Brilliantly white puffy clouds in a clear blue sky that seems to go on forever.  Snow capped mountains line the horizon and dip in and out of passing clouds.  A cool breeze slides past as the morning sun warms my face.  I will take a million of ‘em.   

Pioneer Park.  They have collected a number of 1900-1920 log cabins from around town and created a sort of village.  It is surprising how many different types of structures make up “log cabins”.

Tananah Valley Farmers market.  Booths were filled with annuals and native perennials for ever present flower plots and window boxes.  There were vegetable plants of nearly every type imaginable.  Everybody in town must have a garden.  Food ranged from rice krispie treats and peanut blossom cookies to reindeer sausage, crepes, and Thai food (we sampled a couple dumplings for lunch…delicious).  The workmanship of the craft items was amazing.  Once again, it’s a good thing I have limited space or I would have toted home an arm full of stuff.

University of Alaska Museum of the North.  The Gallery of Alaska is divided into five sections each dedicated to one of the five unique regions of the State.  They attempt to create an image of each regions through an understanding of its geology, indigenous peoples, wildlife and modern day impacts and interaction.  It’s a great stop.  The stars of the show: Blue Babe-a mummified steppe bison – I think that I have seen a National Geographic special on this critter that was found up here.  He is sort of freeze dried; bone, organs, skin and fur and all.  A bit icky but amazing.  An 8’9” tall brown bear.  He is mounted upright on his hind legs with a quizzical/curious expression rather than a menacing snarl.  Still, not a fellow one would want to meet in the flesh!

Of course there is a global warming exhibit.  It wasn’t a domesday, catastrophy sort of story.  More of a “look how complex this all is”, “how interconnected all of nature is”.  “We have no idea how to set it right if we upset the balance.”  It is a fascinating field of study.  The University just launched a new ice breaker research vessel.  That would be amazing to stow away on.

Michigan claims them too.  I think there are plenty to go around.

The Chena River watershed has seen 2 ½ – 3 inches of rain in the past few days and it seems that the River ands its many tributaries have the nasty habit of gathering up more than they can contain.  The Corp of Engineers has activated the flood control protocol for Fairbanks.  Guess where we are?  Right, the Corp of Engineer’s campground.  They seem to have it all under control.  They actually adjust the gates of a diverter dam to send part of the flow through a complex of dikes into giant retaining pond and on into the Tananah River that then flows around town.  Clever.  It is pretty interesting to watch; from high ground of course.

North Pole, Alaska is a cute little town.  It is all about Christmas of course.  Business names, street names, candy cane lightpoles, a 50 foot tall Santa, and of course Santa’s house with real live Santa and real live reindeer.  There is an actual North Pole.  It is nearly a bit much but it is such a community wide effort that it is all ok, if you can imagine that?!

A wonderful non-Christmas North Pole attraction, the homesteader cabins.  People actually live in these sod roofed log cabins year round.  Wouldn’t you love it if your roof was covered with wildflower blossoms in the spring?

The Taylor Highway follows a ridge and promises sweeping views of the Alaska Range.  I got only a fleeting look at the rugged snow capped peaks before the skies turned grey and the clouds socked in.  No problem.  We’ll just hang out up here and wait for the clouds to lift.  It got more grey.  It sprinkled rain.  It rained hard.  No problem.  We’ll just spend the night and it’ll be better in the morning.

In the night drops changed to slush and by early morning to heavy wet snow.  It was our first significant snow in nearly four years, more than 3”. Kent had to scoop it off of the roof of the slide so we could break camp.  As it turned out the white stuff was just at the very highest elevations. It added to our adventure as we drove in and out of it for a couple hours.  I still haven’t seen the Alaska Range!

The “Highway” swung around a curve and into the valley. A tiny town, actually three business establishments and a post office, nestle close to the creek. A gold mining creek of course. The best stop: Beautiful Downtown Chicken. A slab wood sided, false fronted, strip mall that houses an Emporium (gift and souvenir shop), a Saloon, and a Café. The floors sag and bow so much I could barely walk in a straight line. The proprietor, Susan, waited on us everywhere. She is the baker too. The blueberry and apple pie are both fabulous. The gift shop has a great selection of fun stuff as well as the usual T-shirts and candy bars. Oh, there are actually live chickens in the coop between the café and the saloon. To further assure its position as a one on a kind place; the Poop Coop (the strip mall public outhouse) is both functional and quite entertaining. This is a pit toilet only town.

A close second: The giant chicken sculpture fashioned from old school lockers then trucked out here from Homer, about 615 miles. The local version of the signpost forest includes names of all sorts of other fowl namesakes like: Chicken Gizzard KY, Suck Egg Hollow TN, Chickaboggalla Australia, Yolk Spring AZ. Clever, huh? Chicken Post office. I am not positive that this is the smallest we have seen but it is definitely one of the most quaint. Mail leaves Tuesdays and Fridays. We stopped by on Tuesday so I actually got to meet the post mistress. Her kids were having a great time playing house and dusting the PO front porch with willow branches. I’m not sure one could get smaller-town USA. Abandoned mining equipment sits everywhere. A huge dredge is sort of a centerpiece of town. We could have staked a couple hour claim and panned for gold…they still find enough in the area to keep people working it. We have resisted the urge so far but may try our hand at it before we get out of gold country all together.

June 16 – 68 days and 5,111 miles since leaving Texas

A hike into the alpine regions in Tombstone Territorial Park brought us to a perfect Marmot rock pile. First one, then tow, then three. They perched atop high vantage points to scope out the interlopers, Kent and I. A bark here. A bark there. I’m sure that they were plotting to surround then invade to snatch our trail mix. They are a riot to watch. We managed to keep all our snacks for ourselves. From our high altitude perch, we climbed about 1200 ft to about 3500 ft above sea level, the views of row upon row of distant mountains was spectacular. A cow moose and her twin calves. She really stared us down, even though we were at least 300 yards away and never go out of the car. Those mama’s are really protective!