Fantasy Caravan Day 29 - Fairbanks to Denali

On Saturday, we traveled from Fairbanks to Denali...

But first...

At our travel meeting on Friday evening, we each received our certificate of having reached the end of the Alaska Highway... while we did reach mile 1422 a few days ago, we have not yet driven the whole Alaska Highway since we took a detour over the Top of the World Highway. I think we will be doing the parts of the Alaska Highway that we missed when we are on our way south.

It was again a rainy overcast day -- but we appreciated this sign...

We've seen these many times in Canada and Alaska, giving a caution that the green light ahead is "stale" and will be turning yellow or red before we will get to it.

Rainy...

... and fog when we went up in elevation.

But then... there was hope (you probably can't read the sign)....

... zoomed in. It's gonna be Clear in just 43 miles! Yeah right!

We crossed the Alaska Native Veterans' Honor Bridge over the Nenana River.

More information about the bridge in Nenana.

We stopped in Nenana for me to take a picture of this tripod... it is a replica of the tripod used in the Nenana Ice Classic (https://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/) -- a local game of chance to guess the exact date and time of the ice breakup on the Nenana River as determined by the tripod (on the river) tripping the clock.

The Taku Chief -- from information I have found online, this may have been the last commercial wooden tug to work the Yukon and Nenana Rivers. It was displayed out behind where the tripod was located.

There were a few places along our driving route where the Milepost guide indicated that we may see Mt Denali on a clear day... well... uhm... not on our travel day! We could see outlines of mountains, but I don't think any of these were Denali.

We got to Denali village, and parked at the RV park (a very tight gravel lot with some hookups) behind a rustic strip mall out in front where we walked and looked at a few shops.

Fantasy had arranged for us to attend Cabin Nite Dinner Theater (https://www.denaliparkvillage.com/things-to-do/alaska-cabin-nite-dinner-theatre/) -- so we caught a bus across the street at the Princess Hotel and it took us to the location of the theater...

... we waited outside for a little while before the time to enter the theater.

Pictures of the players in the theater

The show started with a poetry recital ("The Cremation of Sam McGee") outside by one of the leads and he was joined with the company for a rousing song.

We were seated inside at long tables and served by the players in the performance... once we'd finished eating, the show began in earnest. It was made up of storytelling, poetry from Robert W. Service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Service), and song.

Ending tableau

I decided to take a picture of the stuffed Dall Sheep displayed in the rafters of the theater as I was not sure whether we would have the opportunity to see them in real life.

It was a busy day, and ended late (with a large meal) so we were glad to get back to Gracie and try to get a good night's sleep before our Sunday bus tour.