Nome and the wind farm

One of the biggest reasons we went to Alaska was to visit a wind farm. Not just any wind farm, but the one in Nome. Nathan and Doug are writing a grant for an educational piece about the wind farm. Nathan wanted to see the farm and the program Doug runs, to better understand and write the grant. He also met some local people who will be involved and wanted to make sure they were all on board.

While we were there we got our own tour of the wind farm. It was fascinating. They have 18 small windmills. On a windy day, those windmills can generate enough power for 1/4 of Nome's power. They are hoping to get more and become more self sufficient. 

As we drove up the hill to the wind farm, we saw a herd of musk ox. They were fairly close, but took off running when we drove by.

We stopped to check out the musk ox, but by the time we go the camera out they were down the hill. You can just see black dots in the middle of the picture. We got better pictures of the musk ox the next day. You will see those in a future post.

Leaf and I hiking around some of the rocks on the hill of the wind farm. Can you tell how windy it was?

SO we were on a dirt road in Nome, where there might be 300 or so cars.  We let Everest steer a little. We never went more than 5 miles an hour and in 2 hours only saw one other vehicle (which was a 4 wheeler and we happened to be out of the truck at that time). He is sitting on Nathan's lap.

 Leaf had a great time hiking around the wind mills. He LOVED his hiking boots. He had a hard time walking in them at first, they are a little too big. But it didn't take him long to figure it out. Thanks to these he was able to walk all over Alaska and not get his feet wet.

Everest exploring around the windmills.

We found water on the side of the road, which of course called to Everest. Leaf needed his diaper changed so we stopped and let Everest throw rocks in the water. The wind farm is in the back ground.

A little later we found a beautiful water fall. The boys played her for over an hour. Leaf threw in rock, as did Everest. But Everest got into building dams in the water and trying to change the route.