The first Sunday I was here, I was SOO bored, that I just had to get out and do something. So, I got in a car with a blown engine (the mains are all but _gone_ in the Tempo), and drove down Sheep Creek Road to Murphy Dome.
Murphy Dome is so famous for its scenery, that I first heard of it while in Pennsylvania. On the top of the "dome" (This is what Alaskans call mountains, for some unfathomable reason. :P ), there was a long range radar station for Fort Elison. (spelling?) Some servicemen were frying eggs on rocks on the ground in front of the bigger transmitters. (I didn't get to close to those.)
No, I'm kidding about that. :)
The view was rather awesome--one could see fall foliage in all its beauty (not NEARLY as impressive as what one sees in the temperate zone--only one color: the yellow of birch), and one could see for about one hundred miles in any direction. All-in-all, though, I wasn't really all that impressed. Sorry. I did pick up a cool rock, though. :) Ask me, and I will show it to you some time.
Then, I had the crazy idea to drive over the Arctic Circle. It is over 389 miles, round trip. I took the Steese [Highway], to the Elliot, to the Dempster. (I went in a big circle to get on the Steese--I didn't know you could catch it from both Old Murphy Dome and Goldstream roads. Doh!) I think that the Dempster Highway ought to be renamed (at least unofficially) "The Kidney Puncher." Man, but was it bad.
I got to see some tundra, but it was alpine tundra, and not true arctic tundra. This was near "Finger Rock." It was most cool, indeed.
And here, finally, is a picture of me, Cowboy Jake, "the lizard," and my RHINOS!!!! just above the Arctic Circle.
I meant to take all in different pictures, but I only had one left.