Wasilla Hatcher Pass/Gold Mine

Our drive up into the mountains took about 30 minutes.  The mountain streams were beautiful.

When we arrived at the Hatcher Pass Turnoff, it was still closed.  It's only open July thru September.  We thought that since it was almost July, we could get thru it, but the ranger said that there is still 3-4 feet of snow up there.

 So we contiued up the road to the Independence Mine Historical Park, high in the mountains east of Wasilla, was a working gold mine until World War II. Robert Lee Hatcher discovered and staked the first lode gold claim in the Willow Creek Valley in September 1906, and others soon followed. But lode mining was expensive for an individual operator; it required elaborate tunnels and heavy equipment, so companies merged to pool resources and reduce expenses. Today it is a park. All but a few of its buildings are boarded up or have been reduced to rubble.

Still alot of snow up here.

This was a beautiful setting with the mountains in the background.

The end of another great day in Alaska!

Wasilla (Day 2)

On Friday we drove over to Palmer, AK, planning to drive up into the mountains to see Hatcher Pass and an old gold mine.  However, we missed our turn and found this interesting turnout where gold was first found in this valley.

As we were leaving, we saw the sign for the Musk Ox Farm just ahead.  We knew the farm was nearby, but didn’t know exactly where!

It is a picturesque Colony farm, where they continue a unique domestication project begun sixty years ago, and is home to a lively herd of sixty musk ox, from powerful bulls to frolicking calves.  

   

The non-profit Musk Ox Farm is dedicated to the domestication of the musk ox, an Ice Age mammal that once roamed the earth alongside saber tooth tigers and woolly mammoths.
Known to native Alaskans as “Oomingmak”, which means “The Bearded One”, this once-endangered animal produces an annual harvest of qiviut, the finest wool in the world.

Musk Ox shedding qiviut underwool in springtime, photo courtesy of John Gomes.

This website will give you additional information about the hand knitting that is done with the underwool:  http://www.qiviut.com/

More about the gold mine next...

5th Alaskan Stop - Wasilla

Sorry for the delay in new posts – I think I had ‘writer’s cramp’ or brain freeze or something like that.  Anyway, we moved on from Denali on Monday, June 13^th and arrived in Wasilla for a week.  As usual, we did see mountains.

We decided to spend a week here because Anchorage is close by (35 miles) and there are things to do here as well.  We had originally planned to stay at a CG in Anchorage but the prices were high, and, according to the park reviews that I read, most of them are ‘DUMPS.’  So we found a nice CG here but we do not have a sewer hookup so we will see how that goes later in the week when our tanks fill up.

We lucked out because they were having a barbecue that evening - they provide all the meat and the campers provide a dish to share.

We had salmon cooked three different ways on the grill, moose ribs,  Everything was delicious.  Someone even brought a rhubarb dessert!

On Wednesday we went to Anchorage and spent the day there.  The weather was cool but some sun.  We found a parking lot near the downtown mall.  This mural was on the side of the building next to the parking lot. 

We needed to do some shopping in JCPenney (of course), and then had lunch at the food court on the 4^th floor.

We also needed to find the ONLY Bank of America ATM (in Alaska) to get some cash.  We knew it was on the same street as the mall but just down the street.  So we walked a block or two and couldn’t find it so, back to the mall where we found another bank and asked them where the B of A ATM was.  Wouldn’t you know, it was up on the 4^th floor of the mall!  And almost right where we had lunch!!  Who knew??  Anyway, we got our cash and then did some more walking around the mall.

Later we walked around downtown looking for a quilt shop but didn’t find it. 
 We wanted to tour the ULU Knife Factory so we found the Visitor Center a couple of blocks away.  They have a tour bus (free) that takes you to their factory.

You could look into the production shop and watch them make everything.  Pretty cool.  Didn’t buy one though as we bought one somewhere on our previous trip to Alaska 12 years ago.

This was a display of the earliest known ULU knives and cutting board.

By the we got back to the Visitor Center, it started raining so we got wet getting back to the truck.  But we survived.

4th Alaskan Stop - Denali

Thursday, June 9^th, we left the North Pole (Fairbanks) and drove about 125 miles to a campground about 8 miles outside Denali National Park.

As is the case every day, we saw mountains:

These are the mountains behind our campsite:

On Friday we drove to the Visitors Center and got our tickets for Saturday’s tour of the park. 

Then we drove into the park as far as you could go – 13 miles.  You can’t go any further unless unless you go by tour bus or you are camping at one of the CG’s further in. If you are camping, you can only drive to the CG and park your vehicle.  If you want to travel in the park, you have to catch a green bus which comes thru about every 15 minutes.  These green buses also pick up campers who have tent camped out in the wilderness somewhere.  

On the way back, we stopped at Mile Marker #9 which is where you can see Mt. McKinley, if it is visible.  And, it actually was!!  Hard to see because of the ice cap – it looks like clouds behind the closer and lower mountains.  With binoculars, it was quite pronounced.  But the camera couldn’t pick it up.  So you will have to take our word for it.

There was a large herd of caribou out in the field:

When we first saw this sign, we were wondering what it meant.

It just says that there is gravel ahead.  And whenever, we see snow, Judy has to take a picture of it!

We had hoped to see a train crossing this bridge, but it didn't happen.

We were almost out of the park (right near the turnoff to go to the Visitors Center when we saw this in the ditch:

The ironic thing about seeing this moose is that 12 years ago when we were here, we were on the bus coming back from the tour and right about here (but in the ditch on the other side), we saw a moose just like this one!


Our trip into Denali Park each day included traveling thru a canyon with a river along side.  We saw rafters here several times.

On Friday afternoon we drove back north a couple of miles the the 49th State Brewing Company in the town of Healy to taste their beer.

Unfortunately they had had a music festival the night before (that we knew about but didn't go) and they were out of the beer that they brew.  So we HAD to drink some other tap beer!  We got there around 3:15 planning to have a late lunch but found out that the kitchen doesn't open until 4.  So we sat at the bar with our beer and watched the Texas Longhorns baseball team play in a regional playoff round.  The sandwiches that we later ordered were so big that we only ate half and brought the rest back for another meal.

On Saturday we took our bus tour thru the park and saw several animals.

Dall sheep...

These are grizzly bears (in case you were wondering, they were nowhere near the sheep!!).

More scenery:

More Dall sheep:

And another moose:

Steve, here is the bus we rode on.

On Sunday we drove over to the train station where we saw the train come in from Fairbanks.

And the Princess dome cars.

Again, this was a nostalgia trip for us as we rode this train 12 years ago.  From Anchorage to Denali - got off, spent the night, toured Denali, got back on the train, and went to Fairbanks.  From there we flew back to Anchorage and then home to TX.