Fairbanks, AK

We drove straight out from Denali NP to Fairbanks, AK.  What a nice place.  Like the old saying about a woman's skirt, "Big enough to cover the essentials, but small enough to keep it interesting."
In these first few days, we toured the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.  One of the nicest visitors centers we've seen, with elaborate displays about life in the northern climes and the Native villages.

At the Cremer's Field Wildlife Refuge, we saw sandhill cranes that migrate to Alaska for the summer.

As well as a line of RVs with people waiting for days to snag one of the limited permits to hunt moose.  No doubt these were non-Native people.  Natives are exempt from severe hunting and fishing restrictions as they hunt for food on their traditional lands, classified "subsistence."

On the drive from Denali, we saw some smoke off to the east from the highway and figured some woods were burning.  Turns out this months long fire burned just about five miles south of Fairbanks.  Here is one day of ash on a chair outside our RV.

Tomorrow we fly to a Native village just north of the Arctic Circle.

Bruce