ZR-1 Alaskan Adventure Travel Log

[QB93Z]

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

[QB93Z]

As we continued our journey south to Denali, we encountered some rain. We were worried that the weather would spoil all of the plans we had for activities in Denali, but we lucked out and had excellent weather when we needed it.


We arrived in Denali before noon and headed up the hill to our Lodge:




Here is a view from the our hotel, looking out at the river and Denali Park:



With a great feeling of succes, we hoisted a few beers and celebrated 4,200 miles of flawless performance by the Yellow ZR-1.

Jim

[QB93Z]

Hoping that the rain would hold off, we went for a trail ride on some ATV's. Not as powerful as a ZR-1, but much more nimble:


The trails that we rode on are not actually in Denali park, but on old coal mining land that is surrounded by the Park:


The views were fantastic:


We rode up the rock field left by a retreating glacier:


The "cliff" we climbed is the lateral moraine deposits:




Jim

[QB93Z]

On Sunday evening, went by helicopter up into the Alaska Range Mountains to visit a glacier.




This trip was without a doubt, one of the most impressive things that I have ever done. It is very hard to explain the sheer mass of these mountains, they go on for hundreds of miles. We left the Denali area and headed east:




When we got up into the higher mountains we started to see a lot of glaciers:




to be continued...

[QB93Z]

There were two helicopters in our group. The pilot selected a galacier that had some interesting features and we landed on the ice:


The surface of a glacier is amazing. We were standing on ice hundreds of feet thick. This particular glacier's movement is measured in feet per day. The surface of the ice was marked with black spots that looked like grains of sand but were really rock dust ground to a ultra-fine powder. There was a lake of melt water that sparkled from the effervesence of trapped gasses released from the melting, ancient ice.


The other helo landed across the water from us:


After we were airborn again, we saw more glaciers:


On the way back, we flew through a cloud and made a rainbow:


Jim

[scottfab]

Stunning, breath taking, fantastic, surreal and outstanding.
What else can I say?
Oh, what was the temperature outside when standing on
the glacier? Like mid 40s or so?

[tomtom72]

You guys are having way too much fun! Way to be Jim and Lindi!


Thanks for sharing!

[ZZZZZR1]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

You guys are having way too much fun! Way to be Jim and Lindi!


Thanks for sharing!

I agree with Tom!!!! Damn, you will need a vacation from your vacation!!!!!!!



David

[jcruz]

When I look at pictures like these I'm always struck at how puny and insignificant man is compared to the forces of nature.

[A26B]

Karen & I visited Alaska a couple of years ago and really enjoy seeing your trip to some of the same places we were. Denali is an incredible place. I hope the weather is in your favor to see Mt McKinley. Your experiences make me want to go back.

Thanks for sharing with us!