DENALI

Day 81 - 2015-07-10

We left Fairbanks today bound for someplace between there and Denali National Park.  We have a few days to kill so we will spend them exploring the upper part of the Parks Highway (AK3).  We stopped at the Tatlanika Trading Post and RV Park at the crossing of the Nenana River. 

We walked around the riverbed a bit, but essentially took another day off.  Bettie used the time to do some research and trip planning.  125 (10,641).

Day 82 - 2015-07-11

I’m sitting inside the nice dry camper, typing this blog post, while it is raining outside.  We moved today to Byers Lake in the Denali State Park (no, not the National Park, this is a state park just down the road).  This was recommended to us by Larissa and Trey, the Alaska natives we met back in the Clearwater River Campground outside Delta Junction.  They steered us right.  The lake is clear, small, and calm – just the way we like them for kayaking.  We hit the water this afternoon.

The trip down here took us past the entrance to the Denali National Park, where we will be in a few days.  Getting here required several stops for construction and pilot car lines.  As I mentioned several days ago, we think the new Alaska Gold is RV traffic.  Here’s a picture of the line waiting for the pilot car.  You can draw your own conclusions.

We also drove past the iconic Igloo.  This was built in the 70’s and was intended to be a hotel and RV campground.  Apparently, even in the 70’s, this part of Alaska had building codes, and the Igloo did not make the grade.  It has fallen into disrepair and just sits on the Parks Highway as another fool’s folly.  If you are interested, it is for sale - only $300,000 – we declined to make a counteroffer.

We stopped along the way to look for Denali (Mt. McKinley, same thing).  Although we had pretty clear skies above us, the mountain was making its own weather and we did not get a good look at it today.  We did spot one very large glacier, which we later learned is the Eldridge Glacier.  I liked it because all the “gray” ice is really that amazing glacier blue – too bad it didn’t really show up in the picture.

After our stops, all went well until we tried to find our campground.  With all the construction, the sign was down and we missed the turn.  OK, no big deal.  Except, OOPS, just after the turn there was another flagman and pilot car line.  No place to turn around.  We had to follow another pilot car for another 5 miles until we could find a place to reverse direction.  Frustrating, but could have been worse.  We were happy to find this nice place to camp.  We’ll be here today and tomorrow, then make our back through the construction to find our next RV park.  That will be our home for a few days while we tour Denali National Park.  152 (10,793).

Day 83 - 2015-07-12

We tried our best today to see Denali.  We drove back to the Denali State Park North Viewpoint, but no luck.  The clouds are just too low and too thick.  We consoled ourselves with a 3 hour kayak around Byers Lake. Oh darn, what an awful alternative.  On a clear day, Denali is a spectacular sight from the lake (check the internet for Denali Pictures from Byers Lake) but it was not in the cards for us today.  We have a few more days in the area, so we still have hope.  27 (10,820).

Day 84 - 2015-07-13

We left Byers Lake this morning about 9:00 and as we got to the highway, we got the best view of Denali we have had so far.  Look closely, the peak is above the cloud.

We backtracked north on the Parks Highway (AK 3), past the entrance to Denali National Park, through several construction delays, past the Denali RV Park and Motel where we will stay tonight, until we got to Healy, AK and some much needed diesel.  Fortunately for us, we found the 49^th State Brewing Company right next to the fuel station.  Food and craft beer sounded pretty good so it was halibut sandwiches washed down by a Baked Blond for Bettie and a Vienna Amber Lager for me.  Thumbs up for all of it.  It’s really nice to visit a tourist destination where the food is actually above average instead of “tourist tolerable”.  The brewery owns the bus that was used in the making of the movie Into the Wild.  111 (10,931).

Day 85 - 2015-07-14

It was a stormy night that continued into this morning.  We hung out in the trailer until about 11:30, then decided we should at least drive into the park.  Tomorrow we are taking a 12 hour bus tour and our pickup time is 6:40 AM.  We needed to check out how long it will take us to drive the 6 miles through the several construction zones between here and there.  We figure 45 minutes should do it, so we’ll get at least some sleep.  Sun up is about 4:30 (yes, we are far enough south to get an hour or so of actual darkness at night) so that will make it easier.  There was no way to see any of the mountains with the bad weather, but, we saw a humongous bull moose in the park today.  He was too far away for a very good picture.  Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow. 45 (10,976). 

Day 86 - 2015-07-15

Denali Tour Day.  It was raining when we got up at 5:00 AM to get ready for our tour.  Oh well, you take what you get weather-wise so off we went to our pickup location.  By the time we reached the park, it was still overcast and drizzling.  By the time we got about 25 miles in, we reached the edge of the weather front just as it started to clear over Denali/Mt McKinley.

The closer we approached, the clearer it got, until we got a full view of the mountain and both peaks. 

The tour guide said this is a 5% day – some of the best viewing ever.

To give you some idea about how big this thing is, it is 85 miles from where I took these pictures and it still dominates the landscape – 20,320 feet.

We also had a stellar day in terms of wildlife viewing – 9 grizzly bear sightings, many single and an entire herd of caribou, and many moose sightings. 

The landscapes in the park are remarkable.  We were so fortunate to get such a perfect day for our tour.  Some of the mountains in these pictures are over 100 miles away.

As we came back to our starting point, the skies clouded over and we got some rain again, but it did give us a nice rainbow, a fitting end to a very good day. 13 (10,989)