We woke early enough to have the hotel’s buffet breakfast and to find out how to get to the air strip for our flight to the Arctic Circle. Breakfast was the usual, waffles, sausage, biscuits and gravy, but canned peaches and no other fruit. Coffee was good though. I do like my coffee.
The hotel is quite interesting. Tacky enough to be cool. Funky enough to be interesting. The ceiling in the barroom area, also the breakfast area, is tin plated with Tiffany lamps.
Lots of artwork decorate the walls, along with animal heads, harpoons and assorted Knick Knacks.
There was even an old time piano in the seating area.
Our excursion for the day was to fly north, crossing the Arctic Circle and landing in a small town called Coldfoot. During the base briefing, we were told that due to adverse weather conditions, we may not be able to go to Coldfoot and would need to land in Bettles. Since our trip was already paid for we said we’d go. Our plane was an 8 seater but it was the pilot and five of us. There were two other planes as well.
If you had any fears of flying, this would put you over the edge. It was so bumpy that at times it felt like the bottom was falling out. It reminded me of the Disney ride, Tower of Terror.
It was very soupy too and visibility was a big concern. We went down to 2500 feet and visibility was better.
One of the other planes had equipment failure and we could hear that on our headsets. Our pilot was instructing her what to do. I thought it was getting dicey.
Eventually we all made it to Coldfoot where it was raining. I was hoping for a little snow.
Our tour guide, Steven, met us at the plane and took us to the Coldfoot Camp for lunch.
We had some sandwiches and I had a nice warm hot cup of coffee. Steven told us this is the northernmost saloon in the US.
It was difficult to take pictures in the van. It was very crowded. Steven, took us to the Alaskan pipeline and talked about how it was built.
Our next stop was at the Arctic Circle. This is where we changed tour guides and vehicles. Our new tour guide was Tom.
The bus was a bit more comfortable but the windows were so dirty we couldn’t see out.
We took a short walk on the tundra. This was very interesting. It was very wet and boggy, almost impossible to walk. I was so glad I had my boots on.
The animals eat the many low growing plants on the tundra. The pipeline was everywhere. The pipeline carries approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil daily. It has helped the US become less dependent on other countries for oil. It was an amazing engineering feat, yet it also swathes across this beautiful country, where Alaska loses some of the feeling as the last frontier.
It started raining really hard and it was good to get back on the bus.
For dinner we stopped at the Yukon River Camp. This was very similar to the Coldfoot Camp but it was located on the Yukon River. Tired of being cold and wet, I opted not to hike down to the river.
The chili was very good. A bit spicy but very tasty. Then I had a piece of cherry pie and Bruce had blueberry. We sat and chatted with our tour guide, Tom. He lives in Fairbanks and has been a guide for 3 years.
These beautiful sunflowers were still in bloom outside the restaurant. It really was amazing to see how many flowers were still blooming despite the cold.
We had a two hour drive until we reached our next stop at the Arctic Circle Base Camp where we would spend a few hours waiting to see the aurora borealis.
Everyone was tired. Some people cozied up under blankets and took naps while others did jigsaw puzzles as we awaited the arrival of the lights. It was raining and cloudy so it wasn’t necessarily going to happen.
The bathroom facilities were outhouses – they were lit which was helpful.
Finally we had our first opportunity. They weren’t great because the sky was very cloudy.
But then I finally took one photo and another person did as well, where we captured the vivid blueish green. After that nothing.
And that was about the best there was! I had two nights of Northern Lights. I’m a happy camper.
#northernlights#pikeswaterfrontlodge#arcticcircle#
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