ZR-1 Alaskan Adventure Travel Log - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

QB93Z · 08-07-2012

On Sunday, we drove from Fairbanks to the Denali area, the home of Denali National Park, which is known as "the jewel of the National Park System."

The landscape south of Fairbanks starts out relatively flat and gets more mountainous as we approached Denali:

After crossing the Tanana River, we stopped in the little town of Tenana. They have an interesting event every year (since 1917) to celebrate the melting of the ice on the Tanana River, which signals spring and the reopening on commerence on the river. In March a large tripod is erected on the ice in the middle of the river. A cable is connected from the tripod to a clock tower on the shore in downtown Tenana.

Thousands of people pay $2.50 for a guess at the day, hour and minute that the ice will break up

When the ice breaks up, the tripod pulls on the cable and stops the "official" clock. The person with the winning ticket splits the pot with the city. In 2012, the the winners split $250,000!!! I put my money on April 30, at 11:30 AM.

The route from Fairbanks to Anchorage parallels the tracks of the Alaska Railroad and there are some very picturesque bridges along the route:

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a train go by:

Jim

08-07-2012	#10
QB93Z Join Date: May 2007 Location: Westminster, Maryland Posts: 3,685	Re: ZR-1 Alaskan Adventure Travel Log On Sunday, we drove from Fairbanks to the Denali area, the home of Denali National Park, which is known as "the jewel of the National Park System." The landscape south of Fairbanks starts out relatively flat and gets more mountainous as we approached Denali: After crossing the Tanana River, we stopped in the little town of Tenana. They have an interesting event every year (since 1917) to celebrate the melting of the ice on the Tanana River, which signals spring and the reopening on commerence on the river. In March a large tripod is erected on the ice in the middle of the river. A cable is connected from the tripod to a clock tower on the shore in downtown Tenana. Thousands of people pay $2.50 for a guess at the day, hour and minute that the ice will break up When the ice breaks up, the tripod pulls on the cable and stops the "official" clock. The person with the winning ticket splits the pot with the city. In 2012, the the winners split $250,000!!! I put my money on April 30, at 11:30 AM. The route from Fairbanks to Anchorage parallels the tracks of the Alaska Railroad and there are some very picturesque bridges along the route: Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a train go by: Jim