After arriving in Anchorage (marked 1 on the map at left), and driving North (2) on the first leg of their trip, the group arrived in Fairbanks (3) and prepared for their field experience.

Read their journal entries to follow the group’s progress as they continued on from Fairbanks toward Prudhoe Bay (4), then to the dinosaur site on the Colville River (5).

July 15: “Leaving at 4:30 a.m. with eyes half-closed, Roland, Judy, Steve, and Amanda drove to Fort Wainwright to pack the Chinooks which are taking a great deal of our Poverty Bar equipment into the Colville dinosaur site.” Read more...

Above: On a day hike to Castle Rock, on July 18. Below: Boarding the Cessna in Deadhorse on July 19 .

July 16: “By 3:00 p.m. we had reached the Yukon river where the mysterious ceremony Roland had promised to the Yukon River first-timers awaited.” Read more...

July 17: “Our first stop was Sukakpak Mountain, a mountain of marble metamorphosed from Devonian limestone. But the big highlight of viewing the mountain wasn’t actually the mountain itself.” Read more..

July 18: “After our breakfast of bagels and cream cheese (yes there is really a Bay Area/Alaska connection) we prepared for our day hike to Castle Rock...”Read more...

July 19: “... Meanwhile the first group to reach beautiful downtown Deadhorse had boarded Walt’s little Cessna bound for Poverty Bar.”Read more...

July 20: “...This was a truly amazing day…….DINOSAUR BONES AT LAST!!!”Read more...

July 21: “Today was day two of our quarry excavation. We were SOOOO hot, especially in the early afternoon.” Read more...

July 22: “Today the temperature hovered at 55 degrees and we were wearing our heavy jackets, caps, and wool gloves. We didn’t see the sun all day.”Read more...

July 23: “...The Three Furies felt they were on a roll mapping their 40th bone then they wandered down to the north quarries (1 and 2) and saw bags and bags and pages and pages of bone finds.”Read more...

July 24: “...Not long after, we spied two very large birds on the horizon…two Chinook helicopters full of reporters had arrived.”Read more...

July 25: “It was cold, rainy in the morning, and miserable. A day off would have been nice.”Read more...

July 26: “Paleo disaster! Peg had the Paleo Bond spill on her hands. While trying to help, Phelana got glued to her gloves. Then the disaster spilled over into Quarry 2 when Phil was Paleo bound to his quarry shale.”Read more...

July 27: “Some quarries have reached the bottom of the bed in which bones are found. Under this is a heavy grey clay.”Read more...

July 28: “Today was our last day (we hope, assuming Chinooks remember us tomorrow) on the Colville River.” Read more...

Back to Tales of Alaska, Part I or on to Part III...