The skies were a little cloudy
this morning but by this afternoon they were mainly blue again. We have been
very lucky with the weather. We checked in at the Alaska Railroad office for our
first class seats to Denali. We were in the first carriage on the top deck with
a glass ceiling and huge windows so that the view everywhere was fantastic.
With free tea, coffee and sodas as well as the scenery, the next 130 miles to
Denali were looking good. We started on a loop line for the train to turn
around and had a great view of the types of carriages the train could pull.
There were hoppers full of coal, container carriages, box crates on flat cars,
tanker cars carrying oil from the Bering Sea and flat cars carrying up to 3
semitrailers at a time. The Fairbanks rail yards covered 440 acres and they
were one terminal of the Fairbanks to Anchorage train.
As the two 4,300 horse power
locomotives pulling the train started on the main route, we passed Fairbanks
University which services about 5,500 students and at which there is a lot of
research done in fields such as cold climate living, aurora borealis activity
and experimental agricultural techniques. Fairbanks has 98 long days of summer
in which sometimes the sun shines for 20 hours a day so the vegetables are
sweeter than elsewhere due to the extra rays of sunlight.
Winter is a different story with
normal winter days recording -40 degrees F. Schools are closed at -50 and the
university closes at -55 degrees. In winter Moose Mountain gets only about 6 ft
of snow but there are ski lifts which operate from November to Easter each year
so that skiing is enjoyed.
We had spruce and tamarak trees on
both sides of the train. They were mainly green but there were some small
patches of yellow starting to show. Therefore the autumn colours of red, yellow
and brown were just around the corner. Sometimes autumn is only a few weeks in
length so winter is not far away. Hunting seasons for moose and caribou start
in September.
After looking at some hot house
farming areas we were impressed with the Alaska Native Memorial Bridge on which
the George Parks Highway was built. It connects Anchorage and Fairbanks. They
started building it in 1959 and finished it in 1971. From Nenana you can see Mt
McKinley, the tallest mountain in Alaska, and there were many good viewing
points of it along the route.
The longest bridge on the track is
the Meares Memorial Bridge which is 702 ft long and the train slowed to tackle
the 1% grade in the track. At Nenana, they have a competition like they have at
Dawson City. For a $2.50 bet, people try to guess when the river will start to
thaw. This year the winner took home $300,000 so it is a good prize and
everyone rushes to the landing when they hear the bell ringing. 85% of Alaska
has permafrost (permanently frozen ground). Above the permafrost, there is land
which seasonally freezes and defrosts. Small trees grow where the top level is
shallow and the taller trees have deeper roots but sometimes they end up with a
“drunken forest” when the freezing patterns differ and the trees grow at
different angles as well as different heights.
We passed Clear Air Force Station
which was built as a ballistic missile spotting station after the Russians
built the Sputnik in 1959. It cost more than 3 billion dollars to set up. In
1981 it changed to a radar system and in 2011 the radar capabilities allowed 24
hour surveillance. The town of Healy has only 39 people and their telephone
service only began in 2001. What did they do without phones?
We passed the Usibelli Coal field
which is the only coal field currently being mined in Alaska. The coal there is
relatively young(only 20-30 million years old) and produces cleaner energy .
The company was also proactive in reclaiming the land after mining it even
before it was compulsory for mining companies to do so.
Suddenly we started the slow
downward drop into Healy Canyon. The views were fantastic with the curved
railway line allowing us to see all the levels the river had gouged out of the
original glacial valley and the result was a V shaped gorge with sheer rock
sides and a fast flowing stream with rapids for the locals and the tourists to
enjoy. The water is usually about 32 degrees F so rafters wear suits to keep
warm. The water that is in the river now was ice about 10 hours ago.
We passed under Windy Bridge, the
third highest road bridge in Alaska, where the wind is so strong that it can
blow cars and trailers from one lane to another. We arrived at Denali and we
pleased to see our shuttle bus was there to meet us. After lunch we took the
shuttle to downtown Denali (one street) and looked around. We meet a young lady
who was about 23 yrs old and she arrived by pushbike. We asked her where she
had come from and she replied, “Argentina”. She was from Germany and planned to
ride the pushbike all the way to Deadhorse ( at the top of Alaska as the crow
flies). What a journey!! She has taken two and a half years to get this far and
is hoping to write a book about her journey. I hope it is in English!!
Tomorrow we are going on a nine
hour bus ride to search for animals like bears and moose. I’ll let you know how
we went.
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