After our trip to the Arctic Ocean we spent time cleaning up our vehicles and ourselves. It was nice to have sunshine again! This week we were with the kids on the visit to Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and Seward.
As we left the campground mama moose & her two babies crossed the road in front of us.
Our first venture was to Gold Dredge #8 to pan for gold.
As with most "towns" in Alaska there was a sign post telling how far Gold Dredge # 8 was from everywhere else.
We traveled by train. The conductor provided entertainment before we left. He sang several "oldies" songs with the audience joining in.
Along the way we saw a lot of mining equipment. When we got to the dredge we were told how it worked & the history of gold dredging in the area.
We all received a small bag of soil with gold filings in it to pan. After directions we each tried our luck at finding gold! We ended up with over $70 worth of gold. The grand kids got their gold into pendants, & Amy & I had ours put into a lockets on magnets.
After returning from our gold panning trip, we were treated to some information about the Alaska oil pipeline by a man that had worked on the pipeline.
While our son & wife got ready for their family overnight backpacking trip in Denali National park, we took the kids on a train trip at Pioneer Park.
Before having dinner at the Salmon Bake, we watched the ducks in the park pond.
On the way to Denali we watched the mountains open up through the clouds, we were treated to a great view of Denali.
While the kids were backpacking we took a 6 hour bus tour to Eielson Visitor Center in the center of Denali National Park.
Along the way we saw lots of animals including this fox.
There was grizzly bear that followed the bus for a short time.
Before leaving Denali, we went to the Sled Dog Demo. There were several friendly dogs to pet and Elizabeth was making friends!
The park rangers demonstrated how the dogs are hooked up to a sled & how the dogs work together. The dogs are used to patrol the park in winter.
Along the way to Seward in the rain we were treated to some great mountain views. Here the clouds are peaking over the top of the mountains.
We stopped at Exit Glacier Area of Kenai National Park.
After hiking to Exit Glacier the grand-kids finished their junior Ranger books & got their junior ranger badges for the park.
Our next stop was the Alaska Sea Life Center. We all had to check out all the neat sea creatures in the touch tank.
There was a sea lion who posed for pictures.
Some of the creatures were amazing.
We finished the week by stopping at another one of the Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Centers.
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