Today we start the long journey back to Fairbanks. We are going to try to make the entire 500 miles today. Maybe we'll get there before dark. Ummm.... I think that would be about August. It's been at least 2 or 3 weeks since we have seen darkness at night. Fairbanks is south of the Arctic Circle, so the sun does go down, but it doesn't get very dark. There's just a little twilight for the hour or two that the sun dips below the horizon.
Strange Gas Station
Of course we have to fuel up before hitting the road. We located the gas station on the map, and then drove right by it, because it didn't look like a gas station. The pumps are inside a small metal shack, with tanks behind to hold the fuel. I'm guessing the above-ground tanks are to protect them from frost heave, and the little shack is to keep the pumps from freezing or getting covered by snow. You can watch the meter through the window.
On the Road Again
It's about 32° and overcast as we head south, and the clouds ahead look like snow. The area gets only about 4 inches of rain a year, most of it in the form of snow. Compare that to the Sahara Desert, which averages over 7 inches in a year. Yet the area is basically a flat wetland, with standing water everywhere. The permafrost is very close to the surface here, so when the snow melts there is basically no place for it to go.I have two pictures of the tundra to share. One shows the frost heaves in the ground, and the other just the expanse of wetland.
Caribou Crossing
We had to wait for a herd of caribou to cross the road, and then saw more grazing just down the road.
Road Conditions
Here are two more pictures illustrating the road conditions. The first is on one of the rare sections of paved road. notice the crack across the road? Follow it down the side to see how deep it is. The other picture is after we ran into the snow. It shows what happens to the unpaved sections of road when they get wet. Needless to say, we are now collecting even deeper layers of mud.
Snowing Harder
At this point, it has started to snow harder. The mountains are still in the distance, but you can already tell there is more snow on them than there was when we came by here yesterday. The temperature is dropping, down to 30° so far, and the snow is starting to stick a little more.
Ghost Mountains
This was such a strange effect to me. The snow and fog made the mountains look shadowy, like an eerie ghost.
Atigun Pass Revisited
Atigun Pass looks a lot different than it did yesterday. It was a bit colder, too - the temperature dropped to 28° as we came across. There was no ice or snow on the road when we were here, just the mud. Later on, we did hear one trucker talk about having to chain up to cross the pass in the morning.
South of the Pass
Once we got through the pass, the weather changed just as abruptly as it did going the other way. The temperature started rising, and the snow changed to rain, and eventually cleared up. After that, it stayed dry most of the way back, until we ran into a light shower near Fairbanks
More Mud
When the snow changed to light rain, it was still making lots of fresh mud, but the rain loosened it a little at the top, causing it to run rivers of mud down the side. Yuck. And the picture does not even show how deep it is on the running boards and back bumper.More Wildlife
We got a pretty good look at this moose. You can even see the velvet on his freshly sprouted antlers. You might have to zoom in the picture to get a better look.
We saw two different foxes, within about half an hour of each other. Believe it or not, these are red foxes. This surprised me, since they are not the normal red color, but when I looked them up to see what they were, I learned that red foxes come in about four color variations. This one is called a cross fox, because the shading on the back and shoulder resembles a cross. You can see it best in the second picture. The second fox, in the lower two pictures, was carrying some kind of prey. We did not get a good look at what it was.
Alpenglow and Rainbows
As we got back near Fairbanks, we were treated to two different visual effects - alpenglow and a rainbow. Alpenglow is what is making the green trees glow red. Has something to do with the sun being below the top of the hill, and the rays refracting or bending over the top. The sun has not really gone down yet, but depending on which direction we are pointing on this winding road, it may or may not be behind a mountain.
By the way, these pictures were taken a little after midnight, by the light of the midnight sun. We did make it back to Fairbanks before sunset, which was around 12:30.
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