RV ALASKA - Pioneer "Parking"

On our prior visits to Fairbanks, our family had taken the Discovery Riverboat Tour, visited the Alaska Pipeline and panned for gold at Gold Dredge #8.  We enjoyed all of those activities, but Alan and I felt no need to do any of them again.  Honestly, I was looking at Fairbanks as a reprovisioning stop, and the only other item on our “must do” list was to visit Pioneer Park.  Pioneer Park is sort of a living history museum.  And a park (with a playground, a carousel and mini-golf).  And home to a performing arts center.  And you can “camp” in the parking lot.  Yup, that’s all it is, an honest-to-goodness parking lot.  Nothing but spigots with potable water and public restrooms in Pioneer Park.  If there was a trash dumpster, we couldn’t find it, yet we called that parking lot home for four nights.  Because we packed in so many activities (some fun, some not so much) into the three full days we were in Fairbanks, I may end up breaking our stay down into two posts.  We’ll see how it goes.  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though.

Long-time readers know that Alan and I often arrive at a destination with a scavenger list of sorts.  Sure, there might be a museum to visit or a restaurant to try, but sometimes there are simply unusual items on the list that we just want to see.  That was the case on the day we traveled from Denali National Park north to Fairbanks.  We wanted to see the Nenana Tripod.  And we weren’t going to leave Alaska until we did.  

Date(s) – August 9th – August 12th  

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 12,904

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We saw absolutely no wildlife on our way to Fairbanks or on any of the days we were there.

So, our current tally of wildlife sightings remains: 96 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 12 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear; 6 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) – We found the Nenana Tripod!  Well, it’s not actually a tripod, but that’s what it’s called, and it was in Nenana where it was supposed to be.  Of course, there’s a story behind the Tripod, and Alan and I found it to be heartwarming - and a charming reflection of everything’s that’s good about life in a small town.  Way back in 1917, engineers surveying for the Alaska Railroad decided to bet on when the Tanana River would “break up” that spring.  (Break up occurs when rivers that have iced up over the winter literally “break up” and the freely flowing waters begin washing the ice away.  In many towns and villages, it signals the arrival of spring and is cause for celebration.)  The engineers tossed $800.00 worth of guesses into a pool, and the tradition of the Nenana Ice Classic (NIC) – now over 100 years old - was born.

Here's how it works: Every June, the NIC organization places a new tripod made from spruce trees on display.  Tickets for guesses ($3.00 per guess) are sold in Nenana in the summer and throughout the state of Alaska beginning in February.  Early in March, the Tripod is disassembled, then reassembled on the frozen Tanana River the first weekend in March when the community celebrates Tripod Days Weekend.  The Tripod is connected via a pulley system to a clock that automatically stops when the ice breaks up on the Tanana River and carries the Tripod 100 feet from its starting position.  The person who guessed the exact time of break up (or the closest guess to it, if not exact) wins a substantial amount of prize money.  What’s substantial, you ask?  The 2024 jackpot was $210,155.00!  (In case you’re interested, the winning time was April 27^th at 5:18 a.m.)  If more than one person has the winning guess, the purse is split evenly between or among them.

These days, the Nenana Ice Classic is a non-profit charitable gaming organization.  Proceeds of the NIC are distributed to the American Cancer Society, Boy Scouts of America, Fairbanks Food Pantry, Nenana Library, Nenana Senior Center, four scholarship programs and many other groups.  How can you not love a tradition like this that benefits so many members of this small community and beyond?!

Alan and I knew that the Tripod was somewhere in Nenana, and Nenana (population: 346) was not that big.  We figured we’d find it, but we were hoping that it was somewhere readily visible and easily accessible because we had the trailer in tow, so our movements would be limited.  There was no need to worry.  The NIC Tripod was on display at the side of the road right on the Parks Highway near the entrance to town.  You can bet we’ll be following the 2025 Nenana Ice Classic to see when break up occurs next year.  I’m thinking we might even enter a couple of guess ourselves because – there’s a mail-in option available!

Upon our arrival in Fairbanks, after settling into our “campsite” at Pioneer Park, we visited the park and then the Visitor and Cultural Center in town.  Pioneer Park was fun, different and fascinating all rolled into one.  The city built a collection of original log cabins (mostly through donations), and moved them all to Pioneer Park.  The cabins, mainly from the early 1900’s, are set up like a small town, and they house shops, restaurants and museums.  Each cabin is numbered, and each has a plaque noting its history – or as much of its history as is known.  This little “town” was a lot of fun to explore, and I love that Fairbanks was so diligent about preserving so much of its history.

In addition to the cabins, Pioneer Park has two more stellar exhibits.  One, is The Harding Car – “the train car President Warren G. Harding rode in when he came to Alaska in 1923 to drive the Golden Spike for the Alaska Railroad.”  The Harding Car was open to visitors, and it was interesting to see what opulence looked like a hundred years ago.  The other stellar exhibit is the Nenana.  Do you remember way back when Alan and I were in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, we visited the S.S. Klondike National Historic Site and saw one of only four remaining sternwheelers that plied the Yukon River in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s?  (Wow!  That was definitely a run-on sentence!)  Well, the Nenana is one of those four.  She was purchased in 1957 from the Alaska Railroad by the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, and then sold to Greater Fairbanks Opportunities, Inc., an offshoot of businesses from the Chamber of Commerce.  They brought the Nenana to Fairbanks as a business venture, hoping that she would help build tourism in the city.  The Nenana is in desperate need of restoration, and I truly do hope that the funds can be raised to accomplish it.  Nonetheless, it was a treat to see her and a privilege to tour part of her interior.

