On to Denali

We left Fairbanks and headed southwest on the Parks Highway, also known as Alaska 3. You can see where parts of the road have the dips and heaves showing it was built on permafrost. Also, you pass an access road that leads to Clear, a large radar site that is part of the ballistic missile early warning system. After crossing the the Tanana River we stopped in the village of Nenana. This village is used as a transfer point for fuel and other goods from the railroad to river barges headed for villages on the Tanana and Yukon Rivers. Nenana is known for their Nenana Ice Classic, an annual betting pool where hundreds of thousands of dollars are wagered by people around the world trying to guess the exact day and time in the spring when the river ice will go out. Of course we placed our wagers! When the Alaska Railroad was completed in 1923 President Harding drove a golden spike in Nenana to commemorate the railroad completion. Nenana has also been a stop for the Iditarod Race. We then continued on to Denali.Read more