There's GOLD in that thar gravel!

Originally we planned to stop in Denali National Park then go to Fairbanks.  The distances are not great but there is a lot of road construction that makes travel extremely slow.  As a result, we got to the Park about 5 in the evening on a rainy, muddy day to find the park jammed with people and no place for the RV.  There was a lot of haze in the air and the smell of old burned wood from the forest fires around here.  We had to go 65 miles north of the park to find a place to stay.  What a bummer.  You also couldn't see Mt. McKinley due to clouds.  We did get into a roadside RV park to spend the night and went on to Fairbanks the next morning.  We had managed a one night campsite stay in the Denali park campground for Sunday night, July 16th, but that was all they had.



Bob panning for gold in Felix Pedro Creek

When we got to Fairbanks, we were able to make reservations at an RV park 6 miles north of Denali for Monday and Tuesday night.  We also were able to get reservations on Tuesday for the shuttle ride through the park.  So with those plans made we set off to find out about Fairbanks.  What a crazy place.  It all started in 1902 when Felix Pedro discovered gold in a creek 16 miles North of where Fairbanks is today.  There is a roadside monument to him there and the site of his original discovery is open to public gold panning.  People are still mining gold in this valley.  Activities range from single miner operations to highly mechanized large mines that produce thousands of ounces of gold a year.  The city and surrounding area are littered with old gold mining equipment.

Forest Fires:

Two weeks ago it was very dry here and it still hasn't rained a lot.  In one night they had 130 fires started by lightning.  They were already fighting several fires that threatened towns.  They have gotten most of those under control but not before loosing the town of Willow, where the Iditarod starts each year.  The town is dedicated to sled racing and the dogs.  Many of the kennels were destroyed although I think the animals were saved.  It was on the news up here a lot and several operations are underway to help people rebuild.

When we went by here in the morning there was no fire.

Everything in the distance is burned

North and South of Fairbanks, there are still major fires burning.  You can see and smell smoke for probably 100 miles, no exaggeration.  So those of you who live in the West know about forest fires, but for those who have no experience, we took some pictures.  Brian and I walked into a fire in the Gila Wilderness once and neither of us will ever forget it.  In the picture below, the smoke is too thick to see anything clearly but everything from a short distance past the road to the top of that mountain you can barely see is burned and there are at least four major fires in this picture.  Here in Alaska, they let some of the fires burn in remote areas.  It has been found that the periodic fires keep dead wood quantities reduced which in turn reduces the intensity of the fires.  The fires themselves serve to rejuvenate the growth process especially in old forests that have begun to loose diversity.  However, the devastation is astounding for years as the regrowth begins and new trees establish themselves. On the Kenai peninsula and here, there are poignant signs along the highway saying thanks to the firefighters put up by the people whose homes have been saved.