The Flowers of Fairbanks

One of my favorite things about Fairbanks is the assortment of flower beds and boxes throughout the city. Business, parks and residences flourish with a fascinating assortment of colorful blooms. Throughout the summer I managed to collect a few images of blossoms all over Fairbanks. These colorful and fragrant beauties appear around the middle of May. They have virtually disappeared; final flowers went away this week. Many of them have been victims of frost; others were taken out, so that they can be replaced next year.

Things to do in Fairbanks: Dine at the Silver Gulch Brewery

A short drive from Fairbanks to Fox, Alaska, out the Steese Highway will take you to the Silver Gulch Brewery.

The menu offers at least a dozen micro brews such as Fairbanks Lager and 40 Below Stout. If exotic beer choices are new to you, the brewery offers samplers which are served in small Pilsner style glasses. Our pilot friend, Josh seemed to enjoy a couple of the brews. David and I on the other hand will never become beer aficionados. For anyone who is a beer drinker, this is the place for you.

According to the Silver Gulch: "The brewing vessel purchased were used in the Conner's Brewery in St. Catherines, Canada and have a total capacity of 375 barrels. From start to finish, the brewing process takes 1 long day with up to an additional six plus weeks for fermentation and aging. After the beer has been conditioned, it is cold-filtered through a state-of-the-art German system and then bottled on the 200 bottle-per-minute bottling system. This system cleans, fills, caps, labels and repacks the bottles back in their cases..."

The brewery's building is eye-catching. It's a fun building to photograph, with all of its vertical lines and angles. Flower planters are abundant on the grounds here too. The interior is spartan and modern looking. There are some artifacts on display from the gold rush days of Fairbanks and Fox, Alaska.


The food was good. David and I shared hush puppies and split a basket of fish and chips. Josh had an appetizing bowl of chili and Heather had an enormous hamburger.  

All told it's a fun place to visit and maybe worth a return trip.

The Train to Denali.6

David and I shared a light lunch, puttered around the book store and I took one or two last minute photos. It began to rain and so it was the end of our day at the park. I looked across the river at the red roofs of the resort. My next visit to Denali National Park will include an overnight stay.There are several trails in the park for those who enjoy hiking. The dinner theater is on my list for the next visit too.

It began to pour rain as the train came to the depot in the park. We protected ourselves under the eves as we watched rain soaked passengers wait in a long line for the journey back to Fairbanks.

The ride back was rainy and it felt too cool for comfort in our car. Temperatures are controlled to keep the dome from steaming up. We were excused to go downstairs for dinner. We shared some salmon and had triple berry pie for desert. A retired couple from England sat at the table across from us. We answered their questions about life in Fairbanks to the best of our ability. The conversation was nice and they told us about the many cruises they had taken in the last five years. It was warmer in the dining area, but we couldn't stay there for the duration of the trip.

The sky cleared up as we headed north and train swayed back and forth. We stood on the platform one last time, but I felt too tired to do much more than watch the terrain change from mountains to the lower lying flat lands.

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The Train to Denali.5

This is it. Mt. Mckinley

Mt. McKinley, where are you?

By the time we arrived at our destination, the sky was overcast with low clouds. We stepped off the train and walked over toward the visitors center to the bus stop. Shuttles are offered free of charge. This keeps the park road from becoming congested by slow moving cars. A special permit is required to drive the park road anywhere past the ranger station.

We climbed aboard the Savage Shuttle and patiently waited for tourists eager to photograph wildlife and 22,000 ft mountain peaks. The bus ride is a 13 mile trip to an over look of the "High One". As we traveled the two lane road the driver gave us a lesson in viewing and photographing wildlife. "Passengers, you may be able to see a moose off to the side of the road. I expect you to notify me if you see any; I will keep my eyes on the road. I will slow down and stop, if you simply call out the word wildlife. You will not be allowed off the bus to take any photographs. Keep your heads and hands inside the windows, and above all else, keep your voices down. Loud voices could trigger the wrong response from wild moose. We can't spend much time; I have a schedule to keep." We slowly  approached a few campers and a bus the size of ours that were stopped in the road. A gaggle of binocular and camera laden people were also in the road trying to get that telephoto shot of a wild animal. "Darn people," our driver said, "That's not the way to do it!" More than half of us on our bus scrambled to the starboard side of the bus,  craned our necks, only to see nothing and we moved on.

