June 19, 2013 Fairbanks, Nenana towards Denali

Wednesday, June 19

Left fairly early, heading south and west towards Anchorage. Stopped at the small town of Nenana and bought a lottery ticket for the 2014 Ice Breakup.  They have been doing this since 1907 – you buy a ticket and choose a date and time when you think the river will thaw.  They plant a big wooden teepee on the river and when it falls over,  that is the winning time.  Last year paid over $30,000!  This is a VERY tiny town and they were selling furs as well as other local knives, pottery, etc. The lady at the visitor’s center welcomed us like long lost friends and was quite lively – she certainly had had her coffee this morning!

Depositing our winning ticket; model of tripod

 

Saw one moose and a lovely swan along the way.

We are driving into mountains and at times are surrounded by them, many with snow.  Beautiful.

We come around a bend and up a hill – and there is Denali.  Sure, it is still 50 miles away, but it still takes your breath away! At 20,000+ it stands out above the surrounding peaks. It is all white and we can see the top clearly, though there is haze and cloud lower, so that it appears to be floating above the other mountains.  Still, it is so large that it creates its own weather system which often involves clouds.

We make several stops for photos and to check out some rafters, a veteran’s memorial,  and scenery that you wouldn’t believe.J.  

  Later down the road there are some clouds beginning to gather around Denali, so that it is partly obscured.  Supposedly it is clearly visible only 20-30% of the time, but I think they tell tourists this so anyone who sees it feels exceptional.

Temperatures have cooled, compared to Fairbanks,  and we are seeing 60’s and low 70s today.  Perfect!

We drove past the turn to Denali National Park, and found a quiet campsite at Byers Lake in Denali STATE Park. Nice lake, but too buggy to do anything outside.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Rose early, smushed a few mosquitos and headed to the South View of Denali at Denali State Park.  It was a crisp 48 degrees and Denali was clear and beautiful!

Took lots of photos, then headed back up the Parks Highway toward Denali Highway.  Unfortunately both gas stations at Cantwell, where you get the Denali Highway, were closed, so we had to drive back up to the town of Denali for gas.

Stopped at  Creek Side Café for a birthday breakfast of hot cakes and reindeer sausage.

(Tastes like Kielbasi to me!). Happy Birthday, Greg!

Back down to the Denali Highway.  This is the original road to the park, and is still gravel and not frequently used.  Many good dry camping and fishing sites.  Probably our worst road yet, as Greg had to slow to 15-20 quite often but the vistas are amazing.  The road leads into the mountains and at times we are surrounded by peaks.  Scattered spruce trees of the taiga, where trees are mostly stunted by the permafrost, short cool growing season and long cold winters. 

We bounced along to Brushkana Creek Campground, thinking maybe we would spend the night here, but wow – the van was surrounded by hungry mosquitos so we didn’t even get out.  The campground hostess, wearing hat, mosquito head net, gloves, etc.  waved at  us like she couldn’t believe we weren’t going to stay.  We turned back at this point and jingled and jangled back toward the Parks Highway.

Saw one lovely moose and a bald eagle  on this journey.  We turned north to Denali National Park and saw three more moose on our way to the park!

We don’t have reservations till Saturday and weren’t able to get in earlier, but we did get literature on what’s happening so we can spend the day at the park tomorrow.   We ran into Margaret and Jim while at the campground registration area (great internet btw) and decided to boondock with them at a large pullout about 5 miles south that we had noticed earlier.  We are right next to the Tenana River and between two ranges of mountains – gorgeous!  Thankfully there is a good breeze so those pesky ‘squitos aren’t an issue.  Lovely evening and great conversation.  Another friend, Anne, stopped to join us.  A sightseeing plane practically buzzed us as it flew low over the river, between the mountains – must have been a thrilling ride! Cooling off nicely.