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2007 Alaska Road Trip |
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Last night I went out to the restroom fairly late about 12:30am and when I looked up I saw my first Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) that I have ever seen. I ran back to the trailer to get Tony to come out and look. It was an outstanding display over town. After about 20 minutes it seemed to fade away some and moved off to the north.
Today we toured Fairbanks. We saw the Museum of the North and the Large Animal Research Station, both associated with the University of Alaska.
Our first stop was the Museum of the North. Below is a photo of the Iditarod trophy.
The most fascinating piece I thought they had was this large copper nugget that was found just like this in a mine.
Here I am standing next to a stuffed brown bear (grizzly bears and brown bears are the same).
Here is Tony sitting in one of the art pieces on display in the museum.
Next we went to visit the Large Animal Research Station. Here we got to see some Musk Oxen up close, but unfortunately always with a fence between us. This photo is of a male Musk Ox.
This photo is of a female.
Here is the skull of a female.
Here is the skull of a male.
This is a photo of a male skull that is been cut in half. The point of this was to show the 3 inches of skull bone covering their brain. Apparently the males like to butt heads.
The other large animal we saw was Caribou. As you may know Caribou and Reindeer are the same species, Reindeer is what they are called when they have been domesticated for food and/or sleigh pulling if you're Santa Claus. The joke the tour guide through the facility told was that the difference between Caribou and Reindeer is that Caribou don't fly.
Tomorrow we start heading south towards Denali.