Day 35, Fairbanks, AK

We have covered a lot of miles since Watson Lake, Yukon.  We made good time leaving Watson Lake so decided to head on to Whitehorse, Yukon.  It was rainy most of the drive but quit by the time we arrived in Whitehorse.  We crossed the Continental Divide just before passing through Teslin, Yukon at 1031 meters elevation.  We have been having fun doing the conversions on speed, distance and elevations along the way.  1031 meters is about 3,300 feet.  I know through this section of road, the gas mileage on the truck was lower with all the ups and downs.
We stopped in Teslin to see a couple of museums dedicated to the First Nation people indigenous to that area.  The first was by a man, George Johnston, that began photographing his people beginning in the early 1900's until his death in 1974.  He also had the first car in that area, a 1928 Chevy that he used as a taxi for the three miles of cleared roadway he cut.  Once the Alaska Highway was built in 1942, he was able to travel much farther.  Much interesting history depicted in his pictures and a video of his life and the lives of his people.  The second museum was a much newer, modern structure showing much of the way of life and tribes of the First Nation people with two current artisans at work on site showing some of the distinctive art and historic style artifacts.  They are getting ready for a gathering of the Tlingit, pronounced "klinkit," First Nation people from across western Canada and even Southeast Alaska.  It is happening this weekend.

Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center

Having pushed on to Whitehorse, we had time to spend two nights there.  We took advantage of that time to take care of a few things.  With the dusty conditions along the way where road renovation and construction was occurring, I needed to replace the truck's air filter.  We saw immediate results by way of increased miles per gallon.  We needed a few groceries so tried Walmart but they had very little so found a good local grocery.  A restaurant had been recommended, The Klondike Rib and Salmon, so we went there for lunch.  It was very good and portions were plenty.  We met a man there, Mike, that was doing the Alaska trip on a Harley Davidson.  He started in San Diego with three others, but time, lack of determination and lack of understanding of the demands of what this type of trip would be, caused them to bail.  We finished the day by touring the SS Klondike, a stern wheeler that ran up and down the Yukon river from the early 1900's to as late as 1954.
We left Whitehorse on Wednesday morning, stayed overnight at Kluane Lake (over 50 miles long!) on Thursday.

Kluane Lake

 We crossed back into the USA at 12:23pm Pacific Time, 11:23am Alaska Time and 5365 miles into our trip.  This part of the road trip, Kluane Lake to Tok, Alaska was the roughest as far as road surface; lots of repairs with many signs for frost heaves so we took it moderately slow, 45-50mph with a lot of quick slow downs when we saw repairs or dips and bumps unmarked.  Still, we were ahead of schedule so over night at Big Delta, Rika's Roadhouse museum parking area last night, right next to the Alaska Pipeline,  and came on to Fairbanks this morning.  Since sunset is around 11:30 and sunrise around 4:30, we are trying to adjust to going to bed with the sun still shining and not getting up too early.  Didn't work this morning as we were up at 5:30.  We did see a cow moose, several white swans, and one black bear while driving yesterday.  
We have electric and water in a fully shaded site at Chena River Recreation Area right in downtown Fairbanks.  We had to wait until 6:30pm to get our site but it will be worth the wait as we will be here for seven nights before heading to Denali.  I will try to do another post before leaving Fairbanks next Friday.