We used our Toursaver coupon to book Sternwheeler Discovery tour so it cost us $46.95 plus the coupon. Through the campground it was $44.95/each and they provide the transportation. Since it was only 2.5 miles away we drove ourselves and there was plenty of room to park, mostly tour buses bring people for the tour. Our tour was a 2PM one and they had so many people signed up they used both of their ships. They also have a huge gift shop.
Here is the smaller of the two ships, the Discovery II.
Here is the Discovery III, the larger one that we were taking. It is long enough that we could not get it all into the shot.
The Discovery II took off first and five minutes later we left the dock. There were a lot of people on these ships. The first thing pointed out on the Chena River was the Discovery, the original ship that is no longer used.
Next we were going to see a bush pilot take this Piper Supercub into the air on a very short runway.
Quicktime video of the Piper Supercub taking off on the short runway (2.5MB)
Here is the plane coming back to land:
Notice the large tires:
Next door is a bush pilot's house:
Fancy houses on the river:
The Pump House Restaurant and Saloon (we tried it on the 5th and it was good):
A wood-fired hot tub:
Susan Butcher's place. Susan is in Seattle for cancer treatment so Jessie, another Iditarod musher, was showing us the dogs.
These sled dogs really want to run, they got so excited when they were hitched up to the ATV. The ATV has no engine, but strong brakes since the dogs "learn to go in two minutes, it takes two years to get them to whoa." If you have Quicktime installed from Apple, these videos show how excite the dogs are and how fast they can pull the ATV.
Quicktime video of the dogs ready to pull the ATV, showing how excited they are to run (3.16MB)
Quicktime video of the dogs pulling the ATV out onto the trail (1.14MB)
Jessie was going to be available later in the tour for questions. We headed downriver and they showed us reindeer as we went. Reindeer are domesticated caribou.
A beaver lodge.
We also had a demonstration of an Athabascan fish camp and how quickly a salmon can be filleted but did not take pictures.