We stopped again on the way south at the Five Mile Campground, where the abandoned Hot Spot Cafe and old work camp were. These are some of the signs and stuff left behind.
Guess they didn't like the wolves here.
Bus 142 from the Into the Wild fame where a wealthy young man named Chris McCandless gave away all his money and wandered into the Alaskan wilderness to live in the wild. He got sick, starved and died while taking shelter in this old bus he came across when he couldn't make it out before winter. The bus was miles out in the bush, and so many people were making the trek to it that the Museum of the North at Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks had it helicoptered to the University where it is being restored. This is an exact duplicate used to film the movie and sits behind the beer garden of the 49th State Brewery in Healy.
We ended up at the Denali Park as we headed south. The weather wasn't conducive to seeing the peak of Denali itself. This is a row of storefronts in the tourists strip mall/town of Denali outside the actual park entrance. I like the burl wood posts used in so many places here.
Jason across from Denali Park.
Jason at the entrance to Denali National Park.
We went on the ranger-guided sled dog tour. This dog's eyes had different markings that were striking to me.
The cart the dogs pull when there isn't snow on the ground.
One little red squirrel on the outer fence and every dog in the compound had its attention drawn to it. Like seeing a squirrel in the movie 'Up'.
The sign at the train station for the Wilderness Express train.
Jason pretending he's a moose. Those are moose scrapings on the tree from a moose scraping the bark with its teeth to get nutrients. Amazing how high the marks got. Probably still standing on ice or snow when they were made.
Jason goofing off on a bear statue outside the visitor center at Denali.
Moose sighting in Denali. We got up early to head out as far as we can drive to hike a trail.
Raining in Denali when we hiked the trail at the end of the road. You can't drive a private vehicle beyond this place about 12 miles in. Guards will stop you. Some park vehicles are allowed out but the landslide a few years back closed the road permanently to tourist traffic. Jason looks like a 'Who Killed Kenny?' life-sized doll in his rain gear.
Jason on a hilltop covered with fireweed, overlooking the river in Denali Nat'l Pk.
Fireweed, my new favorite plant.
Perched on a river bank across the Brushkana River from the campground of the same name. We were almost certain we'd see it fall in during the rains here.
A hike to an old cabin in Denali.
Our campsite along the Brushkana River, with that cabin just across the river.
Clouds cover the Alaska Range, including Denali.
Sled dogs pulling an ATV. We talked to the guy, who turned out to be Jessie Holmes, the 3rd Place finisher of the Iditarod Race this year! He's quite the musher and is already training hard with his dogs for the 2023 races with hopes to win it. Good luck!
Jessie's kennel, Can't Stop Kennels, which was across the river from our campsite. We could hear the dogs howl at feeding time.
Jessie watered his dogs and let them rest a few minutes and then asked if we wanted to squeeze into the ATV for a run with them. Of course! His Jack Russell terrier pup, Neal, came with us in my lap.
We had 18 dogs pulling us in an ATV(in low gear) with a cracked windshield. Mush, Gee, Haw, Whoa and Straight are the only commands needed to control the directions of the dogs. We rode down the road, out through a field, back through the campground, up a hiking trail, across another field and back to the river bridge where we'd parked YOLO. It was quite a ride!
After our run, Jessie takes the dogs back across the river to their kennel home. It was only later that I found out he was also a reality TV star in "Life Below Zero". Such a nice guy to give us a ride like that. We mushed over terrain that Jason and I had hiked over before and had my heart pumping and lungs wheezing. I can't imagine the dogs pulling us up the hill as they did.
We headed east from Cantwell across the Denali Highway. This was an overlook of the river below. You can tell it's been raining as the water looks high and is braiding through the trees and shrubs. We only went about 20-30 miles in on this dirt road as we planned to come back in from Paxson at the other end on our way back out to Tok and Skagway.
Trees can fall into the river because the water undercuts the banks or because the permafrost is melting below their roots.
The abandoned Igloo Hotel along the Parks Hwy. in what is known as Igloo City. But there is nothing but this igloo-shaped building and sign here.
Hurricane Gulch, a very deep gorge along the highway.
Jason at the bridge over the Hurricane Gulch. It was too steep to get too close to the edge to take good pics. While sleeping in a gravel pit nearby, I was awakened at 12:15 AM by a black bear scraping on the bumper step of YOLO. Our only really close encounter with a bear.
A poster for a local bluegrass festival in Cantwell.
The War Veterans Memorial along the Parks Hwy. There is a slab in the background for each of the armed forces. The rock sculpture is of a gunner ready to shoot over the shoulder of a spotter looking through binoculars.
Jason in front of some pretty tall fireweed at an abandoned wayside where we spent the night along the high banks of a river. Found some wild raspberries and watermelon berries here, too.
Looking down over the flooded Chulitna river.
Free nibblies as we walked through the wet growth.
