Two hours later we pulled into a desolate Denali Park.  It was late September, the tourist season was long over, and winter in the far north was fast approaching.  The park was basically deserted - the visitors center was shuttered, there were no park rangers, and we saw no other visitors.  We drove into the park as far as we could, about 20 miles, before we hit a locked gate.  Along the entire road we saw not a single animal.  Not a bear, not a fox, not a moose.  We got out of the car and took an arduous hike up to a ridge through thick brambles.  We scanned the vast valley below.  Not a creature stirred.  Not even a mouse.  We hiked back to the car and drove back out of the park and the two hours back to Fairbanks and saw not a single creature.  Until...

We reached the outskirts of Fairbanks where we saw the same four moose in the same location that we had seen them 8 hours before.  So, we got out and took some pictures.

The trip to Denali was facilitated by the fact the C-130 plane we were supposed to be flying broke during a flight and needed to be sent back to Colorado for week to get repaired.  So, instead of flying for research nearly every day as was planned, my trip began with a week of not much to do.

Eventually, the plane did get fixed and we got into the air over the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska.  Initially, this was exhilarating.  The featureless ice-covered ocean in its white starkness is quite stunning at first glance.  However, after several flights of up to 10 hours in one of the world's noisiest planes (where conversation is nearly impossible), seeing nothing but white for mile upon mile, it can get rather boring.  Still there were moments.  Like the exhilaration of flying a mere 100 feet above the ice cover.  Or the beauty of seeing a full moon rise above the sea ice at dusk.

On the off days, other than the side trip to Denali, I often went to the university, Alaska-Fairbanks, and hung out there for a while studying (I was taking classes at the time).  Fortunately, these early days of my trip, in late-September and early-October, had fairly pleasant weather.  It felt more like November, with leaves mostly already off the trees, but the temperates were fairly moderate, mostly in the 40s F, and there was no snow yet.

This weather lasted until Todd arrived, about two weeks after I did.  Snow came in and temperatures did not rise much above 20 F.  I blamed Todd for the bad weather.  As the days get shorter (and of course colder), it's easier to see the aurora borealis, something I had never seen before.  In fact, Fairbanks is in a prime location for aurora viewing, right under where the aurora typically appears.  For this reason, the university is home to one of the top aurora research centers in the world.  While it was often cloudy, we had a few clear nights where we could go out and view the aurora.  It's an amazing phenomena, one that pictures, especially still photos can not do justice.  They do not capture the undulating motions of the auroral bands, nor do they pick up the eerie silence of them.  However, because they are viewable only on clear nights, this meant it was very cold.  Thus it was a competition between the awe of the aurora and the body's desire for warmth.

After our flights, we would often go out for dinner together.  There are actually a couple notable restaurants in Fairbanks.  One is a Thai restaurant that bills itself as "the world's northernmost Thai restaurant".  Later another Thai restaurant opened in Fairbanks that's actually a little farther north, but the first place still makes its claim.  It's an authentic restaurant, owned by immigrants from Thailand and the food was great.

Since Fairbanks is the farthest north U.S. city of any size one of the farthest north cities in the world, it's home to many "farthest north" claims.  We shopped in the farthest north Kmart and likely ate at the farthest north Subway and McDonalds (although it's quite possible there's a more northerly McDonalds in Norway, but this hasn't been confirmed).

Another favorite restaurant is the Food Factory.  This is a unique local chain (there are four in the Fairbanks area) and has an interesting menu.  For the most part it's typical bar food - burgers, wings, etc.  However, what's notable are its portions.  If you order something "Texas-sized", it means a small (get it?!).  One of their signature dishes is called a "Grizzly Burger".  This is three 1/3 pount beef patties topped with cheese, bacon, and eggs.  A table-side defribulator costs extra.

Another popular place in Fairbanks is the Fred Meyer store.  This is essentially a Super Wal-Mart before there were Super Wal-Marts.  It's a huge store that carries just about everything:  groceries, hardware, furniture, clothes, electronics, you name it.  And at the time, it was one of the first stores I had heard of being open 24 hours.  Perhaps this is an indication of how dull of a town Fairbanks is, but Fred Meyer is also a center of the social scene and on Friday and Saturday nights, it was filled with teenagers hanging out.

A few miles north of Fairbanks is the town of North Pole.  It's not actually at the North Pole of course, but the townspeople recognized a marketing opportunity and changed the name of their town to North Pole several years ago.  So, now when children send their letters to Santa at the North Pole, they come to this town.  There's the Santa Claus House, a big gift shop with lots of Christmas decorations, a sign with a large Santa, a pole (the North Pole!), and a pen with a reindeer (don't know which one, but its nose wasn't red, so it wasn't Rudolph).  It's very reminiscent of Bronners in Frankenmuth, Michigan for those that have been there.

Also a little outside of Fairbanks is a section of the Alaskan pipeline.  This is the pipeline that transports oil from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's northern coast all the way to the southern coast at Valdez, just outside of Anchorage.  The pipeline was built in the 1970s and is a major source of wealth in the state.  Because of it, residents of Alaska not only don't pay any state income tax, but they also get a yearly rebate of at least several hundred dollar as their share of the oil revenues through what's called the Permanent Fund.  It's easy to see why Alaskans are in favor of more oil drilling in the northern wilderness, regardless of the regions ecological value.

Television is an interesting experience in Fairbanks.  There are only two network affiliates, so ABC, NBC, and CBS share the two stations and shows are often on at strange times.  It can also be difficult to find sports on tv, especially live sports - Monday Night Football for example, is tape delayed.  This became an issue for Todd and I one Saturday.  Illinois, Todd's alma mater, was playing Michigan, my alma mater.  The game started around 10 am local time and it was not on either of the two stations.  We managed to find a bar that had a satellite dish - this was not the new small satellite dish with easy to find PPV channels.  It was one of the big old dishes that your rotate until you find the correct satellite.  The bartender didn't know how to use the dish, so she just gave us the remote and told us we could look for the game ourselves.  We did eventually find it, but it took awhile because we were having fun spinning the dish in circles checking out different channels.

One of the big news stories while I was there was Binky the Bear.  Binky was a polar bear at the Anchorage Zoo.  Anyone who knows anything about polar bears, knows that they are very dangerous animals.  Whereas most animals, even such as lions or tigers or other type of bears, will generally try to avoid humans unless they feel threatened, polar bears seem to come right toward humans when they see or smell one.  So, it's wise to keep one's distance.  A visitor at the zoo however decided a good picture was more important than personal safety.  She clambered over not one, but two safety fences to get to Binky's pen, whereupon Binky bit her leg.  She struggled to get free and with the assistance of zoo personnel, she finally did, minus her sneaker.  Binky apparently enjoyed the shoe as she (Binky was a female) wandered around her pen with the shoe in her mouth for several days.

It's not uncommon when an animal attacks a human that it's decided that the animal needs to be euthanized.  This was briefly considered for Binky.  However, the overwhelming sentiment was that the woman deserved to be shot more than the bear and Binky was saved.  The story, however is sadly not over.  Proving Darwin's theory and he stupidity of teenagers, two teen boys, having heard all the press about Binky, decided it would be fun to do the same thing.  So they jumped in the pen, whereupon they, surprise, were attacked by Binky!