The day after we visited the Eldorado Gold Mine, we took the Riverboat Discovery Tour. This tour leads you down the Chena River in an actual working paddle riverboat. Along the way you see beautiful houses; a float plane take-off and landing demonstration; the late Iditarod musher, Susan Butcher's cabin, dog kennels and a dog sled demonstration; where the Chena and Tanana rivers merge; and a Chena (Athabascan) Village.
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| Paddlewheeler Discovery |
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| Float plane take-off demonstration |
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| Float plane landing demonstration |
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| Susan Butcher's daughter with sled dogs and kennels in background |
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| Sled dog and puppies (oh yes, and a worker) |
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| Hitching up the sled dogs for a ride, they know what's going to happen and get very excited. |
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| Susan Butcher's Cabin (moved from it's original location) |
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| A Chena River Village (Athabascan) cabin |
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| A cache with (R-L) Wolf, Coyote, Linx, Red Fox, Grey Fox & Artic Fox |
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| A beautiful hand made caribou beaded coat - unfortunately, I can't remember what the fur around the hood is. |
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| A working Fishwheel (designed by the Chinese) |
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| Smoking Salmon (this will be used by the Athabascan's) |
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| Reindeer at the Chena Village. Reindeer are domesticated Caribou |
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| Merging of the Chena River (fresh water) and Tanana River (grey silt infused) |
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| Just one of the many beautiful homes along the Chena River |
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As you can see, we had a fun filled and very enlightened day on the Riverboat Discovery. The next day we headed back to Cantwell; and discovered that the Termination Snows had fallen the day before. Termination snow is the sign that summer is over and winter is soon to come.
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| Termination snow on the mountain near Cantwell |
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| Termination snow |
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On Monday afternoon we headed to Talkeetna where Tom and Lindsay were boarding the Alaska Railroad for their ride to Anchorage. Before their ride, we wanted to give them a little tour of this historic town and do a little shopping, eat a little homemade ice cream and pick up a couple of famous Roadhouse cinnamon buns.
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| Lindsay being silly in Talkeetna |
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| Lindsay & Tom excited to ride the Alaska Railroad Train to Anchorage |
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It was late by the time we picked them up in Anchorage and made our way back to Cantwell, but we were able to get up the next morning for our all day bus ride 66 miles into Denali National Park. Taking the bus is the only way that you can travel past the 15 mile mark into the park. It is a beautiful ride and we were lucky enough to be able to hit the "Grand Slam", as they call it, where we see Grizzly, Moose, Wolf, Dall Sheep, and Caribou. We also saw a red fox, magpie, many artic ground squirrels, and a snowshoe hare. Too bad it was too cloudy to see The Mountain (Mt. McKinley) but when we got to the higher elevation of Eileson Visitor Center is was snowing. Tom and Lindsay can now say that they were at a place that it snowed in August.
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| Grizzly dragging off a Caribou carcass |
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| Red Fox hunting |
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| Polychrome moutains with termination snow |
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| Eielson Visitor Center |
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| Blonde grizzlies forageing for berries |
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| Tom and Caribou antlers |
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| Lindsay with her "mean" face and caribou antlers |
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It was such an exciting day at Denali National Park, but Roger and I had a little surprise planned for Lindsay and Tom. There is a beautiful restaurant atop of a mountain in Canyon called the Grand Denali Lodge and Restaurant. We planned for weeks that we wanted to take them there as a special treat so that they could get one last spectacular view of what you always think of as "Alaska".
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| Roger and Lindsay on the deck of the Grand Denali Lodge |
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| Tom and Lindsay with "Dexter" the grizzly at Grand Denail Lodge Restaurant |
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| Our view from our table at the Grand Denali Restaurant |
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What more could you ask for; good food, a great view, and wonderful company! We were sorry to have to drive Lindsay and Tom back to Anchorage the following day so that they could catch their flight back to the Twin Cities. At least they got to see three more moose; a cow and her calf and a bull with his antlers and they got to get a glimpse of Mt. McKinley.
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| Mt McKinley South Viewpoint 8-10-11 |
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| Mt McKinley North Viewpoint 8-10-11 |
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| Mountains surrounding Mt. McKinley from North Viewpoint 8-10-11 |
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We exhausted Lindsay and Tom, they need a vacation from their vacation; but they got the whirlwind tour of Alaska. It sure was fun and we will miss them. See you in late September!
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