Santa Was Here
At North Pole, Alaska. Along with reindeer of course.
66° 33′ 44″
The Arctic Circle is the southernmost latitude in the Northern Hemisphere at which the sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for 24 hours (at the June solstice and December solstice respectively). To get there you take the infamous Ice Road Truckers route up the Dalton Highway which is the longest stretch of serviceless road in North America. North of Coldfoot, there is a 240-mile stretch of road with no gas stations, restaurants, hotels, or any other basic services until the Prudhoe Bay oilfield at Deadhorse. But get this… people LIVE up there! No phones, no internet (*gasp*), no mail service, not even electricity! Talk about getting away from it all!
MOOSE SPOTTING!
After spending the day in downtown Fairbanks and tooling around Pioneer Park and the Alaskan pipeline, I headed up to Chena Hot Springs to soak in a hot tub and check out the Aurora Ice Museum (not at the same time). The museum is furnished with numerous ice-walled rooms that contain some amazing carvings by 15 time world champion ice carver Steve Brice, and his wife, Heather a 6 time world champion. The admission fee gets you an “appletini” served in an ice carved martini glass of course. After freezing my butt off in the 20-degree ice castle, the hot-springs were a warm welcome! On the drive back to Fairbanks I could just sense the timing was right for a moose spotting. Sure enough about 20 minutes down the road I spied a mother and her baby moose grazing near a small pond. I slammed on the breaks and dashed out of the car to capture them on film. I made zero attempt to be stealthy and sneak up. They knew I was coming. Luckily they stuck around long enough for a portrait. So cute!! Mission complete. Now I can leave Alaska satisfied.
Fair-Banks
Oddly enough, I rolled into Fairbanks just in time to catch the tail end of their summer fair. It was meant to be.
Denali National Park
About halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks lies Denali National Park (aka McKinley National Park) which has the highest mountain peak in the United States and in North America — a summit elevation of 20,320 feet above sea level.
The only other noteworthy stop along the way is Nenana which is also pictured below. Standard.
