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Published: August 20th 2007
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Nenana
As we headed north from Denali we stopped in Nenana to tour the railroad museum. The museum was set in the old train depot and had the feel of the early 20th century. A lot of the town’s history was in this museum. Nenana was where the Golden Spike was driven by President Harding in 1923. The Golden Spike was to symbolize the completion of the railroad from Seward to Fairbanks. The town was interesting with lots of flowers and sod roofs on some shops and the visitor’s center. One shop owner played the accordion to her flowers while sitting on the front porch.
Fairbanks
University of Alaska Museum of the North www.uaf.edu/museum
The museum sits up on a hill and is visible from different vantage points. It’s architecture is contemporary and is supposed to “convey a sense of Alaska, evoking images of Alpine ridges, glaciers and a diving whale‘s tail.” The building was great and a lot of fun. As we’d do different things in the area, I’d check to see if I could see the building and what I could see. It changed depending on what angle I was at and what the landscape exposed or hid.
Inside the building it was fun with rooms and hallways that flowed and curved. There was a sense of discovery as we approached each new area. The views out the second story windows gave a nice view of the mountains in the distance and the city below. There was more in the museum than we could comfortably see in an afternoon. In the Gallery of Alaska it was sectioned into five different geographic regions of Alaska and the groups that historically lived in the area. The museum contained displays of objects, art, artifacts, multi-media and movies. We watched the movie “Dynamic Aurora” and learned more about both the northern and southern lights. I was surprised to learn that the northern and southern lights are mirror images of each other. It was a great place to visit.
Georgeson Botanical Garden
This is part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). It is open daily during the summer and on Friday at 2pm they have a guided walk. We joined for them for part of the tour, but there were unrelenting sunshine and 80 degree temperatures. We were hot!!! That is something that we have hardly ever said on this trip.
We saw lots of annuals that were a riot of color. There were herbs and perennials as well. They start the annuals and herbs in green houses and don’t plant them outside until June 4th, as they have frost until the end of May. They also have grown a variety of vegetables and grains. The growing season is only 100 days, so they need to use some different strategies to enhance their growing season. There are various areas of ongoing research in plants/crops, materials and techniques. We saw raised beds from different materials. They have different plastic mulch to allow the sunlight to warm the soil, but not allow the rays that would encourage the weeds to grow. It was fascinating to see the giant cabbages and some of the tall flowers from the long daylight hours. They did discover that some of the squash need some longer hours of darkness, early in the season, for the plant to produce the female flowers that produce the squash.
Farmers’ Market
It was fun to see the different fruit, veggies, baked goods, art and crafts. We bought some locally grown organic tomatoes. They’re different than what we grow at home, but
they had that great fresh picked, right out of the garden taste. They were $4.50/pound but worth the price, as I miss my garden fresh produce. We also bought some fresh zucchini for a great price of 25 cents each. The new veggie that I bought was a purple cauliflower. It’s supposed to be a little sweeter than the white. They also had cauliflower that was the color of Cheddar cheese. The dogs I are the only ones that like cauliflower and we haven’t tried the new one yet.
North from Fairbanks
We took a drive north to the Dalton Highway. It starts 84 miles north of Fairbanks and once we got to it we only drove about a mile on it. On our drive to the Dalton we saw the pipeline and lots of wilderness. We stopped at a trailhead along the way and took a little walk. We saw signs of moose along the trail, but no actual wildlife. We’re becoming more knowledgeable about scat and what plants would be attractive to different animals, but still have a long way to go in that knowledge.
Our drive kept us on paved roads. The Dalton is legendary
and parallels the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. It is mostly unpaved for its 414 miles from the Alaskan interior to the North Slope. The vehicles that were coming south from the Dalton verified that it was a very dusty road. Where we turned around we had a great view of mountains that appeared to have no roads on them, except for the telltale sign of a dust-trail as some vehicle drove the road.
Traffic was light, as it has been in most places outside of cities. The changes that are leading to fall were more apparent on our drive north. We were impressed by the views without cell towers, utility poles, houses or any signs of civilization other than the road we were on.
Housekeeping
While we were in Fairbanks we had the oil changed in both the car and RV. The car had been having a “Service” light come on intermittently, so we tried to have the code read to see what was going on. George did a good job calling Saturn to find who serviced Saturns up here. The nearest Saturn dealer is in Anchorage and the next one is in Washington. He talked with the service manager in Washington and got some advice.
When we headed into Canada on our way north, we didn’t stock up on items while we were still in the US. We’re more knowledgeable now about how expensive items in Canada are, so we are now well stocked for our return trip.
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Renee Panther
non-member comment
We're still enjoying your travel blog. You seem to be having such a wonderful trip. We miss you and are looking forward to seeing you at our campouts when you get back. Happy Trails!