 208B Caravan, operated by Wright Air Service. It was 90 minutes crossing the Artic Circle to the native village of Anaktuvuk Pass, then 90 more minutes all the way to Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), the northernmost point in the US. The return flight to Fairbanks was 3 hours. The weather was pretty good, so we got some great pictures of the mountains and the tundra and the ice in the Artic Ocean!

Visits to 2 (3) new National Park Sites:

Gates of the Artic National Park and Preserve (#300 & 301) is America’s least visited National Park. No surprise. It is also the 2nd largest. This vast landscape does not contain any roads or trails. Visitors discover intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for over ten thousand years. Wild rivers meander through glacier-carved valleys, caribou migrate along age-old trails, endless summer light fades into aurora-lit night skies of winter. Virtually unchanged, except by the forces of nature. The native village of Anaktuvuk Pass (population ~400) is in Gates of the Artic. While there, we walked around the small village and an elder of the village walked us through their culteral/history museum.

Iñupiat Heritage Center, on the rooftop of the world, in Utqiaġvik, it tells the story of the Iñupiat people and this arctic coastal settlement. They have thrived for thousands of years in one of the most extreme climates on Earth, hunting the bowhead, or “Agviq.” In the 19th century, the quiet northern seas swarmed with commercial whalemen from New England, who also sought the bowhead for its valuable baleen and blubber.

Also, while in Utqiaġvik, we did a driving tour, saw the famous whalebone arch, and…Gail did the polar bear plunge in the Arctic Ocean, with 5 other members of our 25 person tour group (3 women, 3 men).

Sunday we moved on to Denali

For more pictures (later), see Adventure Album: Alaska!

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