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!

Denali Bus Trip to Tolkat River

We finally had a beautiful, sunny, day - just in time for our six hour bus trip 53 miles into Denali National Park.

We are now members of the 30% club (that’s the percentage of park visitors that actually see the great one – Mount McKinley)!!! The sun was shining brightly on the snow that blankets the two peaks. We couldn’t see the base due to the mountains that are in front of it (the darker ones in the picture). The mountain is about 50 miles away in this picture.

There wasn’t lots of wildlife along the route, but enough to keep us interested. That’s part of what makes the trip so long. The bus driver, a very perky young lady named Anna, stopped the bus to let us take pictures of the wildlife and the mountain numerous times.

We saw grizzly bears grazing on roots (their diet is 80% vegetation): (She's hard to see in the willows)

Caribou walking on snow patches, on hillsides, and in the river (with huge racks):

Dall Sheep high, high up on the mountain slope. We wonder how they stay up there it is so steep!

The park doesn’t allow unrestricted access, so these bus trips are the only way to get to some of the further campgrounds and rest stops. The rest stop facilities are very nice. This is the one at Teklanika River:

One particularly scenic section of the drive is in the Polychrome Mountain area:

When we got to Toklat, there were antlers of both moose and caribou available to look at closer (and pose with). We were surprised at how heavy they are! One side of moose horns weighed about 40 pounds!

They also had a book store there with more information on the area. E.g. not much more than 50% of the climbers that attempt the summit are successful. And the oldest and youngest successful climbers are 71 and 11 years old respectively. Quite a few people die climbing Mount McKinley every year. Something like nine so far in 2011!

The pups were happy to see us home, especially as it was approaching their supper-time.

We made a campfire and roasted hot dogs for supper, since it was such a nice evening. Then I took Reba and Gino for bike runs before we loaded the bikes up on the motorhome for travel.

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving Denali National Park and heading south toward Anchorage. It’s really nice here, but this city girl is happy to be getting back to civilization!

Denali Sled Dogs

We went to see the Denali Park’s sled dog demonstration today. The dogs are used in the winter to patrol the park and have even been used to haul lumber to construct a footpath bridge. During the summer, they meet park visitors and provide a demonstration of sled dog skills.

We were able to interact closely with most of the dogs. A few were roped off but still seemed very comfortable with the attention. Of course, they are used to lots of people since they entertain three set of visitors per day all summer.

Their kenneling area is very nice and they each have their own house that they like to lie on top of.

A park ranger gave a very good talk about training the dogs and their winter jobs. She ran them around a short course and answered questions from the audience.

These dogs are bred for their strength and stamina rather than speed as they are ‘workhorses’ not ‘racehorses’. They are all mixed breed, loosely called Alaskan Huskies. Their common characteristics include big feet and long legs for running in snow.

We went to the Salmon Bake restaurant for supper. It’s in a funky old building with sloping floors. Apparently they are lobbying for it to be named a heritage property. We enjoyed our meals: halibut and chips for Fran and halibut tacos for me.

Dessert was s’mores at our campfire. Yes, it finally quit raining so we could have a campfire tonight. There was actually some sun this afternoon (so nice!).

We walked home from the restaurant, about 2 miles. It was so pleasant. This picture is of some bronze caribou in front of one of the hotels we passed by.

This picture shows Fran approaching the foot/bike bridge over the Nenana River with the Alaska Range in the distance.

ATV Adventure

We had a blast this morning with the Black Diamond ATV Adventure backcountry tour! It was drizzling a bit on and off, but with warm clothes and rain gear, we were quite comfortable. The rain over the past few days left lots of muddy patches and water-filled pot-holes on the trails so it was a great time to be out ripping around.

Black Diamond owns 500 acres on the edge of Denali National Park and their guides took our group of three all over the place. We stopped a few times to talk about the terrain and once to go into an old cabin. At one particularly muddy spot, we went around twice (the second time for a picture). They picked us up at the campground and returned us to our site. We were on the ATVs for at least two hours. It was so much fun!

I was sensible enough to wear my rubber boots so I didn't have to ride with plastic bags duct-taped over my shoes!

In the afternoon, on our way over to the Wilderness Activity Centre, we saw not one, but two momma and baby moose pairs grazing right near the campground. I got one picture of a baby moose,

one good picture of a momma and baby together

and one of a baby nursing.

I also took another picture of some pretty wildflowers:

Savage River and the Cabin Dinner Theatre

The morning was drizzly and cool when we took the Denali park shuttle bus in to Savage River. This is as far as private automobiles are allowed to drive into the park. It is a slow road and took almost one hour to travel the 15 miles to the turnaround point (including stops along the way for people to get on and off).

The scenery was nice, but we had no hope of seeing the mountains given the low-lying clouds. There is a short hiking trail at Savage River, but due to the lousy weather, we just hiked to the bathrooms then rode the bus back again.

Once back at the main area, we went through the Visitor Center. The VC is quite new and very nice with an excellent film on the park and many exhibits. We had a look through it and ate our lunch before catching another bus back to the campground.

I took pictures of wildflowers on our way back to our site:

It had stopped raining by the time we got back so I took Gino and Reba for bike rides. We have a really nice campsite:

After feeding the dogs their supper, we got on our bikes and pedaled to the hotels, shopping and dining area just outside the park where we went to the Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre. The meal was served family style with fresh salmon and baby back ribs featured. The food was very good, while we would rate the entertainment pretty good. It was one of our two for one coupons so we still felt we got decent value.

The had rain resumed in earnest when we got out so we got pretty wet riding back to camp. We didn't get cold, though - we were working too hard! Sure hope it stops for our ATV adventure tomorrow morning.

Happy Canada Day

There wasn’t any Canada Day celebrating going on here, but some new American friends we were visiting with after supper, did wish us a happy Canada Day.

We went to see the Great Alaskan Bowl store in Fairbanks on our way out of town. They make really nice stuff there, but it was pretty pricey, so we didn’t buy anything.

The drive to Denali National Park was good and very scenic. Most of the highway was newly paved. As we approached the park, we entered the Nenana canyon. The Nenana River is popular for whitewater rafting.

It’s a good thing I’d made reservations for our site as the park is full! Our neighbours are hoping to get one more night here, but they’ll have to be at the camp office by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to see if they can get a site.

We got all set up in one site which was very uneven and when one across the road opened up that was more level, we moved. We’re happy with this one. It is a lovely, roomy and well forested spot.

We barbecued hamburgers for supper then went for a bike ride. The mountains nearby aren’t very big, but still look nice.

We also went to the Ranger presentation at 7:30 in the campground. They have one every night. She was talking about how plants and animals adapt to the cold in Denali.

Mount McKinley is 80 miles away so we may not get a glimpse of it. Apparently only 30% of park visitors see it. Oh well, there should be more opportunities as we travel south to Anchorage if we don’t get to see it here.

There’s lots to do here so we’re in for a fairly busy time.