June 25, 2012: Driving to Fairbanks

June 25, 2012: Driving to Fairbanks

The road from Rika’s Roadhouse parallels the Alaskan pipeline and Renita took some great shots of it as we crossed the Tananna river bridge. While the road was pretty level we still hit sections of frost heaves whenever we crossed a north facing slope. So I slowed down and it was ok as there wasn’t much traffic.

Right away we saw two moose and we made several stops looking for birds but we didn’t see much. The clouds cleared for a bit and we were able to see three of the great peaks of the Alaskan Range. Too soon the clouds blocked the view of the mountains but the Tananna River Delta was still a spectacular piece of scenery.

The river channel was highly braided and filled with dead heads and log jams. It made the river channel look almost surrealistic as the root balls reached into the sky reminiscent of hands grasping for unwary floaters. They definitely made the river look as uninviting as it could be, especially to a person with a canoe.

 Before reaching the city of North Pole we stopped at Birch Lake and again glassed the lake but we only saw a hen mallard with her five ducklings. Some cabins were on the north shore and the lake itself was ringed with a racetrack of water lilies with their yellow flowers all in bloom,(Ok its a blue wildflower, the wildflowers are as stunning here as in spring in Texas).

A little further we passed an air force base with warnings against stopping or photography. We watched as a bright yellow plane flew in and landed and we wondered what the significance or meaning of such a bright color. Maybe the owner just liked yellow or maybe waterlilies?

Further still we saw the figure of Santa Clause and the North Pole signs, but try as we might we didn’t see any elves. Taking the second Badger Road exit we drove three miles and reached Rivers View RV Park, where we plan on spending four days, fixing the water pump and checking out the area's rocks! Clear skies