Alaska 2009c - Majestic Mountains and Native Culture

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Interior Alaska from Whittier to Fairbanks.

1 A one lane 2.5 mile toll tunnel is the only road to/from Whittier. Vehicles enter on the hour & exit on the 1/2 hour. Trains use it on the 1/4 and...	2 A full grown Grizzly male may weigh up to 650 lbs and stand 7 feet tall. It is 3rd in size after the Kodiak and Polar bears. (Big Game Alaska...	3 Black bears are the most common Alaskan bear. (Big Game Alaska Wildlife Center )	4 The Bison is the largest of the cattle species. A male will typically weigh over 2000 lbs. (Big Game Alaska Wildlife Center)
5 Mary Nelle & Ginger explore a Clan House at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage.	6 A native describes her dress made from seal skins and animal pelts at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.	7 These young ladies play the "nose game" which is a favorite of Alaska native children.	8 Captain James Cook came to the area in 1776 to survey and map the region. His monument in Anchorage stands watch over Cook Inlet and the distant...
9 After a night in Anchorage, we board our ultradome car for our excursion north to Talkeetna.	10 The lower levels of the domed cars offer dining, a gift shop and an open air platform.	11 We get our first glimpse of Mount McKinley from the train. At 20,320 feet it is the tallest peak in North America.	12 We disembark the train in Talkeetna, with a population of 772.
13 The place to eat in Talkeetna.	14 Mary Nelle zeroes in on a quilt show celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood.	15 Each quilt panel portrays a story from different regions of the state.	16 Talkeetna moose art.
17 "Can you direct us to the meeting of the Talkeetna Red Hat Society?"	18 Ginger and Mary Nelle check out the center-fold of the Talkeetna Bachelor Society Male Order Catalog!	19 Our home for the next two nights with its awsome views of "The Great One"!	20 Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.
21 The deck of the lodge with its unbeatable view is a popular dining option.	22 Mt McKinley rises 17,000 feet from its base. Mt Everest, the tallest mountain, only rises 12,000 feet from its base.	23 Five large glaciers flow off the slopes of Mt McKinley.	24 Mary Nelle attempts to describe the view to daughter Julie back in Texas.
25 The views of the Alaskan Range are spectacular in every direction.	26 Oops! Jack's adventurous spirit may have gotten him in trouble.	27 This is Jerry, Mary Nelle and Ginger's idea of an adventure.	28 Iditarod musher Bill Hall trains his team during the summer using a 4-wheeler.
29 Having just pulled Bill & his "sled" 3 miles, the dogs deserve a breather.	30 Ginger and Mary Nelle get a feel for the sled used during the Iditarod.	31 A typical view along the Parks Highway as we travel to our next destination, the Denali Princess Lodge.	32 The Denali Princess Lodge is just across the Nenana river from the entrance to Denali National Park.
33 The girls zero in on Denali's version of a strip mall.	34 Ginger, Jack & Mary Nelle model some of the fashionable Denali headgear.	35 Our accomodations at the Denali Lodge.	36 This is the view from the balcony of our room.
37 The "Music of Denali" dinner theater features a production about early Denali explorers.	38 Our lodge sits on a bluff overlooking the Nenana River, the Parks Hwy and Mt Fellows. A moose wades near the right shore half way to the bridge..	39 Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Not Jerry, especially when it is stuffed and mounted!	40 Mary Nelle boards a bus for our Denali National Park tour.
41 Most wildlife we saw were of the small variety such as the snowshoe hare sporting its summer coat, Alaska's state bird, the ptarmigan and a curious...	42 Caribou herds migrate vast distances, up to 3000 miles a year.	43 The Alaska moose may stand up to 7 ft high at the shoulders and weigh up to 1500 lbs.	44 While clouds hid Mt McKinley from view, we get a lecture on the history of Denali Park.
45 Our train arrives to take us to our final destination, Fairbanks.	46 The red roofed Denali Lodge takes on a fairy book setting in this view from our northbound ultradome rail car.	47 For the next 65 miles we follow the Nenana River which originates at the Nenana Glacier in the Alaska Range.	48 The closer we get to Fairbanks, the less rugged the terrain.
49 Our home for the last 2 nights of our tour is the Fairbanks Princess Hotel. It never did get dark in Fairbanks, even at 3am.	50 Our hotel sits on the banks of the Chena River. We experience our first ever earthquake, a brief 3.9 quake that lasted only a couple of seconds.	51 Bush pilots use the Chena River for a runway.	52 Mary Nelle checks in with daughter Julie, while waiting to board the riverboat Discovery II for our down river excursion.
53 We pause at Susan Butcher's kennels to learn about the lady musher who won the Iditirod 4 times and placed in the top five 12 times.	54 Susan died of leukemia on August 5, 2006. Her 2 young daughters (seated), Tekla, 14, and Chisana, 9, take active roles in the kennel operations.	55 We learn that reindeer are really domesticated caribou.	56 We visit a replicated native fish camp to learn about salmon processing. The contraption in the forefront is a fishing wheel with nets that scoop...
57 Grace demonstrates cleaning and preparing the salmon for the smokehouse in the background.	58 We learn about the different animals hunted by natives for their skins and/or meat.	59 Typical Alaskan native outfits made from furs and skins.	60 How Alaskan natives stay warm in winter.
61 This tourist goes to extremes to get a picture of the baby reindeer.	62 Ginger and Jerry chill out at the Chena Village Trading Post.	63 Mary Nelle & Ginger have a "moose mating dance" contest. it's a photo finish!	64 We hop on the Eldorado Express to see if there's any gold left in them thar hills.
65 We learn about the different methods of mining for gold. Here we pause in a mine shaft for a demonstration of underground mining.	66 Some miners rocked a cradle side to side while pouring water over the ore to separate the rocks from the gold.	67 Larger operations would use a steam powered dredge with a bucket that would bring the ore up from underground.	68 Dexter demonstrates the old fashioned method of panning for gold. He starts with a pan of "pay dirt" and ends up with some dust and a nugget.
69 We're given a pan and some "pay dirt" and it's now up to us to find the gold.	70 Panning for gold is not as easy as Dexter made it look.	71 Mary Nelle shows off the results of her effort. Jack added his gold to come up with 17 grams combined.	72 Mary Nelle watches while Phillip, the "Nugget Doctor", weighs our gold and mounts it in a pendent and earrings.
73 The Eldorado Gold Mine crew wave "goodbye" as our train leaves the station.	74 Our final stop is to view a section of the Alaska pipeline which runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.	75 "Pigs" are run through the pipeline for cleaning and to inspect the pipe's condition.	76 Our journey is over and this sign post is missing a vital bit of information - HOUSTON 5303 MILES! It was still light out when we woke at 3am to...

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