Iditarod Headquarters en route to Anchorage

We drove 415 km today, from Denali National Park to Anchorage, Alaska. We saw Mount McKinley peaking through the clouds in a few places and at about mile 169A, we saw a beautiful full view and got really nice shots of ‘the great one’. It looks so magnificent with its gleaming white snowcap towering over the lower mountains. It is over 20,000 feet and is the highest mountain in North America.

The next bit of excitement was at the Iditarod Trail Headquarters. This is where the race committee meets to plan and prepare for the annual (since 1973) sled dog race which covers 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. They have films of past races, the trophies presented over the years, a wall of fame, a gift shop (of course), sled dog wagon rides, and PUPPIES!

I got a good cuddle with one of the little darlings. We watched the film (bought the current one) and looked at all the mementoes. One fact which I found quite amazing is that the winning time for the first Iditarod in 1973 was over 32 hours whereas the 2011 winning time was 13 hours plus a bit!!!

Iditarod Headquarters is located in Wasilla, AK which is also famous (infamous?) for being home to former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin.

Then, we were back on the road to Anchorage. The highway was fairly good all the way and it was very scenic, especially as we approached Anchorage which is surrounded by mountains.

We checked into Ship Creek RV Park. None of the RV parks in Anchorage look very appealing. This one is between a busy railway track, small plane airport and power plant. However, it is close enough to downtown that we should be able to bike most places we want to go.

We had a very good, grilled halibut, supper at Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant and bought groceries before settling in at our site. Gwennie's has lots of character and was a good recommendation from our campground hosts.

There is a very strange looking orange bus/RV in our campground. We talked to some of the people in it. They are a group of German tourists who started out in Toronto, Ontario and after travelling across Canada, made up here to Alaska. Apparently this bus is shipped all over the world and the ‘guests’ fly to meet up with it and take their tours. One woman we talked to had travelled with this bus in Tibet, Australia, Nairobi, etc. She said it is wonderful!

There are some RVs from far-flung places. The day before, in Riley Campground at Denali National Park, there was a Jeep Landcruiser from Costa Rica in the tenting area!