The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Turning Back South

As the two week forecast for central Alaska ranged from mostly cloudy to increasing cloudiness to completely cloudy to total cloud cover...we decided to look elsewhere, back down south, for more opportunities to see the northern lights. We also noted, after a couple tries, that staying out to see the lights exposed us to uncomfortably cool temperatures as well as kept us up way beyond our normal bed times. Thus, we reversed course and in a retiring action headed for our next fun stop, the salmon and bears of Fish Creek, near Hyder, Alaska. 1,238 miles away, neatly compressed into the following several pix.

Still in Alaska, big mountains to the coastal south

Bird bit stuck in the fender of our car; the birds up here are not all
that used cars and trucks, their speed, etc.

Leaf peeping

More mountains, more black spruce

Miles of beetle all over

Mama and two cubs crossing

As we were putting the phone away, a third cub jumped out of the
bushes and scurried across

A few more miles down the road, now in the Yukon; not a cub

At last, just short of the Sign Forest, we turned onto
Route 37, the Cassiar Highway, which we had much
enjoyed in 2002

Interesting morning clouds on the Cassiar

The Cassiar jade store; I still have my rough jade piece, bought in
2002, to be polished someday into the jadeite axe I have always wanted

Now on the Cassiar/Stewart Highway, glaciers coming down to
the road...they were much more formidable 20 years ago

High above a huge Canadian gold and silver mine, the tongue of
another big one

Now about to enter Hyder, Alaska, another of the tiny US possessions
along the coast

Leaving Hyder, going back into Canada..."Checkpoint
Charlie"...the wit who posted this apparently is still learning
about the rule of law, life in a full dictatorship...

A glacier hanging above Stewart, where we camped
for our visit to Hyder

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Fairbanks Pioneer Park

We enjoy historical villages, from Skansen (Stockholm) to Colonial Williamsburg, and we enjoyed Fairbanks Pioneer Park despite the city's relative youth...dating only from the later 19th century. In addition to numerous historic buildings, artifacts, photographs, and more, Pioneer Park was unique to us in that most of the old buildings housed current stores and businesses.

Retro camper parked outside

Pullman car for President's Harding's visit

Interesting alabaster windows

Street scene

Old-fashioned way

Excellent docents here and there

Excellent turn of the century photo

First ascent of Denali/McKinley, quite an achievement
for the time

Most impressive was the stern-wheeler...early 20th century, but
the real thing

Amply explained and documented

Build from design...

And housing a dozen or more of the best models/dioramas we've seen

Engine room

A great treat

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Chena Hot Springs

From the Denali campground, we drove on further north on August 19th to Fairbanks, by now under the guidance of our weather and aurelia borealis websites. After stops for food and fuel, we headed on toward Chena Hot Springs, where, we were informed, there would be a decent chance of seeing the northern lights that night. Chena Hot Springs is about an hour's drive beyond Fairbanks, and it is sort of a Fairbanks thing, one of the two or three top tourist destinations in the area. So we read. In our estimation, it was a small partially enclosed hot springs, not very inviting, surrounded by motel buildings, a restaurant, and a very large number of, um, things, many whimsical, that had to do with life in the far north. We were not amused, and grew even less amused later that evening when the clouds gathered and there were no northern lights to be seen. Prospects changed overnight, worsening, and we decided to spend a few more nights at a nice B&B in Fairbanks, to rest, relax, reconsider, and, of course, reorganize.