Thursday July 7

Rivers Edge RV Park

Fairbanks, Alaska 11 AM.     65°F

Before leaving we did laundry and installed the replacement bathroom mirror. At it was a really good thing . I was starting to worry about Bob. He had a black mold growing on his face which wouldn't leave even after showering. Once the mirror was up he was able to cut it off with a razor 🤪🤣🤪

We headed south on Rt3 towards Denali National Park. I tried to book a campsite but couldn't find anything near Healy. So we found a place about 30 miles north:

The Tatlanika Gift Shop and RV Park just south of Clear, Alaska.

We're making this our base camp while in the Denali area. While getting set-up we noticed several helicopter in the area so of course we headed to the other end of the campground to investigate. At the river, the Nenana River, there was a Bell Ranger copter with a water bucket collecting water from the river. Seems there is a forest fire in the area and a couple helo were transporting water to help with fire suppression. 

Turns out the Clear Forest wildfire has burned 65,000 acres. We crossed the river to get a better look and  we noticed some great rocks along the river. After awhile a firefighting vehicle drove over to us. It was the Air Support Supervisor wondering what we were doing. We told her that we we rockhounding and ended up talking to her for sometime about our adventures.  As we departed I asked her to keep the fire away from the campground. She said she'd try really hard.

The fire was still a fair distance away so we headed for the Denali. About 1/2 way there our phones came to life with a mandatory evacuation alert for the area between Mile Markers 173 and 181. The campground was at 176. He headed back and were told by the campground that they would let us know if we needed to move but nothing at that point...

We headed back to the Park. We drove into the Park from 15 miles and were turned back: private vehicles could go no further. I could convince the ranger that we were a public vehicle.  I guess Bob just didn't look like a bus driver.

Had dinner at Prospector's Pizza.

After dinner on the way to the truck Bob notice a rock shop that was still open. So we went in to prevent the owner from closing. He gave us information about the collecting area in the area and what to look for. We bought a copy of Rockhounding Alaska.

Got back to the campground and the fire was still on the other side of the river and the wind was blowing away from us.