Day 42 - Nenana to Fairbanks

Back To The Big City

After a warm night, we decided to embrace the city and return to Fairbanks for the  weekend. Nenana was an okay place but there wasn't really much there.

After breakfast and one of the best showers so far. (a large clean shower room with unlimited hot water), we drove down to the riverside to see if there were any birds...only a flock of gulls and lots of swallows. We also saw the town's major attraction, the ice tripod.

The Tanana River, like all Alaska rivers, freezes over in the winter. Each year, the town sets a big wooden tripod, about 20 feet high, out on the ice and connect it to a tower on the shore via a line. the line is connected to a clock, which stops when the ice melts and the tripod moves or sinks. There is an event called the Nenana Ice Classic, where one can purchase tickets where you guess the exact date and time when the clock stops. This attracts bettors from all over Alaska and elsewhere (but you have to buy the tickets in Alaska). It is only $2.50 a ticket and the payout this year was over $250,000, so it is a rather popular event.

After our stop at the river it was back to Fairbanks and another nice drive along the Parks Highway. We decided to try to stay at the Chena River Wayside, the state campground right in the city that we'd looked at when we first arrived. It is $20/night, but considering that we've been paying that much in fuel going in and out of town, it seemed worth it. We arrived about 10 AM and found a nice, flat site. In talking to the camp host in the afternoon, we found out that the campground was full for the first time this year.

After grabbing our site, we headed off to the University of Alaska's botanical garden to do a bit of birding. It was a bit late in the day, but we did see a few birds, including a Common Redpoll, a life bird for us. At lunchtime we drove up the hill to the Museum of the North, in a modern building, that houses a rather eclectic collection of Native artifacts as well as an art gallery concentrating on art of Alaska and by Alaskans. One floor is an exhibition of the history and artifacts associated with the various regions and groups in Alaska, with both human and natural history exhibits. The upper floor was the art gallery. We spent most of the afternoon at the museum.

It was then back to the campground to while away the evening and have a nice outdoor dinner of grilled pork loin and sweet potatoes. We've decided to stay at least one more day and go over to the university again. They have a large experimental forest and wetland with lots of trails.