Circle, AK

The road to Circle

Circle is located at the end of the Steese Highway, 162 miles (more than half of it is a gravel/dirt road) northeast of Fairbanks in Interior Alaska.  Contrary to what you might assume based on its name, the town of Circle is 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Miners who named the town in 1896 thought they were near the imaginary line.

My GPS wasn't too happy with the drive. It kept giving me the "we're not responsible for your lunacy" warning ...


I had 3 "sights" on my list for going to Circle ....

The water is Birch Creek - taken from the bridge

 Twelvemile Summit - suppose to be a spectacular view. Of course, it is suppose to be green and beautiful by now .... but it wasn't bad.  The wayside had a nice pit toilet ....

The second thing was the Pioneer Cemetery - headstones that date back to the 1800s - was inaccessible because .... you guessed it, the white stuff.

Frozen Yukon River

Lastly, I was told that when the Yukon River melts just the right amount a huge glacier of ice moves down it and clears everything in it's path.  It is suppose to be a sight to watch.  I now know I have a 3 hour limit on watching ice melt.  There were dozens of us out there waiting for the big show ... they even have spotters up the river to give reports; it's quite a big deal.  I missed it.  My watching-ice-melt-limit was up.  I needed water and another pit toilet! and some lunch.

For lunch, I stopped at a "building" in Central, Alaska, the only building, about 35 miles from Circle.

First, they had a really great burger.  It is almost worth the drive to get another one .. almost.  Second, because it is also the town tavern, 3 "gentlemen" at the bar were having a most inappropriate conversation regarding the President and his "lady friend" in the news.  You can hear it, can't you?  Very explicit .... when the kid (owners son helping out while the folks went into Fairbanks for the day) brought my burger I mentioned the racy conversation, and the gentlemen about fell off their stools.  They apparently had no idea I had come in.  It got to be quite funny, with all their apologizing, by the time I left.  They felt really badly ... I wasn't really offended.

To end the trip on a high-note (I didn't yet know about the mosquitoes), I had to wait for a herd of young moose to get out of the road.  I haven't seen any full-grown ones yet, nor a wolf, caribou or a bear ... but this was fun.

They were walking away from my car and wouldn't stand for a picture

The scenery was actually prettier on the way back.  I don't know if it was the time of day or the direction I was driving.