July 16-20 found us in Denali, home to the National Park and of course the tallest peak in North America at 20,310 feet. Here’s an interesting fact, the park has 6 million acres of land and one road going through it! In a personal car you can drive the road for 15 miles, and in a National Parks tour bus you can go 48 miles. Although the road goes further, it was damaged and is under construction.
Along with the one road in Denali Park, there is also only one bike trail, which is about 1 mile long. You can, however, bike on any road around the visitor center and even the one road in the park. The only problem is there is no bike lane. It was scary! We biked for a bit and then decided we were safer taking the bus into the park. On the day we took the tour the mountain was hidden from us. Only about 30% of visitors to Denali actually get to see the mountain, as it is often covered in clouds. We did get to see a grizzly bear, and a caribou. When you look at the photos, I did not take those two, my friend Diane is a better photographer, and was better positioned on the bus! It is all about timing and luck.
Mom and Dad traveled to Alaska on a cruise ship back in the day. They also took a land excursion to Denali. At the time I didn’t really understand how magnificent Alaska and Denali are and I never truly appreciated what they did and saw. I now wish I could sit down and talk with Mom about her adventure here in Alaska.
Denali (the city) is a quaint little place with lots to do. Our first night there we went to dinner and a “Cabin Night Theatre”. All the wait staff were also the entertainment. They sang, told stories of the “old days” when the gold rush was in full swing. It was so much fun! The food was served family style and was delicious, ribs and salmon along with vegetable, salad, and baked beans.
One day we took a jeep tour around the outside of Denali, like I said there is only one road into the National Park, so that meant we went on a dirt road appropriately named the Denali Highway. Believe me, I’m from the city and this is NOT a highway. These Alaskans have a different meaning when they speak of highways! While on that trip the clouds surrounding Denali parted and we had a pretty view of the mountain. What we didn’t realize was that the best views were yet to come! It was a fun trip although each time we got out of the jeeps were battling the mosquitos!
Alaska’s state sport is dog mushing and Anchorage to Nome is the route of the yearly Iditarod race. Jeff King is a musher who has entered the race over 30 times and won the race four times. Now, at 67 years old he still enters the race, but also mentors young mushers and runs Husky Homestead where he trains sled dogs. He is funny, entertaining, and knowledgeable, speaking to us for over 45 minutes. He loves Alaska and loves dog mushing. A young woman by the name of Amanda Otto is an up-and-coming musher, and she was there as well speaking about the dogs and how the one thing in common all sled dogs have is a love of running! When they hooked up six dogs, the rest in the of the dogs went wild barking as though they were saying “pick me! Pick me!” The minute the sled left without them then immediately got quiet and knew they would go later. The best thing about the entire day? We were able to play with the puppies!
Interesting thing about Alaskans, they LOVE ice cream! There are ice cream stores and counters within gift shops everywhere. They make a huckleberry ice cream that is just delicious, next I will have to try fireweed, everyone tells me it’s great!
On Friday July 21st we left Denali and headed to Anchorage. The sky was a brilliant blue and there was not a cloud in sight. The road to Anchorage is south, directly facing the mountain and we had the most breathtaking views ever!
Next stop…Anchorage, back to the big city!
Tom and Patti's RV Adventure 