Mon. July 5
We start our morning with Maria & Chuck at the City Diner, John’s favorite restaurant. While eating, we reminisce about old times. The food was excellent and it was a very enjoyable morning.
After breakfast, we head 5 hrs North (280 miles) to Denali National Park. We stop in Wasilla (home to Gov. Sara Palin) for gas and RV dumping (we have perfected this!). This town is quite large and commercialized with numerous fast food restaurants, gas stations and strip malls. As we go further North the landscape changes to heavy woods on both sides of the highway and we notice lots of ATV riders and trails everywhere. There are many campgournds in the area and we see lots of fishermen in the creeks beside the highway.
The further North we travel, the more remote it gets and we are soon surrounded by vast wilderness and majestic mountain ranges. We pull-over at the first Denali lookout point, but the smoke is too heavy from all the wild fires in the area. We can only see the lower mountain range. It’s actually very rare to see Denali, as it only shows itself 20% of the time. We hope we will be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse, but with all the smoke its highly unlikely. As we continue North on the highway, it twists and turns so I’m constantly looking in every direction for Denali. As we come around a bend in the road I yell “Oh my God” and just then the highway turns in the other direction and we loose sight of it! It was so fast, I couldn’t even get off a shot. We "think" we caught a glimpse of Denali because it was the largest most awesome mountain we've ever seen. As the highway continues to climb, it feels like we are on top of the world. This vast wilderness is incredibly beautiful and surreal.
We check in at the Denali Wilderness Visitors Center and get our camping permit for the Riley Creek campground and bus tickets for tomorrow’s bus tour into the park. Cars are only permitted to drive 15 miles into the park. To go further, you must book a shuttle bus. The buses are a do-it-yourself affair. You bring your own food and drinks, and you get on and off the buses as you please. The bus drivers provide narration and make frequent stops for wildlife viewing.
After finding our RV site, we head to the little town outside the park entrance. There are shops, restaurants and hotels here. We drive up the mountain to see the new Grande Denali Resort. The road twists and turns, and is very steep. We come upon a flipped car just around a bend, but the police guide us right thru (Alaska roads can be very dangerous!). The Grande Denali is a beautiful resort and we enjoy the panoramic views from their outdoor deck before heading over to the Denali Salmon Bake for dinner. It’s been a Denali landmark for 25 years. I have the most awesome Parmesan & Asiago encrusted Halibut ever!
We had planned on having a bon-fire tonight, however we are both too tired and need to be up early for our bus trip into the park, so we call it a night.
Temp: 81 degrees, hot for Alaska!
RV Miles: 295
Wildlife Sightings: Eagles
No comments:
Post a Comment
COMMENTS