Activities While Lindsay & Tom Visited

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.

Paddlewheeler Discovery

Float plane take-off demonstration

Float plane landing demonstration

Susan Butcher's daughter with sled dogs and kennels in background

Sled dog and puppies (oh yes, and a worker)

Hitching up the sled dogs for a ride, they know what's going to happen and get very excited.

Susan Butcher's Cabin (moved from it's original location)

A Chena River Village (Athabascan) cabin

A cache with (R-L) Wolf, Coyote, Linx, Red Fox, Grey Fox & Artic Fox

A beautiful hand made caribou beaded coat - unfortunately, I can't remember what the fur around the hood is.

A working Fishwheel (designed by the Chinese)

Smoking Salmon (this will be used by the Athabascan's)

Reindeer at the Chena Village. Reindeer are domesticated Caribou

Merging of the Chena River (fresh water) and Tanana River (grey silt infused)

Just one of the many beautiful homes along the Chena River

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.

Termination snow on the mountain near Cantwell

Termination snow

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.

Lindsay being silly in Talkeetna

Lindsay & Tom excited to ride the Alaska Railroad Train to Anchorage

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.

Grizzly dragging off a Caribou carcass

Red Fox hunting

Polychrome moutains with termination snow

Eielson Visitor Center

Blonde grizzlies forageing for berries

Tom and Caribou antlers

Lindsay with her "mean" face and caribou antlers

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".

Roger and Lindsay on the deck of the Grand Denali Lodge

Tom and Lindsay with "Dexter" the grizzly at Grand Denail Lodge Restaurant

Our view from our table at the Grand Denali Restaurant

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.

Mt McKinley South Viewpoint 8-10-11

Mt McKinley North Viewpoint 8-10-11

Mountains surrounding Mt. McKinley from North Viewpoint 8-10-11

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!

Eldorado Gold Mine - Fairbanks

Lindsay, Tom, Roger and I drove to Fairbanks yesterday in the motor home.  We were able to get our beautiful spot at the campground.  After we got settled in at our spot, we left for our trip view the Alaska Pipeline and the Eldorado Gold Mine in Fox.  The viewpoint of the Alaska Pipline is really well worth the stop.

Pipeline Facts

Roger, Sue, Lindsay & Tom

Top of the Pipeline

Pig

 

 

After checking out all of the information about the pipeline, we headed for gold country.  We went on a great tour of the Eldorodo Gold Mine.

Train that we took to the mine

Conductor/Entertainer on train ride to the mine

Placer Mine

Gold Panning Demonstration

Old goldpanner with his gold that he got during the demonstration

Can I keep this 19 ounce nugget?

Lindsay & Tom - they've got Gold Fever

There is nooooo spitting at the train station, noooooo spitting!

We all found a little gold; Lindsay - $47.50, Tom - $15.50, Roger - $14.50, and Sue - $12.50.  Not enough to make me want to head up to Chicken and start mining.

Miscellaneous Events

First off I'd like to congratulate Ben on his completion of Intelligence Training at Goodfellow Air Force Base.  He graduated on Thursday and Mariya was able to come to Texas and be with him for the graduation ceremony.  Now it's off to Fort Huachuca, AZ for 6 more weeks of training.

Mariya & Ben

 The next thing I'd like to do is tell you a little about the Iditarod dog musher who spoke at the campground recently.  His name is Mike Santos and he raced in the Iditarod last year.  He brought one of his lead dogs and several puppies to the campground along with his sled and told about his experience.  He plans to race in the Iditarod again next winter.  The dogs and Mike take the summer off because it's too "hot" to train and will begin training again in September.

Denny Teal & Puppy

Eileen McGurk, campground owner & Puppy

Mike Santos and his sled

Mike Santos

Ozzie, one of his lead sled dogs

Roger and one of the cute little puppies

Can I keep her?

You can donate to Mike's dog sled team at www.wolfsdenkennel.com.  It costs quite a bit to get these dogs to the point that they can race.  Every little bit helps!

My cousin, Denny Teal, and I were able to get together.  We tried to catch up on 35+ years of being apart in 2 days.  We had a great time and plan to get together again while we're in Alaska.  One of the things we were able to do while she was with us, was take a ride out to Denali National Park. 

Moose at entrance to park

Denny & Axel next to the Green Tortoise (the bus that her husband Jeff got to Alaska on)

Denny & Axel at the Savage River

After our little drive of 15 miles through the park, we decided to head out the Denali Highway and see if we could find any more wildlife.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Mt. McKinley at dusk

Obviously, from the pictures, we didn't see much other than the Lesser Yellowlegs that Denny had hoped to see, which was great.  We also saw a beautiful mountain at dusk!  We ended back at the motor home, I made a couple of margarita's; we laughed; shared some stories and then both went to bed.  What a wonderful way to spend the day and evening.  Thanks, Denny!