NENANA JUNE 28

After our our bus ride, we drove to this hotel

high on a bluff overlooking the park.

As you can see, the smoke was very thick in the valley.

 The commercial town" Denali" north of Denali National Park

Hotel McKinley where the tourists from the 

Princess Cruises stay.

 Nenana Canyon, going north out of town

 Note permafrost soft spot in road

 Nenana River

 Rock slide area-huge barrier wall

 Our campsite at Denali Grizzly RV Park

Day trip to the town of Nenana

At one time this town was very important as a hub for 

shipping and railroad. It is located at the confluence of the

Nenana and Tanana Rivers that flow north to the Yukon River.

The boats would take cargo to Fairbanks via the rivers.

The train would stop, unload freight, barge across the river, 

and load on a narrow gauge train to Fairbanks.  In the winter, they

would lay tracks across the the frozen river.

Who would think, of all the places in the world we would run into 

the captain of "The Manatee Queen", Brian and Helen Bobbitt out of

Jupiter Florida!  A friend from Tequesta. 

 The Nenana Ice Classic is an annual ice pool contest

 held since 1906 in Nenana, Alaska. It is a fundraising event in

 which individuals attempt to guess the exact time the 

Tanana River ice will break up at Nenana in the spring.

 This years jackpot was $318,500

This is the tripod they place on the ice.

What else are you going do here in the winter?

St Marks Episcopal Church

Still in use today.

 Log construction

 Fish wheel -floating in the river, the current rotates

the baskets, capturing the fish and dumping them into a 

container/

 A MOOSE!!  stop the car and turn around

 Gotcha!

 Nice moosy

 Heading back to Denali

 Well at least it will wash off the dust and help with the fires.

 All clear

 Back at Denali National Park to catch the dog sled

 demonstration. They use these teams to patrol the park

 during the winter.

 Off they go.......

 German tour bus from Germany

24 people in the bus, side opens for cooking

quite unique 

Eat..Sleep..Tour all in one ..29 or 50 day choice

Ran into a second bus in Fairbanks--the driver has done 5 tours this year..

all over the United States and Canada.  Looked exhausted just like Buzz.

Keep Rollin', Rollin' ,Rollin'