The Creamery and Alaska Pipeline

Here is what is left of the fireweed. Around here we watch the fireweed closely. It blooms from the bottom up and when the blooms are near the top we know summer is just about over. After they bloom, they turn to seed. So, you can see SUMMER IS OVER!!
It was the Sandhill Crane Festival at the Creamery in Fairbanks. There were thousands of cranes in the fields.

This is one of the viewing points of the Alaska Pipeline as it works its way from the top of the state at Prudheo Bay to Valdez.

Riverboat Discovery

While riding in the tour boat, we got to stop and watch lots of 'Alaskan' happenings. One of these was a float plane taking off and landing beside the riverboat.
Another thing we did was stop and talk with Susan Butcher's husband who raises sled dogs. Susan Butcher was one of Alaska's favorite women, the first to win the Iditarod. She died last year of cancer. It was a treat to get to listen to her husband explain what they do with the dogs and to get some great pictures of him and his dogs. It was interesting how the riverboat tours did this. They pulled up next to these things and had microphones set up so that the guests could speak into the microphone and all the passengers on the riverboat could hear what was being said. Pretty cool.
Here they are getting ready to run the dogs. It is summer so they run them with a 4-wheeler.
After the dogs work, they play! As soon as they unhooked them from the run, the ran into the river.
Another really neat part of the riverboat cruise was the confluence of these two rivers. Taken from the Riverboat Discovery website: Nuchalawoya, an Athabascan Indian term for the "wedding of the rivers." The marriage of the clear waters of the Chena River and the silt laden Tanana River creates this unique demarcation line.

Fairbanks, AK

We arrived the next morning, after a beautiful drive from Denali to Fairbanks. What a cute city. I was very impressed with Fairbanks (in the summer! LOL)
We had to make a stop at North Pole, AK to see Santa's house. Even did some Christmas shopping!!
The University of Alaska at Fairbanks is blessed with an amazing museum. Although we didn't have time to go through it on this visit, it will be first on my list for the next trip.

While in Fairbanks, we took the Discovery Riverboat for a nice look at the Alaskan culture and life in Fairbanks. Here is a working fish wheel.

The end of our Denali trip...

We saw this nice rainbow in Denali.
We saw this double rainbow in Fairbanks. We actually saw MANY rainbows on the trip, but I only got good pictures of these two.
On the bus ride back someone else spotted this grizzly eating the soapberries.

This final picture is the moose and bear warning sign at the start of the trail Marsha and I walked just outside the visitor's center in Denali. Needless to say, the 'bear fear' I have was too great and we only walked the little loop!

Highlight of my wildlife viewing!

Okay, so we are riding a glorified school bus with a full load of senior citizens and all of a sudden I see this grizzly taking a walk up the hillside. Of course I can't contain myself so I (kind of) 'yell' GRIZZLY! LOL There he was. Walking up to the top of a hill and then deciding to take a nap for all of us to watch. It was just incredible.



Make sure you click on this picture and open it up for bigger viewing. It is quite wonderful.

Denali Grande Lodge and wildlife

Here is the beautiful Grande Denali Lodge. This is where we stayed the first night. After checking in, we caught the bus for an 8 hour tour inside Denali Park.
More views of the beautiful fall colors.
A Pika! I was SO happy to get to see one of these. All of the pictures of the wildlife were taken from inside the bus. So, they aren't the best pictures, but I was pretty pleased with most of them.
These are Willow Ptarmigan. They are just starting to turn white. Their feet have already turned. Later in the winter they will be completely white. Click HERE for a picture of the Willow Ptarmigan in the winter.
Snowshoe Hare. Again, just starting to turn to winter white. There were lots of Snowshoe Hare in the park.

Sights from Denali National Park and Preserve I

Beautiful caribou feeding on the shrubs. They are in velvet at this time, but rut season has now begun. The ranger we spoke to told us the best time to be in Denali is the beginning of September as the caribou and moose go into rut and begin fighting with each other for mating rights.
Lots of Dall Sheep in Denali.
Even though it was the last week of August, the fall colors so far north were just amazing.
More of the beautiful colors.
And one more.

Majestic Mt. McKinley

Well, during the month of August in Alaska, one comes to expect rain, rain and more rain. My friend Marsha decided to visit during our 'rainy' season. The next few blog entries will be of our romps through Alaska, to Denali and Fairbanks, to Seward and Girdwood. Take care to look at the skies! Other than late afternoon on the cruise in Seward, and an afternoon shower in Fairbanks, it was SUNNY the whole week. It was amazing. We started our travels heading NORTH into new territory for me. I had never been to Denali National Park or Fairbanks so I was very excited to experience this with Marsha. The first two pictures here are of Mt. McKinley, which is only supposed to be visable 20% of the time, from the south on our drive up the state. These pictures were taken on our drive up. Okay, what an amazing, majestic mountain. As I post more on the blog, enjoy the amazing sights from Denali National Park and Preserve.

This third picture was taken inside Denali looking at Mt. McKinley from the north. You can see the top poking through the clouds.

Spawning Salmon

There is a small creek in our area where the salmon spawn and are protected from fishing. While my friend Marsha was here, we stopped for a look. This is really interesting. I thought this creek was full of Silver Salmon, but what you are looking at here are Sockeye or Red Salmon. They have already gone into the fully spawning stage with the dark green head and very red body. They will continue to 'spawn until they die', which is a favorite saying up here in Alaska and can be seen on bumper stickers and t-shirts! LOL

These are Chum Salmon. Not too good for eating, but they sure look cool spawning.
Here are some of both kinds.

Last GRAPHIC photo of Moose Kill

Well, this seemed to be the most difficult part of the process. It took his entire family plus a friend or two to gut this moose. The smell was horrible and it was still steaming, but that is what has to be done if you want fresh meat taken to the butcher and good for your family. I am not sure about this Alaskan lifestyle. I have much to learn. I have much to think about and reverence for our native brothers and sisters who fought this wilderness to survive. I have much to be thankful for, for my life is so simple compared to theirs. I have much to be excited about, for if the Lord asks us to stay here, these are the kinds of things I have to learn to do and experience. I have much to ponder...

More moose kill photos again, WARNING GRAPHIC

Our pastor's entire family helped with this moose. This is his daughter doing some of the skinning work.
This is his son working on skinning the neck so they could remove the head. The Butcher doesn't want the head! LOL
Here is Pastor removing the head. I won't show you that part. It wasn't pretty.
This is our pastor's wive doing her part. She is a doctor so I guess it doesn't bother her. It would take me a little bit to get used to doing this. The smell was tough for me to handle.
Pastor wanted to make sure I took a picture so Ralph would realize where the moose was shot. So, Ralph, here is a picture from behind with the church in the background.

WARNING: Graphic photos of moose kill

Last night our pastor and his son went moose hunting on the first day of cow tag permit hunting. They looked all over the mountain behind our church. When they finished they arrived at our church and what do you think was standing in the parking lot? A cow moose. So, being this is Alaska, you can shoot a moose just about anywhere. Our pastor's son shot this moose and I happened to be in a store with our pastor's wife when she got the news. I just had to join them to watch the process of getting the moose ready for the butcher shop. Ralph really wanted to see this done and since he is out of country still I thought I better take lots of pictures for him. Since this is an important part of Alaska living, and this will be my pastor's family's meat for the winter, I felt it appropriate to blog. If you are queezy about these kinds of things, please don't look at the next 11 pictures! LOL
The first step looked to be taking the legs off and then skinning the moose all except its head.
Two of the leg quarters, skinned and ready for the butcher.

Even the little ones joined in on the skinning process.