Yukon Quest and Northern Lights

We left our lovely campsite at the Chena River State Recreation area this morning and spent the rest of the day taking care of various errands around Fairbanks (laundry, post office, fuel-up, groceries) and doing some more sight-seeing.

From the downtown visitor center, we walked the scenic walkway along the Chena River. This ‘antler arch’ is a favourite photo stop for the tourists:

We also saw the statue honouring the flyers of the Lend-Lease program from World War II. This program saw the U.S. lend Russia planes to use in fighting Germany.

We also stopped to look at the ‘first family’ statue showing an Eskimo family, including its dog. It honours the indigenous people of the area.

Next to the ‘first family’ statue is the headquarters for the Yukon Quest. This 1,000 mile sled dog race between Fairbanks, AK and Whitehorse, YT is the toughest one run. It’s even tougher than the Iditarod since it is run in colder weather (February vs March) and has more/higher elevation changes. The headquarters is the actual location of either the start line or the finish line – it alternates between Whitehorse and Fairbanks. They have a small gift shop staffed by volunteers, including a couple of semi-retired sled dogs.

I like the bottom portion of the sign outside.

We took the cairns to the off-leash part but decided to walk them on the path by the river instead. There were too many big dogs in the park for any of us to be comfortable.

After a mediocre (to be kind) supper at the Greek cabin in Pioneer Park, we went back downtown. I wanted to see the Northern Lights presentation in the old movie theatre which is also the Ice Museum.

They let us look at the ice sculptures before the film started. They are quite spectacular. Fairbanks hosts a huge ice sculpture competition every February and some of them are preserved in glass-walled freezers in the ice museum.

The Northern Lights presentation was a wide screen, panoramic presentation of photos taken by local photographer, LeRoy Zimmerman and set to classical music. It was very beautiful.

Tomorrow, we leave Fairbanks to go to Denali National Park for five days. We’ve booked a bus excursion into the park, an ATV back-country tour and a dinner theatre. There are two nature/visitor centers, a sled dog kennel to visit and we’ll be able to ride our bikes all over the place. Motor vehicles are not allowed into the park past mile 15. You have to go by bus if you want to go further. Should be fun – I just hope that we’ll be able to see the great mountain. Mount McKinley at 20,000 feet is the highest mountain in North America but it is known for hiding itself in cloud so getting a good view of it is a rare treat.