We decided that we would try to go a bit further south in our wanderings on the Independence Day weekend. Our original thought was to go into Fairbanks again to dump tanks, fill with water and do a bit of provisioning, then drive south on the Parks Highway towards Denali, stopping about 80 miles outside of Fairbanks at Anderson.
There are very few campgrounds between Fairbanks and the immediate area around Denali National Park, and they were all around 200 miles away. We are planning to reconnect with Harry and Sally on Tuesday or Wednesday in Fairbanks, so we didn't want to go that far. Anderson has a municipal camping area and we thought we'd try that.
We took our time in Fairbanks, doing our errands, before heading off. Then it was onto the Parks Highway. The road climbs out of Fairbanks and winds its way southeast along about a 40 mile ridge. Once we got up high there were spectacular views of the river plains below off to the south and the mountains beyond, then there were similar views to the mountains to the north. The road then dropped back down to the Tanana River floodplain and we followed it to the Anderson turnoff.
Anderson is a small village about 6 miles from the highway on the Tanana River. It has two claims to fame. In the 2007 they offered free homesteading, there was a lot of interest but only a few settlers. The other event is the annual Bluegrass festival which happens at the end of this month.
It turns out that the camping is in the field where the festival takes place or along the river gravel bank. The restrooms and showers were pretty grim and they wanted $20/night for a primitive site, with pay showers. It was an extra $5 for an electric hookup, but they were all taken (even if we had wanted one) by a large caravan of Class A RVs from Texas. There were about 20 of them and the people were all seated in a circle around a makeshift bar...and this was about 2PM. They waved as we went by, we waved back and left.
The riverside sites were about a half-mile away and equally grim. They were situated in dusty gravel with only a tiny bit of the river visible. It was time to reconsider our plans. There was a private campground listed at Nenana, a town on the Tanana about 20 miles back towards Fairbanks. We decided to try that.
It was a small but pleasant place and we were able to get an unserviced site for only $18 including showers, water and dump station. We picked a site at the end of the row near a pavilion assuming it would be the quietest spot. We were wrong. A group with two trucks and tents set up on the grass right next to us and immediately started a smoky campfire...with us three feet away and downwind. Fortunately, we were able to move to an electric site at the other end of the campground away from the smoke.
The folks who owned the campground were quite interesting. They had purchased it in 2015 as a summer business, but they actually live in Galena, Alaska, a small town on the Yukon River in the middle of the state. The only way in or out is by small plane or on the river. They run the local public radio station there...NPR in the middle of Alaska. Actually, it is a mixture of local news and events and music as well as some NPR news and even Here and Now, which originates at WBUR in Boston. They have several transmitters, broadcasting in ten small towns in central Alaska.
We settled in for the evening.
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