Alaska - Day 3

Today was another early start. Our original excursion called for a 4 hour scenic train ride from Fairbanks to Denali.  It was to be one of those glass dome cars. However, Alaska has had the highest amount of rainfall in 41 years. So, some of the tracks these trains need are flooded.  Instead, we had to take a bus to Fairbanks.  The part I don't understand was this; we were departing Fairbanks an hour earlier, but they claimed the bus ride would be faster than by train.  If that is so, why leave earlier?  Anyway, the weather by far cooperated with us as the day progressed.

Our first bus stop was in North Pole, AK.  That's right... the name of the town is North Pole and everything there has to do with Santa and Christmas.  All the street light poles are in the shape of candy canes.  Even the McDonald's sign is held up by a pole resembling a candy cane.  Coming into town, Andy the bus driver drove us completely through a roundabout in a complete circle before heading in the correct direction. He claimed he needed the practice.  The bus stopped at the Santa Claus House, a gift shop with everything tourist and Christmas.

Buffy was in bit of a panic.  She wanted several pictures of the place, but yet she wanted to shop. We only had 30 minutes.  I went and got the pictures and she shopped.  We did manage to get one photo of her with a giant Santa Claus statue next to the Santa Claus RV Park.  I am not making this up.  If fact later today, we met a family that stayed there!

We then had to head back to Fairbanks to pick up some folks at the train station (I think they got a late call while we were already in North Pole to pick these people up - good thing North Pole is only about 15 miles from Fairbanks).  Our next stop after about an hour or so was in a small town called Nenana.  There they have some large tripod pole they place on the Nenana River.  Each winter, the river freezes.  This tripod is connected to a clock and once the ice breaks free, it pushes free the tripod which then trips the clock and the exact time and day is recorded to when the ice finally breaks.  Wagers and bets are placed throughout the year on when this will happen.  The pot can get as high as $75,000.  And by the looks of this town, that's serious money.

We finally reached Denali shortly after 12 noon at the McKinley Chalets Resorts, where we'll be staying the next couple of nights.  It was nice that we didn't have to deal with our luggage.  The cruise people handle all that, though Mom's as well as Dennis & Shari's bags were late in being delivered.  We had lunch there at "the Chalets" at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.  This is a nice little bar with a great view of the river and canyon.  But poor Jack, it might just be too much excitement and too little sleep.  As he's bouncing around with energy, he accidently knocked over a glass of root beer and the glass broke.  He thought he was in trouble. 

After lunch and some light shopping and looking around, we were trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Dennis, Shari, possibly Jack and Mom were going to rent a Jeep and drive around the park.  But this would not happen until 5:45pm.  Buffy and I opted to take a shuttle over to Denali National Park and went for a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  On our way back waiting for our shuttle, we started talking to some people who was vacationing here. They mentioned that they were in North Pole and their kids got to meet Santa.  They also mentioned they were staying in an RV and then they stated that they stayed at the Santa Claus RV Park. "Yea, I know where that is," I said.

Tomorrow is going to be another early start.  We take our 8 hour Wilderness Tundra Tour or something like that in Denali National Park.  We hope for good weather, but the forecast calls for rain.  Sounds like Dennis is going to bail on this ride as he cannot handle being in a converted school bus with Jack for that long.  I'll let everyone know what happens tomorrow.

Photos:

Top - Buffy and I on the trail to Horseshoe Lake.

Bottom - All of us at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.