Finally we made our destination. This is where we were to be able to take some of those timeless photos of Mount McKinley - photos that could be seen in coffee table books, as screen savers and Google Images all over the world!Things happen, and this was one of those days where we were only able to see the foothills. The breath taking peak was swallowed up by clouds. I didn't allow this to ruin our trip, so I made the most of it and tried to take a few photos of what was available to me.

We were invited back on the bus and made our journey 13 miles back to the bus stop. Once again we slowed to a crawl. The same goofy group was still in the road squinting through their viewfinders. One of our fellow passengers exclaimed, "Look, there it is!"

A male moose crowned with a glorious rack was hidden in the trees. "Do you see it? Get a picture," the man behind me said as he encouraged his wife. We were at a stand still. Nothing. Only movements of the tree were to be seen. The bus lurched slightly forward. We held our breath. "I got it," I whispered to my husband.

"We need to move on, or we will be late. I need to keep on schedule", our driver announced. The driver eased down the road "We didn't get a picture. We should have stayed in California." The man behind me spoke with discouragement. David asked "Trish, you got one didn't you?" I looked at the image on my digital screen, "yeah, but it's really teeny."

I managed to shoot more valleys and those wonderful colors on our way back to the bus stop. It was still cool outdoors and I asked David to open his window as I apologized for the draft to our fellow passengers.  Our driver announced that there was a vista just before our final stop. My camera and I "burned up more film" as they said in the days before digital and I was fortunate enough to save some more fall colors to my cameras memory.

Denali will not go away, but my next visit may not allow me to capture the autumn colors available for a few short weeks.

There is a bit of a sad ending to this part of my story. The following morning I decided to edit my pictures (delete the duds) before downloading them to the computer and making that part of it easier. Have you ever had one of those pictures where all you got was a stupid tree? Delete. Tree. Delete. Stupid Tree. Delete.... uh, oh. ...That was my moose picture. I was a bit mortified. I will never get that image back, but oh well, if it's that hard to see the moose in the picture, it wasn't a good moose picture. But, gee, he had such beautiful horns and the couple from California thinks I have it to treasure forever. Oh, well.

Since then there has been a little consolation prize. "Moose!" David was driving and pointing. It was about a week after our trip to Denali National Park. There they were, a couple of females nibbling on dinner in the Moose Lot. The photos I got aren't worthy of a postcard, but they made it to the blog, dated September 16th.

The Train to Denali.4

We continued to ramble southbound. Our cozy car and domed roof allowed us to see panoramic views. The glass is tinted and in the summer months, air conditioning is available for a comfortable ride. Ribbon rails have been installed for a relatively smooth ride.

The windows have a tendency to show reflections from inside the car, so we had the option of standing outside on the platform to shoot photos. Every other car has a platform and we were so lucky to ride the last car. It made shooting some of the photos a breeze.

There was a time though, where I had to squeeze myself in among a railing full of tourists with cameras who, like I, were craving that perfect Nat-Geo picture. It was cold and the wind whipped my hair around my face, so when I was brave enough to get the picture that I desperately needed, I stayed with it. 

I was able to capture some river rafters, peaks and valleys, summits and gorges and countless golden leaves. Wild life was scarce, but the guide was able to point out Trumpeter Swans, a mother with her babies. Trumpeter Swans  pair up when they are young, about three years old. The pair stays together throughout the year, and migrating together. They are the last to arrive in the spring and the last to leave in the fall. Once they depart, winter is a 3 short weeks away. Trumpeters are assumed to mate for life. These bright, white, graceful birds were too far away for me to photograph.

Our guide pointed out a small, old miner's cabin that had grass growing on its roof. I managed to get that in a photo, but it is a bit of a puzzle to identify it.

Several miles and moments passed and I kept asking myself "Am I really in Alaska?" We were in constant awe of the monumental views.