Alaska Review! Day 7--Fairbanks to Delta Junction (Part 2)

Next stop!

This looked interesting to me.  We don't see muskoxen every day (or ever) at home.  There was a tour at 2 PM.  It cost $38 for the five of us.

We arrived about 45 minutes early, so we poked around a bit on the grounds and waited.  We didn't really have any sort of view of the muskoxen, as they were behind a locked gate.

Little bit of demographics about them.

Learning more about them.

 Finishing up some postcards.

Attempting to read.

I was a bit bummed out that we hadn't brought our lunch here to eat, as anyone is free to use the grounds.  But it was a nice way to chill out for a little while.

Or pretend to do some farming.

Finally, it was time for the tour.  I was surprised at how many people showed up for this tour on a Saturday afternoon.  There were probably 30 people there.  The gate was unlocked and we entered the animal areas.

Unfortunately, the muskoxen was having none of the treats being dangled on the other side of the fence.  Our guide tried for a few minutes and then decided to show us the reindeer.  We'd already seen a bunch, but we'll still say hi. 

This guy loved the treats and stayed by the fence.

We heard a lot about the reindeer, and I snapped a bunch of photo of our surroundings.

These skulls adorned the fences.  Not sure why.

Finally, just when we thought that the muskoxen weren't going to come anywhere near the fence, one of them made their way down the hill, and others followed.

 Why, hello there.

 Look at how big they are.

You get the idea.

There was a tent nearby, where you could go in and touch some items made from the qivuit, which is the wool the muskox.  It is crazy expensive!  They were selling skeins of yarn and they were something like $90 or $100 for a skein that was only a couple of ounces.

This is just a hide.  I didn't get any photos of the products.  They were amazingly soft.

I have forgotten to mention how hot it was in Fairbanks while we were there--it was mid to high 80s, so this tour in the sun made us all a little warm.  The tour was about an hour and we head back to the van for the next stop... the Aleyska Pipeline,which has a viewing station fairly close to Fairbanks.

 Just goes on and on for miles and miles...800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.  We were at mile 450.

and we'd be at mile 800 tomorrow. 

Um, yeah.  I don't think we had any desire to climb on top...well, maybe Imp.  😉

Sure, just make yourself at home.  The pipeline has a diameter of 4', so of course Imp would fit in the pig.

A retired pig, which helped to keep the oil flowing.

This gives you a sense of scale.  Chretien is about 5'9".

I used to teach environmental science, so I was fascinated to see this in person...and get a photo with it.

Not your typical photo by the tourist attraction, but hey, we're in Alaska!