The trip from Tok to Fairbanks was an easy run. We covered the 208 miles in less than four hours on the best roads we have since we left the Alaska Highway at Whitehorse. The Alaska Highway officially ends in Delta Junction, halfway between Tok and Fairbanks. From Delta Junction to Fairbanks the road is the Richardson Highway and existed before the opening of the Alaska Highway. Our route followed the Tanana River for most of the trip and we got our first distant glimpses of the Alaska Range and Mount McKinley. There was a bit of haze, smoke from distant forest fires being the major contributer, so pictures of the mountains were not possible.

We arrived at our campground and were assigned a riverside site. When you look out the door you see the Chena River and some pretty fancy homes on the opposite shore. This is the nicest campground we have been in since Muncho Lake.

This evening we went to the World Eskimo and Indian Olympics. The contestants represent Eskimos, Aleuts, Athabascans, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian (the last four are Indian tribal groups). It was an interesting experience. We had expected more native sporting events and learned that the Olympics included such contests as dancing, best native costumes, baby contests as well as blanket toss and one foot high kick. The other thing we learned about is "Alaska Time." The evening activities were to begin at 6pm and the program had a schedule in it. It started nowhere near 6 and the schedule was ignored. We were only able to see a small segment of the evening program before heading back to the campground.
The Tanana River is fairly wide in spots and has many braided channels.
This view is from a lookout north of Delta Junction.
The milepost, at right, is at the Fairbanks Visitors Center, Downtown. It is marked as Mile 1523 of the Alaska Highway, based on the local belief that the Alaska Highway goes from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. The Milepost also shows distance from world cities. It shows the distance to Jerusalem as 5750 miles (9260 Km) and the distance to New York as 4527 miles. We question their measuring methods and don't believe that Jerusalem is on 1000 miles further from Fairbanks then New York even if you use a trans-polar route.
View from our front door, taken at 10pm
Our neighbors
Baby contest, native fur costumes
More dancing girls, Barrow Dancers
(Barrow is the northern most town in the U.S.)
Click on picture for video