We left Fairbanks for home on Sunday, August 31 via Skagway, Alaska. Here are a few pictures we took along the way.

Skagway is a large seaport and was a hustle and bustle compared to northern Alaska. The large ships are loaded with containers to travel all over the world.

Very large cruse ships come to the harbor. We observed how very dependent Skagway is on Tourism. We saw five large cruise ships, several trains and many tour buses in the day we were at Skagway. After the trains, buses and ships leave, the town closes up. We tried to find a reaturant in the evening and everything was locked up by 9 PM.

A few scenes of downtown Skagway.

Late afternoon we took a drive around the mountain to find the beginning of the Chilkoot Trail. We saw some beautiful scenes and it got dark but we still managed to get a few shots.

The cemetary for the persons who died in the avalance on Chilkoot pass on April 3, 1898.

We saw salmon swimming upstream. The water was not clear because of all the glacier run off, so we considered ourselves lucky to get several shots when they were somewhat out of the water.

We witnessed two grisslys having their evening meal along the stream. It was so much fun watching them running after the salmon until they caught them. We watched from the jeep, not on foot.

I will be doing one more Alaska post to share some pretty shots from the second half of our trip.

We drove toward the North Slope on Friday, August 28 and camped overnight. It was a beautiful trip and we had a good time.

We saw a wolf and followed it for three miles on the road. We also saw a mama moose and her babe.

Wilbur is pointing to the Arctic Circle in both Sweden and Alaska. They are exactly opposite and we were fortunate to be at both in the last four months.

Yes, this is ice along the road in a little ditch, close to Atigun Passs.

Some of the beauty, we saw as we traveled. The reds on the mountains are blueberry plants.

It was a "real" muddy road, but well worth the trip.

Do you believe this frost? The little bird is cold too.

We will start on our way back to Iowa on Sunday, August 30. We will make a stop at Skagway, before leaving Alaska. So we will have one more post about Alaska. Thanks for following the blog. It has been fun to share our journey.

Barrow, Alaska

On Thursday, August 27, we flew from Fairbanks to Barrow. We rode in eight seater, Piper Twin Engine plane. It was a four hour ride, with one stop. Barrow is the furthest north town in the United States. It is on the Arctic Ocean. We flew at 300 feet on the North Slope as we were looking for caribou. Yes, we seen some, but they were still too far away to get a good photo.

Here we are standing at the edge of the ocean. It was in the low 40's and we were cold. We had on our winter coats.

Some photos of our trip, not the best from the airplane windows.

The Alayska Pipeline.

There was new snow on the Brooks Range.

It was a cloudy day, which they have many of in Barrow.

A typical look of city of Barrow. There were lots of newer cars, brought in by barge. Their car gas comes once a year in a big barge. They then have the same price all year!!! They use natural gas to heat their homes and businesses.



Sorry, about the dark picture, but this is where they live temporially when they hunt,kill and butcher whales. The women stay here and the men go out in boats, about 7 per boat. This is one of the skin boats that are used in fishing and whaling.