Day 14- Denali

June 25

 142 miles

2 hr 52 min drive time

20.5 gallons

Stayed at Cantwell RV Park

Davan and Libby stayed up til 6am in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights.  They were very disappointed that it never really got dark.  I'm not sure what time it was when Summer got up but I woke up at one point and she was laying next to me.  

I woke everyone up about 9am and we hustled to get packed up on off to the Gold Dredge tour.  It was even more smokey than yesterday.  I had promised Starbucks this morning but we didn't have time.  In fact we made it with 5 minutes to spare.

It was ran by the same company that did the riverboat tour.  It was equally fun and informative.  The dredges were used to collect all the minor loose gold in the ground after the large pockets had been mined out.  Once the concentrated gold was removed the loose gold was not profitable to collect without mechanization.  After the train ride to the dredge we got a demonstration on how to pan for gold.  As we exited the train we were all give a poke bag and tried our hand at panning.  It took a minute to get the hang of it.  The staff was really helpful with any questions or tricks.  Since I was trying to do mine plus help the girls the host came and gave us a hand.  Libby had a dud bag with only three gold flakes so he got her a new one.  He bet her he could pan in 20 seconds or less.  

We collected our gold and went to get it weighed.  I had them dived my gold between the girls and they each ended up with roughly $20-$25 of gold each.  There were option to have the gold paced into jewelry.  Davan got a bracelet, Libby earrings and Summer a necklace.  After we were able to do a self guided tour of the dredge.  

Because we took so long panning and then having to wait to weigh and have our jewelry made I was one of the last people into the dredge.  The host was at the top available for questions.  Since it was just him and I up there we chatted a bit.  He gave me a compliment that really made my day.  He told me he was impressed with how attentive the girls seemed and that they were really great girls!

After the tour I owed the girls Starbucks so we headed back into Fairbanks.  Libby said she wanted to see Santa on the way in, but after she claimed she didn't want to anymore.

It was a short 2.5 hour ride to Denali.  We are actually staying just outside in Cantwell.   The campground we are staying at had really great reviews, is family owned and ran and just seemed a little quieter than being right in Denali.  So far I'm happy with our choice.

Tonight we are just chilling in the camper.  Some clouds just rolled in and we had a bit of rain.  

The campground owner said there is good Arctic Greyling fishing in the area so we are hoping to do a little of that in the morning and in the afternoon will be white water rafting.  I'm pretty excited for that.