To Fairbanks via the Denali Highway

Continuing along the Denali Highwaym, we stop at a mountain lodge called Alpine Creek for breakfast. There are several people there chatting, and we learn that this is a hunting lodge and that two black bears have been shot the evening before, which the participants have been celebrating long into the night. The going rate for a bear is $1,000, and they hunt at night. Once they have shot a bear, they remove the head and paws, skin it and leave the carcass for scavengers. We are saddened by this, but is is the local way.

We are shown the bar and poker room, all made by a local carpenter and then take our leave.

We continue along the Denali Highway, passing multiple lakes with beaver lodges and dams, and many waterbirds.

We stop as we want to walk the Seven Mile trail to the glacial lake, but sadly we’re unable to cross the creek which is too wide, deep and fast flowing.

Back on the road, we make it to Paxson at the end of the highway, with spectacular views of the Alaska pipeline and surrounding mountains. It is quite incredible. The Alaska Pipeline is 800 miles long, the pipes are 48 inches in diamater and it took thousands of men two years to build at a cost of $8 billion. All the statistics and history are really interesting, well worth a good read! We found a copule of place where we could stand right next to it, including at a river crossing where it has its own suspension bridge, and it's truly impressive.

We again find a spot to camp for the night on a track just off the Robertson Highway and then turn north for Fairbanks.

Driving past the Eielson Air Force Base, we learn that this is an important and strategic US base as it is the nearest to Russia from the US. It has the second longest runway North America at 3.2 miles, and hosts a huge variety of aircraft from fighters to transport planes. It is right next to the road so you can see the runway and aircraft as you drive by.

Arriving in Fairbanks, we find it to be a quiet, rather down at heel town, with echoes of past glories. It has a very mixed history of boom and bust through gold mining, the building of the Alaska Highway and the pipeline. It is now populated with many militaryn personnel from the airforce base. It was possibly quiet as well because we visited the day after the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Festival, so everyone could have been suffering the after effects! We ate at the Pump House Restaurant on the river and watched a paddle steamer glide by.

Fairbanks is our most northern stopping point, and so we head south on the Richardson Highway, pasing a forest fire on the way, to the Delta Junction and Clearwater Campground, our overnight stop,