Tok, AK is a crossroads. Coming and going, or to and from Fairbanks, Anchorage, Dawson City, and Whitehorse – the roads meet at Tok. Tok has about three gas stations, three gift shops, a visitor center, a grocery store and many RV parks. We stayed at Sourdough campground. The sites were among the trees, and the claim to fame of this park was its daily sourdough pancake breakfast and its sourdough pancake toss most evenings. One full day at Tok was more than enough time to get the rigs washed after that drove on the ‘Top of the World’ highway (blue job) and check out the gift shops (pink job).
Our next week was spent in Fairbanks, but on our way was a stop at Delta Junction – the official end of the Alaska Highway at mile 1422. There are many cleaver signs and such at the visitor center there, so many pictures were taken.
We arrived at Fairbanks in the afternoon about 3pm and stayed at Riverview RV Park which was between Fairbanks and North Pole. The park was beside the Chena River and provided all desired facilities and services. We had a bit of rain a few days while we were there, but fortunately the rain fell when we didn’t need to be in it.
We made a trip one afternoon to North Pole. Now we can say we’ve been there…..it has streets named Santa Claus Lane and St. Nicholas Drive and a large Christmas store called The Santa House and some street lights wrapped like candy canes. And that’s the extent of North Pole – been there, done that!
We got our first view of the Alyeska oil pipeline. It runs from Prudoe Bay to Valdez. There was a location where you could learn all the facts about the pipeline and stand under it to see its actual size.
We liked Fairbanks. It is relatively small (30,000 or so population) and has a cute downtown, the Univ of Alaska, some good tours - all this and a WalMart, a Safeway, and a Fred Meyer , too. What more could you ask for!!!
We visited the U of A Museum of the North – a good museum with lots of artifacts and information about the native Alaskan population of Athabascans, the early gold mining days, and the flora and fauna of the area. We also visited the university’s LARS (Large Animal Research Station) where we got a tour to see Musk Ox and Caribou and learn a lot about their habits and how they fit into the Alaska wildlife setting.
We took two tours and enjoyed both of them a great deal. One day we spent an afternoon doing the El Dorado gold mine tour. It began on a train and we got information about gold mining methods. They have a neat set-up where they gave everyone a bag of dirt with some gold in it and we panned for gold – there are lots of college age kids who helped as needed. Everyone is guaranteed gold. Gordie and I collected about $15 worth. You end up – where else – but in a huge gift shop. There they end your experience by weighing the gold and you can have it placed into a clear pendent (for a price). It really was fun. There were even fresh baked cookies and hot drinks at no charge as you shopped.
The other really good tour was called Riverboat Discovery, run by the same folks as the El Dorado tour. So we weren’t surprised when this was also an excellent afternoon. The Riverboat discovery III was a stern-wheeler and is 3-decks high. And we were treated to donuts and coffee as we set off down the river. We sat on top deck to get a great view of the Chena River. As we followed the river, we were told the history of many of the homes along the way. There was a demonstration of take-off and landing of a small fixed wing airplane from the river and again from a sand bar by an area pilot. We also sat off shore of the sled-dog kennel that was run by Susan Butcher (famous Iditerod champion who died of leukemia in 2002) and is still run by her husband. He told us about raising the teams and exercising them, etc – very interesting. The boat docked at the Chena Indian Village where we disembarked and were given information about the Indians, their fishing, their housing, the animal skins they wore, etc. Then it was back on the boat for the trip back to the dock – this included wonderful salmon dip on crackers. Of course, the salmon was superb and amazingly was for sale by the can or by the case. HA!!
Note: We were told that we should buy Alaska Tour books as soon as we got to Alaska. They are $99.99 and have two-for-one coupons to many tours and trips. If you get the book, be aware that many of the coupons are only available if booked far in advance, or some only allow one or two coupons per day, or some are for specific times only. These books are available on the Internet and you can see all the activities offered. We will definitely more than pay for the book, but it’s a good idea to look on the website and be aware of the restrictions before you buy. Once in Alaska, only Safeway stores have these coupon books.
The BIG thing in Fairbanks while we were there was the June 21 Summer Soltice. My goodness – it is the biggest celebration of the year. There is a 10:30PM baseball game without lights and a huge downtown street faire all day. And yes, it is definitely light ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT.
And then it was off to Denali and Talkeetna……next installment.
Happy travels, Ellen & Gordon
