Alaska 3

We left the Kenai Peninsula and rode to Denali National Park.  Most of the highway was through tree covered mountains and valleys.  The picture is NOT of Mt. McKinley.  Only 30% of the visitors to the park get to see the mountain, and we were NOT amongst them.  The gift shop sold t-shirts that said "Member of 30% club, I saw the mountain!".  We arrived to find the campground almost full.  I had made reservations in advance so they said that they had a place for us, but not a particular place.  We were to just go out and look through the three campground loops until we found a place.  So we rode and rode and were despairing of finding an empty site when we finally came across one.  And it was big enough for both tents and close to the toilets, a very good space.

In Denali NP private vehicles are restricted to the first few miles of the park road.  To go further one must take a park bus.  I had made reservations for a "Natural History Tour" by bus the next day.  The bus was a school bus type was full of tourists that it had picked up one of the hotels outside the park.  They were all from a Holland America tour boat and had bought the extra-cost-option tour of Denali NP.  We crowded into the last four seats.  The ones over the fenders for the rear tires, so our knees were next to our chins.  And then the bus headed up the road to the first stop.  This was a fur trapper impersonator who told us about fur trapping.

Then we saw some caribou, far away in a river bed.  And listened to a local native talk a little about native history.

All in all, pretty much a wasted trip.  The much vaunted wildlife and famous mountain were not to be seen.

The next morning, after packing camp, we went to the park headquarters and watched a demonstration of the dogsleds.  The park uses the dogsleds to maintain, protect, and service the park and its visitors in the winter.

We got there early and got to greet some of the dogs before the tour buses arrived with their loads of cruise ship patrons.

Then the rangers hooked up the dogs and ran a loop around some trees.  Afterwards there was a long and interesting talk about the dogs, their history and their usefulness to this area.

Now it is time to head for Fairbanks, the farthest point from home on this trip.  We also spent two nights here and took a trip on the Chena River on a stern wheeler boat.

We got seats on the top deck at the bow.  The trip was total tourist with a demonstration of a sea plane take off and landing.  Then we stopped for a demonstration of dog sledding (pulling an ATV) at Susan Butcher's home.

Going on we next stopped at a recreated 19th century fur trapper's village where we learned about their lifestyles and problems.

Then it was back upriver to the dock where all the tour buses were again filled with the folks from the cruise ships.  The cruise ship companies have their own buses for these side trips.

Now it is time to head east.  Click to continue.