The Visitor and Cultural Center had a variety of excellent exhibits, and we picked up a lot of literature about Fairbanks that proved helpful – which is why I’ll have several more highlights to report in the next post!

Lowlight(s) – Our layover in Fairbanks turned into much more than a quick reprovisioning stop.  In an effort to prepare for our return trip through Canada back to the States, we did laundry, shopped for groceries, and refilled our propane tanks (at a U-Haul center, of all places!).  Then there was the issue of our trailer’s two, 6-volt, deep cycle golf cart batteries.  They were eight years old and starting to show their age on this trip.  We debated waiting until we got back home to swap them out – or at least back to the lower 48.  But the thought of traveling through really remote areas of western Canada with batteries in which we no longer had full confidence resulted in the decision to buy new batteries while we were in Fairbanks.  So, one more thing to angst over.  (Yes, I did just make “angst” a verb.  It seemed appropriate.)  Since I know there are at least several of you who will be curious: Duracell, GC2 6 Volt, 235AH, deep cycle batteries.  If we get eight years out of these, we'll be thrilled.

Tip(s) – With the cost of groceries so high in both western Canada and Alaska, I was appreciating my memberships in the Safeway and Kroger shoppers’ rewards programs – or whatever you want to call them.  We don’t have either of those chains back home, but we travel across the country often enough that I had signed up with both of them years ago.  At Safeway, you can get “members only” discounts on store products and earn points toward discounts at Safeway gas stations.  We don’t get to collect on that very often because I prefer shopping at Walmart due to their lower prices and the fact that I can quickly navigate through their stores.  On this trip, we did enjoy a (very much appreciated) 20 cents off per gallon of gas at one of our Safeway fuel stops.  Safeway’s benefits extend to Albertson’s and Carr’s stores, as well.  My Kroger rewards card proved helpful on this trip when I found out it could be used at Fred Meyer locations, too.  I love Fred Meyer – and have for decades.  We just don’t happen to have any of them near us; otherwise, I’d be a frequent shopper.  Clean, bright, good prices, excellent selection, friendly staff – what’s not to like?  In addition to “members only” discounts in the store, we took advantage of my Kroger card to get a 3 cent per gallon discount at Fred Meyer gas stations.  Plus, I believe we’d get some type of discount on propane at the Fred Meyer gas stations that sell it.  The discounts earned via shoppers’ rewards cards aren’t earth shattering, but every penny saved in one area helps to fund activities or purchases in another.  Better in my pocket than theirs.  An unfortunate P.S.: Remember to budget more than you think necessary for fuel and gas due to higher prices up thisaway.

Observation(s) – This trip is too long.  I miss our kids and our daughter-in-law.  As I write, Alan and I have been on the road for nearly four months.  I think my sweet spot for an extended expedition is two to three months.

Campground(s) – Pioneer Park.  What a hoot!  The parking lot is large, and there are two sections for RVs.  One is back along the trees at one end of the lot.  The other is near the other end of the lot, close to main entrance of the park.  Our friends Bernie and Carol had “camped” at Pioneer Park when they visited Alaska last year, and said it wasn’t bad down along the trees at the far end.  That, of course, was the first place we looked when we rolled into town.  No dice.  The spots were all taken.  From the looks of the rigs that were in them, we probably wouldn’t have stayed in that section even if one of the spaces happened to be available.  The RVs looked old, decrepit and as if they’d be there for quite a while.  A little too creepy for me.  No, thanks.  On to the other end of the parking lot.  Things were looking much better down there (for a parking lot).  The city actually marks out wide “sites” and paints “RV Only” or something like that on the pavement.  I think they were actually a bit wider than some of the other campsites we had run into on this trip.  When I’m choosing campsites, I work really hard to get the best views possible out the back window, and I always try to select an end site that precludes neighbors on the side with our dinette and sofa windows.  It just so happened that the first RV spot in the row was open.  Not only did we not have a neighbor on the driver’s side where the dinette and sofa are, but we were the only rig on our end of the lot with an oasis of greenery right out our window.  We won’t talk about the view out our big back window which gave us a bird’s eye view of the traffic on Airport Way.  I don’t know where the airport was, but we weren’t bothered by airplane noise.  What was rather annoying was the train whistle from the cute little train ride in Pioneer Park.  The train trestle went right over the main entrance to the park which was pretty darn close to our site, and the engineer blew that whistle at that spot every single time he went around the track.  Thank heaven the park closed in the early evening, and the train didn’t interfere with a good night’s sleep.  Truthfully, I became rather fond of our quirky little oasis in Pioneer Park and didn’t mind Pioneer “Parking” at all.  Alan, however, was happy to move on.  All in all, a unique experience – and not too shabby for just $12.00 per night!  Although Pioneer Park has no dump station, it's my understanding that several gas stations in Fairbanks do.  We didn't need to dump our tanks before we left Pioneer Park, since we were on our way to a site with full hookups in Tok, and planned to take care of that fun-filled task there.

Pics(s) of the Day

The Parks Highway, shortly after leaving Denali National Park

Another shot, same area - it was one of the most scenic sections of the drive to Fairbanks.

The Nenana Ice Classic Tripod!

Notice the (annoying) train on the trestle.

Recreated town in Pioneer Park

The Harding Car

The Nenana  - As you can see, she needs a bit of work.

Pioneer Parking!

And our oasis amid the asphalt!

 Up Next – Fairbanks – Part Two!