We made it to the Arctic Circle........
FACTOIDS: • Copper River Salmon are considered the best in the world. This is due to these salmon having developed more fat and omega – 3 oil reserves in order to travel hundreds of miles up the Copper River to reach their spawning grounds. • The coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States was -80 degrees F/-62 degrees C at Prospect Camp, 39 miles south of Coldfoot (Alaska) in 1971! • Winter temperatures in Interior and Arctic Alaska commonly range between -20 degrees F/-29 degrees C and -40 degrees F/ -40 degrees C, or colder! • Mount McKinley (also known as Denali or the Mountain) stands at a proud 20,320 feet, within the Alaska Range. It is North America’s highest mountain and WAIT for this......when you consider rise from base to peak – this mountain is actually the TALLEST MOUNTAIN on the planet!! (Mt. Everest starts on the Tibetan Plateau). • Fireweed is a pink and magenta flower that blooms in late summer and fall. As legend would have it, once fireweed reaches its full bloom, winter is but six weeks away. • The 800 mile Trans-Alaska oil pipeline runs from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean south to Fairbanks and down along the Richardson Highway to Valdez. It was completed in 1977. The silver exterior that can be seen is not the actual pipe, but an insulated heat shield. The pipe rests in Teflon-coated bars so that it can move during earthquakes. The posts going into the ground also have fins on top to cool the refrigerant that circulates down the posts to keep the ground frozen! • Wrangell-St. Elias is more than 13.2 million acres and is the nation’s largest national park. It is twice as big as Denali National Park and six times larger than Yellowstone National Park, in the Lower 48. • In the wild, Ice worms are close to invisible: they come out only at night, and go back into the glacier before the sun comes out, since they essentially melt in temperatures above freezing. No one is quite sure how the worms travel. Apparently NASA is studying them as a model for life on other planets. • The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race travels more than 1,000 miles between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon, and is widely regarded as the toughest mushing race in the world. It is scheduled to begin on Feb 6th, 2010, in Fairbanks, with a winner expected into Whitehorse about 10 days later! • The ARCTIC is a difficult place to live but several species of animals have made it their home for thousands of years.
Tuesday, 01 September 2009 05:56:45 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)      Comments [0]  Alaska