Another Alaska Trip, March 2011

Hello!!
Well, we did it again, Alaska is becoming habit forming. On  this trip, we wanted to see Alaska in winter.  So, we signed up for an Elderhostel/Road Scholar trip to Fairbanks and Coldfoot and into the Brooks Ranges on the Dalton Highway, of Ice Road Trucker fame.  I've sent along some pictures and commentary that sums up the trip.  It was another fantastic time of learning about and exploring a fantastically wild State.  Maybe we should just move there!!!

This is our first clear view of Mt McKinley, locally known as Denali!  It was taken from our flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks.  We have tried to view this mountain on our two other trips, but in Summer the clouds take over and a good sighting is rare.
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Our trip centered in Fairbanks for 5 days where we took in the local , as they call it "Spring" events.  The temperatures were still a bit below zero in the mornings, but the sun is high and warmed up the afternoons.  The day light increases about 6-8 minutes per day, much faster than at lower latitudes, so we gained about an hour and a half of daylight in the 15 days that we were there. We took in the Ice Art sculptures and dog sled races.

 This is an Ice Maze, really amazing! I was impressed by the clarity of the ice that was cut from a nearby pond. There were sculptures from all over the world. 

 Night time was another magical time!!!

The sprint sled dog races were held over 3 days with  each team traveling 25-30 miles each day, winner was the team with the fastest combined time.  The top two teams were 30 seconds apart!!!  These are sleek dogs bread for speed, they are not the typical sled dog.

Now it is North along the Dalton Highway, North of the Arctic Circle to the farthest north truck stop in North America, Coldftoot, Alaska.  This is where the History Channel films Ice Road Truckers!!!  We spent five days in and around Coldfoot, mainly in search of the Aurora. 

This is Roller Coaster Hill of Ice Road Trucker fame.

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We visited an old gold mining community from the early 1900's, Wiseman.  The book "Arctic Village" by Bob Marshall is a good sociological case study of the folks who live is this isolated community off the grid.

Then we took a day trip further North into the Brooks Range to Atigun Pass.  The road goes along the Alaskan Pipeline on the way to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields.

While in Coldfoot, we had a chance to meet real Alaskan Husky sled dogs!!!  Oh what fun!!   They loved to be petted and took us for a nice ride into the wild!

As for the Aurora, we did see them each night we were in Coldfoot.  Coldfoot is located right under the Auroral Oval, an area around the North Magnetic Pole where the solar wind energizes the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere to create the Northern Lights.  We had to look straight up to see them!!  The first night, the Aurora was a green belt from horizon to horizon with swirls of green and pink over head, it was quite the sight!  My camera was not good enough to pick up much of the action.  The lens needed to be open at least 30 seconds to capture enough light, ours went to 8 seconds.  I did realize that the camera can 'see' more of the Aurora than our eyes can!!  That realization was a bit disappointing!  My minds eye has done the recording.

 

This is what our camera saw.  We saw much more!

Travel to Alaska has been a great adventure for us.  The State is calling us back again--sometime.

Thanks for sharing our trip with us, stay tuned for more Travels with Carol and Ned!