Monday, July 11 - Tok to Fairbanks, Alaska

The morning started off at the buffet at the Sour Dough Campground where the menu included reindeer sausage, elk sausage, biscuits and gravy, and sour dough pancakes.  We hit the road with our next stop being Delta Junction and the official end of the Alaska Highway.  After stopping at the visitors center and took advantage of the usual touristy things like taking pictures and buying souvenirs.  With business done at Delta Junction, our next stop was North Pole, Alaska, to visit Santa.  North Pole, Alaska, is a small town just east of Fairbanks where all the light poles look like candy canes and the street names were of a Christmas theme.  The group stopped at Santa's house, took pictures of reindeer and shopped at the store.  We finally said goodbye to Santa and his helpers and headed towards Fairbanks.  Fairbanks just reminds me of an old midwest town with low buildings some of them 100 years old.   The industrial part of Fairbanks isn't pretty and the short freeways can get you from one side of town to the other in 5 minutes with no traffic jams.  Our stay in Fairbanks was mainly for some downtime and maintenance to the vehicles.  After checking in to hotels and campgrounds, everyone went their separate ways getting oil changes, tire rotations, and to resupply.  The plan is to meet at 8am tomorrow morning to start our trek to the Arctic Circle and Prudhoe Bay. 

Breakfast with Reindeer sausage, Elk sausage and sourdough pancakes at the Sourdough Campground in Tok.

We saw our 1st Moose today !  Mother and babies

Just like Western Canada, there are lakes and rivers everywhere in Alaska

Some with ice still in them far south of the Arctic Circle

And still some with the majestic snow capped peaks of the Alaska Range in the background

Santa is working hard at his home at the North Pole
                                      



All of the street lights in North Pole Alaska are candy canes

A typical Alaska Road - note the only 4 lane streets we have seen so far are in the cities, nothing rural

Strange street signs dot the roads like this one

 The end of the Alaska Highway, 1422 miles west of Dawson Creek, Canada in Delta Jct, Alaska

 We saw our 1st totem pole today too!

 Saw these strange  birds in a farmers field outside of Fairbanks

 These coffee shacks are everywhere in Fairbanks

 The campground office looks like a Hobbit house, complete with a grass roof

At 0256 when it doesn't get any darker than this how does one sleep?