Thursday, August 29, 2019
Talkeetna to Healy
Wow, it's cold, 38 degrees this morning, but it should warm up nicely later. Yesterday, it got up to 71. Nice!
Breakfast is available at the Talkeetna Roadhouse for an additional fee, but there's free coffee in the lobby all day for guests and also an onsite bakery. We're not social enough first thing in the morning to face the communal setting of the dining room, so I grabbed some coffee and some treats from the bakery and took it back to the room. Tom and I shared a delicious, enormous reindeer and potato pasty and saved a half dozen chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for later.
We checked out at 11:00 and visited the Denali National Park ranger station just down the street to pick up some park maps before leaving town.
Jana loves Java!
We returned to the George Parks Highway and turned north, stopping at dozens of scenic turnouts and anything and everything that caught out interest throughout the day. It was still a bit too hazy for good mountain views, but the scenery was nice regardless.
Denali, "The Great One"
Hurricane Gulch Bridge
Craggy view along the George Parks Highway
One fun stop along the way was Igloo City, an abandoned four-story hotel built in the '70s that failed to meet building codes and never opened. Naturally, we stopped to explore, even making our way inside and climbing the rickety stairs to the second floor. It's an interesting mess.
Igloo City
Abandoned Igloo
Mid-afternoon, we arrived at Denali National Park and went first to the bus depot to pick up our reserved tickets for tomorrow's 9:00 a.m. shuttle to Eielson Visitor Center, 66 miles inside the park. Private cars are only allowed on the first 14.9 miles of the park road. To go further, you have to take a shuttle.
Welcome to Denali National Park
We'd arrived at DNP in time to attend the 4:00 sled dog demonstration. Before the demo, you get to pet some of the dogs if you like. Yay! The Park Service here keeps 30-35 Alaskan huskies at any given time, generally utilizing 8-12 dogs per team, up to as many as 20 if they're pulling a really heavy load. Dog teams are used in the winter to patrol the back country, haul supplies, and cart away trash and debris.
Handsome husky
Sled dog demonstration
Fun run!
After the dog demo, we drove the 14.9 miles into the park where private vehicles are allowed. There was no wildlife to be seen. In a 6 million-acre preserve, I guess the animals had better places to be than right by the road near the park entrance. Go figure. The Savage River area, where we had to turn around, was really beautiful. The wind was whipping by the time we reached Savage River, so we passed on going for a hike.
Denali National Park and Preserve
Along the road in Denali
Around 6:00 we checked in at the White Moose Lodge in Healy, an older place, but clean, with a big room, microwave, fridge, and coffee maker. It's located in a nice setting in the woods, a couple of hundred yards from the George Parks Highway and about 11 miles from the national park.
Shadow selfie at White Moose Lodge, with our rental RAV4
We had dinner at 49th State Brewery in Healy, a very good burger, Reuben, and excellent beer. The food portions in Alaska are huge, and every burger is at least half a pound. You're not going to leave hungry!
Another town, another brewpub
The bus from the movie “Into the Wild” is permanently parked in front of the brewery. The actual abandoned bus where Chris McCandless spent his final days and nights is located just a few miles away. If you ask at the brewery for the exact location, they won't tell you because it's not safe to go. Multiple pilgrimages to the site have ended in death, most recently the month before our visit, when a Belarusan woman drowned while attempting to cross the swollen Teklanika River.
"Magic Bus" replica from "Into the Wild"
"Magic Bus" interior
We looked for the aurora borealis last night and again tonight. The sky doesn't get completely dark this time of year till quite late, almost midnight, so you have to stay up pretty late to have any chance at all. No luck so far, but we'll keep looking...
Popular signage in Alaska
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