They are all Alaskan Huskies. There was a demonstration of dogsledding, and as soon as the sled was brought out, all the dogs began barking and jumping. "Take me, choose me, MY turn!".
They really do live to pull.
We exited the Park without seeing the mountain, and drove to Fairbanks. Our first stop was the Visitors' Center and Convention Center, a beautifully designed building on the banks of the Chena River. I asked who comes for conventions and was told that there are lots of them, mainly in winter. I had a hard time imagining a big corporation sending it's executives to Fairbanks in winter, and then the lady said "Teachers." We walked through a nice park along the river that had several bronze monuments in it. One honored the Native Alaskans with a beautiful statue of a mother, child and sled dog.
It also listed, on bronze tablets, all of the Native and pioneer families and their members, at the time of statehood. There was also a monument to the WW2 Lend-Lease Program with Russia.
We found the University and visited the Georgeson Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful array of all kinds of plants and trees. They do research on food crops to what can be grown in the 24 hr. Daylight and short growing season. They also are developing ways to cope with the extremely cold soil.
Only the top few inches warms enough to supporter the plant's roots, thanks to the permafrost. Some of the things they do are to plant in "hilled" rows, use raised beds, cover the ground with black plastic to warm it quicker,and sometimes even run heat tapes under the soil. There were many flowers blooming. They even do research on non-hardy ornamentals. I have total peony envy now! I have never seen so many varieties.
Unfortunately, most of them were about 2 weeks from blooming. They will be quite a sight as they were loaded with buds.
We spent some time looking around the University. It sits high on a hill to the west of the city. It has lovely buildings, many of them quite new.
I hope they have a good student bus shuttle system because in the cold, dark winters in Fairbanks it's hard to imagine anyone walking around campus, especially up hill.
We found a campsite at the Chena River State Recreation Area. In the evening we hiked a trail along the river, and saw a bear fishing.
It was the summer Solstice, and our little camp in a grove of aspens glowed yellow from the sun until after midnight. Bill photographed it at 1:30am, using only natural light.
We began the next day at the Ice Museum, which is located in an old movie theater.
Every March Fairbanks hosts an international ice sculpture competition. It has turned into a two week long festival. They harvest the blocks of ice from a pond nearby. It has no silt, thus no pond growth, so the water is crystal clear.
At the museum there are examples of ice sculptures that are kept at 20 degrees F, and a room that you can go into with more sculptures, for photographs; also a frosty 20 degrees. There is also a movie about the process and the festival, as well as a demonstration by the resident artist, Zhe An, who is from Harbin, China.
Perhaps you have seen the photos of the ice sculptures in Harbin that circulated on the Internet a while ago. His family are all master carvers there. Then we went back to the University to the museum, the Museum of the North. This is a magnificent building, an award-winning design that soars above the rest of the campus. The collection is all art and artifacts of the North. There were wooly mammoth tusks and teeth and a nice presentation about the aurora borealis.
It has a the best view of Denali in Fairbanks, and we were able to finally see the mountain through binoculars, though the smoke from the wildfires is obscuring it a bit.
Finally we went to see the pipeline at a location about 20 miles north of the city. It was informative, to say the least.
That is one big pipe!
At any one time it has 9 million gallons of oil in it. It is cleaned by machines called pigs that travel through it, twirling as they go. There is a sign that tells the public what to do if they notice anything wrong, like black goo on the ground or dripping from the pipe. Do not start your car, use your cell, or even take a photo, for fear of igniting any gas that might be there. But, call this number! As much of the pipeline is located many miles from habitation, my reaction was "Huh?". Just another nonsensical sign!
Tonight we are boon-docking in the Walmart parking lot.
We have seen others do it but have never had to. There weren't any campgrounds that we wanted to stay at nearby, so we decided to join our fellow travelers. By the time we went to bed there were at least 20 vehicles there. It was a fine experience. The past two days have been very warm, nearly 80 degrees, so people were out all night. Walmart was busy at midnight. It was funny, though, to see the parking lot lights, that must have been on timers, illuminated while the sun was shining brightly at midnight. We leave you with this photo taken at the pipeline visitor booth.
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