We took a spur road back up to the little town of Talkeetna. We'd been told this is a good place to get a flightseeing plane from if we wanted to fly over Denali. It was described as a cute tourist town with very limited parking, too. It was raining when we arrived, so we donned our rain gear, parked outside of town at the elementary school and walked in. This cute painted moose was outside of the shop of Aurora Dora, a famous photographer of the Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights.
She has some amazing photos but when I snapped this shot, she asked that we not take photos. Hers are famous.
From the ceiling in the general store of Talkeetna was hanging this old 2-man chain saw. Very menacing looking.
Another cute painted moose in Talkeetna.
The town is at the confluence of rivers and they are all flooding now with the rains we've had. Jason is reading a sign about the area and the rivers.
A sign over a woodcrafters stall along the road.
An old Yellow Cab limousine along the side of a The Antler Outlet shop that sold local crafts, many of which were made of antler, bone, or ivory from tusks. The place looked like a tourist shop from the waist down, but a museum of artifacts from the eyeballs up. The shopkeeper said the local natives in Nome had uncovered at least 13 more mastodon tusks this year as the ice receded and the meltwaters eroded more of the river banks. The side of the building was covered in these raspberry bushes and the guy running it said I could help myself to a handful. After the raspberry/chocolate chip pancakes we had for breakfast, I needed a few more berries.
Jason in Talkeetna. He's waiting for me to finish my treat.
My treat was a smoked salmon cheese crunch at the Talkeetna Tako. It had a lime-cilantro secret sauce on it and it was amazing. I'll have to try to recreate this some day.
The general store in Talkeetna. Lots of oddities in here.
Jason in a photo cut out.
Jason playing on an old snowmobile. Here in Alaska, they call them snow machines.
Jason in a cute pose.
Karen in the cutout, too.
We stopped in the Denali Brewing Company brew pub not far from the town for a cold one...or two....or.....
We chatted with a nice lady, Lisa, for a while, and she invited us to park in her yard for the night. We followed her and her dogs home and had another beer around the fancy firepit on her back porch in the woods.
Trees and grasses grow on the roof of an overlook for Denali along the road. We hiked up the hill to this outlook post but Denali was still clouded. Only 30% of the people who go to Denali ever actually see the peak!! It's over 20,000 feet high and it makes its own weather, so you need a lucky day to see it.
Three Bears is a grocery store chain in Alaska. Their dark green buildings are usually associated with a gas station, too, and often have laundry and showers as well as food and drinks like a convenience store.
A popular viewing point for Denali, looking across a roadside lake, Lake Kashwitna. Denali would be under those clouds in the distance.
We stopped at the Sheep Creek Slough campground and walked down the steep path to the water where the creek merged into the Little Susitna River. We met Julie (below) and her mom fishing for Julie's birthday. She caught this big rainbow trout and was about to throw it back. I squawked and she gave it to us for our dinner instead. We cooked it in foil over the fire at our campsite and it was fabulous.
Karen and Julie with the rainbow for our dinner. I also liked her 'fishing dress', an apron-like garment with pockets and lots of convenient fabric to wipe her hands on.
As the trout begins to disappear. We also tossed in some potatoes to cook in the coals.
The Little Susitna, aka Little Sue River near Talkeetna, where the Sheep Creek Slough joins it. A bald eagle perched across the way and watched for a while, too.
At last, a view of Denali!! It was from the same spot, overlooking Kashwitna Lake, as a few shots above.
A roadside of the beautiful fireweed.
Jason in a blowing wind and rain at the top of Hatcher Pass. The day before was gorgeous and sunny, but we waited for foul weather to make this nasty trip up a winding road, over the mountain, with lots of tight switchbacks, and not recommended for RVs.
There were few other vehicles on this road because of the nasty weather, so we didn't have trouble reaching this summit. Narrow road with soft shoulders next to steep dropoffs, my nerves didn't like this drive at all.
Part way down the other side is the old mining town for the Independence Gold Mine. Of course it was pissing down with rain when we got there, but we wandered around the old buildings and ruins nonetheless.
A large stone fireplace in the visitor center.
An old wooden box sitting on the hearth of the fireplace. Obviously empty now.
Artifacts from the gold mining days here. They give tours where they will take you into rooms that the general public aren't allowed into. We declined the tour and wandered around by ourselves.
Part of the old mine equipment that is now in ruins. They are salvaging and restoring some buildings and structures, but many are beyond saving, like this.
The old dormitory housing is still standing and is a gift shop.
An ore cart train at the top of the mine.
A view from the top of the water tunnel that was used to transport supplies and ore from the mine at the top.
The mechanics of a working dredge. A good pictorial explanation of how they chewed up so much riverbed and gathered the gold. We've seen these huge dredges since we got to Dawson City in the Yukon.
Jason hops along the rocks to get a view at a pretty stop along a river on the way down the other side of Hatcher Pass after leaving the Independence Mine.
Isn't this just a perfect picture of a mountain peak? It's Pioneer Peak, near Palmer, our next destination.
Each dog has his own house and space.
The tourist train arrives in Denali.
Karen resting at the cabin.
A weird collection of skulls in a tree at the campground.
Summit Lake, at the top of Hatcher Pass.
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