Day 17: Fairbanks, AK to Cantwell, AK

There’s certainly much more to see around Fairbanks, and we’ve added all of these to our list for next time, but we decided we should probably carry on this morning. We’d heard nothing but good things about the Museum of the North, located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, so we stopped there on our way out of town. The museum isn’t huge, but it packs a decent amount in and it’s all very digestible to walk around for an hour or two. The building itself is incredibly interesting and impossible to miss, an amalgam of curving white faces that make it look like a giant nautilus/igloo you’d see on the cover of Architectural Digest.

The gallery upstairs has a lot to look through, from a wide span of time. We were both intrigued by “The Place Where You Go to Listen,” a sound and light environment created by John Luther Adams. Ethereal bells and tones are backed up by rumbling seismic vibrations, meant to reflect the sound and color of the earth, the Northern Lights, the passing of time. Definitely worth a few minutes to sink into it, but we both wished there was a little more to it.

The main room on the first floor is packed with historical information, panels detailing the specifics of indigenous cultures, the history of Japanese immigrants in Alaska, the Gold Rush, the ecology and animal life, the science behind Alaska’s extensive natural resources, and Blue Babe, the incredibly well-preserved bison who died 36,000 years ago. He now lays in a glass case in perfect repose. After watching a short film on the Aurora Borealis, we got in the car and headed south to Denali.

The drive down the Parks Highway becomes increasingly scenic as you get closer to Denali National Park. The road cuts through the mountains, skimming along the Nenana River (above, left) and curving to reveal glimpses of Denali (formerly "Mount McKinley"), the highest peak in North America. But we were especially intrigued by the Denali Highway (above, center and right), the original route to the park before the Parks Highway was built. It’s mostly gravel, and doesn’t seem to get as much maintenance as the Steese did, but it gets you from A to B (with a whole lot of glorious nothing in between). The road has some nice curves to it, bordering lakes and revealing expansive views of the mountain ranges around you.

The road is dotted with tons of what The Milepost calls “informal” and “primitive” campsites, many of them set on the tops of ridges with sweeping views of the eskers, rivers, creeks, and mountains that make up the landscape. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of not buying any firewood before hitting all of these primitive campsites. We investigated a few of them, took the 500X down into some fairly challenging terrain, but up on some of the ridges, the wind cuts over pretty harshly, so we definitely needed some firewood. We ended up stopping at the Alpine Creek Lodge (one of only a handful of establishments along the highway) to buy firewood.

Below the lodge but above the road itself, they had a small line of sites available for camping, and only one other tent set up. We decided to stay, set up camp, and were very pleased with our decision. The views were spectacular, edged in fireweed and lit by a full moon. We built a fire, decided to try out the $35 butane camp stove we bought in Calgary (which works like a dream, by the way) and made dinner. Boxed risotto, asparagus, and some recently caught salmon (an impromptu gift from a Missouri camper we met while stopped in construction on the road) cooked over the fire.