Alaska (Days 23-28)

---

Driving from town to town and visiting the wilderness in Alaska has been good. We have stopped at Anchorage, Talkettan, De Nali and Fairbanks. Anchorage is the biggest town with a population in excess of 150,000- the other towns are much smaller though swell up during the summer tourist season. The highlight of the trip in Alaska has been the wilderness tour of De Nali national park - some 6 million acres of wilderness - we saw moose, brown bear, golden eagle and caribou. We were also some of the lucky few to see the peaks of Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet. Today we went on a river boat tour of the Chekna river in Fairbanks and visited an old automobile museum- we are flying out tomorrow back to Vancouver to start the next leg of our trip - a train trip across the Rocky Mountains. Will keep in touch. As I write the time is 10.50 pm and it is still day light outside- it never gets dark here in the summer and the temperature today in Fairbanks was 28 c - in winter it can be below 60 F for weeks on end and only 3-4 hours of day light.

Best wishes.

---

Photos

De Nali national park
We traveled some 92 miles within this beautiful park

Caribou
We sighted a lot of caribou or wild reindeer in the park

The Great one
Native Alaskans call Mount McKinley - Denali or the Great one - when you get close to it you really appreciate what they are talking about.

De Nali
only 30% of tourists who go on tour actually get to see the mountain summits due to variable weather conditions.

River boat
We traveled on this river boat on the chekna river to visit an Indian village

Indian clothes dispaly
A young native demonstrated how to keep warm at -40F.

Santa Claus
We visited the North pole in Alaska today

auto museum
nice little orange number from 1914

auto museum 2
I am sure Al Capone used a car like this

Cycle options
The cycle options looked a little challenging and unsafe.