Day 12 - 08/03 - Denali to Fairbanks

Today we transitioned by motorcoach from the McKinley Chalet to the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks.  Fortunately, we did not have to get up terribly early and left at 9:45am as the 3rd bus in a group of 4 busses. The first hour was clear and we saw a moose and two calves which thrilled everyone. We then did a rest stop at a cool little campground and gift shop.  I forgot to take a picture of the name, but I'll try to find it.  They had some cool & unique vintage machinery and a stuffed polar bear.  After the brief stop we did a drive through Nenana. (Last year southbound we stopped there).  As we crossed the bridge we began to encounter more and more wildfire smoke and observed lots of fire equipment.  The smoke lessened a bit as we approached Fairbanks. Brian, our driver, gave excellent commentary along the way.

Food cache


Fish Weir

Alaskan improvision


Nice green house 

We skirted Fairbanks and headed north to the Silver Gulch Brewing Company where they easily served a nice fish & chips lunch to 160 hungry travelers.  After lunch, our driver broke ranks with the other busses and took back roads to North Pole, Alaska and beat the other three busses by 5-10 minutes.  We had an hour at the gift shop and had a chance to look at the reindeer.  We've been here in the winter time and it's quite beautiful with an ice palace and Christmas decorations.




At the hotel, check in was a breeze and we did a little walk downtown and found some ice cream.  We skipped dinner and spent a quiet evening watching Mr. Popper's Penguins and I updated my blog.  Tomorrow we have a partial day doing a River cruise and visiting a gold dredge starting at 7:45am

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