June 11
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve is another one of the “out in the middle of nowhere” parks. One can drive the rugged 60+ miles to Eagle from highway AK 5 then hike into the Preserve, take a raft trip down the Yukon River into the park (or get a power boat and go upstream from Fairbanks), or fly to one of the park’s gravel airfields. Since it is recommended to have two spare tires in your car for the Eagle road, and our group does not want to raft, we chose Wright Air Services in Fairbanks for the ferry service.
An early start was needed to be at Wright Air by 7 AM. Our flight reservation was for 8 AM, to go to the Coal Creek area in the park. I tried to get a “Friends and Family” discount due to my last name, but the clerk was not buying the possible connection. The land below us was mainly rolling hills with evergreens and open grassland until reaching the Yukon River and the Coal Creek section. We flew over the Coal Creek dredge as we made the approach to the gravel runway. The dredge is left over from the mining heydays of many decades past. After disembarking we headed for the old mining camp, which is the opposite direction of the dredge. A good thing most of us had bug head nets, bug-repellent hoodies, or wipes. The mosquitoes were out in force. We hoped a NPS ranger would be in camp, but even though we found his ATV, we never saw another person. A solar-cell array was on one hillside, to help provide electricity to the few buildings in the camp.
We returned to the plane and loaded into our seats. As the pilot became pressing various buttons, a black bear meandered across the runway. Once in the air the pilot went a bit out of his way to fly us over the Fort Knox gold mine. This is the largest open-pit-only gold mine in the country. What an operation. Those huge mining loaders looked like ants, being so deep in the pit. The gold rush which started in Dawson in the 1890s along the Yukon River corridor is still going strong.
This region is one of the few places in the world where geologists can look at 600 million years of ageing via rocks and sediment. The park also protects a good portion of the Yukon River, which has a storied past for Alaska relative to the gold rush of the late 19th century. And the gold rush continues today. On the flight back the pilot gave us a view of the Fort Knox Gold Mine, east of Fairbanks. That was one large open-pit mine. We lost count on the number of levels down to the bottom. The tires on the mine haulers can be ten feet tall, which tells you how big the haulers are… and we could barely see them, so far down in the pit.
A short drive to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center in downtown Fairbanks was needed to get Passport Book stamps, for Yukon-Charley and other parks. Then we started east to Delta Junction and the Alaskan Highway. We went through the city of North Pole, stopping to get coffee. We turned south at Tok instead of going into Canada. Besides, none of us had our passports. The purpose for this slightly longer route back to Anchorage was so that three of our group could set foot inside both the Wrangell – St. Elias NPark and the NPres. This can be done at the small town of Selina. Two more parks to be marked on their checklists. Then I got to drive AK 1 again (see date after Kennecott experience). At one point a mother moose and its calf were on the roadside. Do I have to say it again? Timing.