We awoke at 5:30am (which happily felt like sleeping in), and checked out of the hotel. We got us some Starbucks downtown, then stopped at a supermarket for the supplies we felt might be hard to come by in Denali. They were playing Don’t Stop Believin’ over the loudspeaker, just for me. I also stocked up on decongestants, because I’d stopped being able to breathe since we’d gotten to Alaska.

We were well up the Parks highway by 8:30am, passing through the few suburbs of Anchorage, and then out into what felt like the middle of nowhere. It looked kind of like northern Wisconsin for a while; pine trees, cabins, and the occasional tavern. We stopped at Montana Creek to look around and climb under the railroad trestle, then headed to Talkeetna, a little town about 15 miles off the highway. It’s reportedly the model for the town in the show “Northern Exposure”.

talkeetna mermoose

Talkeetna is ridiculously cute. It’s all outfitters, gift shops, a famous old general store, and restaurants. Everyone is friendly. We wandered around a bunch of artsy little shops, stopped to talk to Stubbs the cat, the mayor and mascot of Talkeetna (as one of the locals informed us), and walked up to see the depot where the Alaska Railroad pulls up along the Susitna River.

this tiny airport is where almost all Mount McKinley/Denali climbing expeditions begin.

stubbs!

We had lunch out on the patio at the West Rib Pub, then wandered around the town some more.

We went back out to the Parks highway and continued towards Denali. We stopped at a few overlooks in Denali State Park, where we encountered our first bear warning signs, and got our first (very limited) view of Denali.

in denali state park

my obligatory sideview photo

We reached Denali National Park around 6:30pm, and drove up to our hotel, located in the little community across the highway from the park entrance, which doesn’t even have a name; directions are given based on the mile marker on the Parks Highway.

The Denalis Crow’s Nest was spectacular. It’s a bunch of cute little cabins lining the side of Sugarloaf Mountain. Ours was on the fourth tier at the far end, with a great view of Mount Healy and the park entrance. It was set up like a rustic hotel room inside, and had a couple of chairs and little table out front on the deck. We couldn’t have picked a better place to stay.

the denali party cabin (ours is the last on the left)

We unpacked and went downstairs to the Overlook Bar and Grill for dinner. We sat on the patio drinking girly drinks from milk bottles and staring at the park. It was kind of hard to believe we were actually there. After dinner, we went up and sat on the patio, reading. We had trouble deciding when to go to bed, because the sunset never actually happened.

We woke at 6:15am. Though it had been light all night, we slept fine. I was not particularly enjoying my cocktail of decongestants, however. I didn’t feel sick otherwise, I just couldn’t breathe.

We drove into the park and followed the signs to the Wilderness Access Center. Because the buses fill up fast, you have to get their early for tickets. Thankfully, they also have a little coffee counter with breakfast food and snacks, and a decent little store with supplies. We stocked up on snacks and boarded the first bus to Kantishna, the furthest point on the park road.

Our bus driver was Mike, and he told us his wife worked as a driver, too. In the off season, they taught English in Mexico. The vehicles are old school buses fitted with seat belts and gear racks overhead; they’re not terribly comfortable for a several-hour trek, but you kind of don’t notice when you’re in the middle of such an amazing place.

The bus stops at each point along the way. A few of the stops are just for campers. Others have overlooks and very basic restroom facilities. By the time we got to Polychrome Pass, we were very cold. There’s nothing like using a pit toilet with freezing air blowing out of it.

me at the polychrome rest stop

grizzly triplets!

The bus stops for wildlife sightings, and I started to believe the description I’d originally read: a drive down the park road is like a safari. We saw several grizzly bears, moose, dall sheep, and caribou. The driver just stops in the road and everyone creeps very quietly over to one side of the bus to take pictures.

shuttles at the toklat river station

toklat river

We also learned all about glaciation and the geology of the area from our driver. That stuff makes the nerd in me very happy. I do love me some braided streams.

It was overcast all day, so we could only occasionally see bits of Mount Rainier. We were told it’s only fully visible for a few days during the summer; it’s so huge, it creates its own weather system!

wonder lake

We reached Wonder Lake at 2:15pm, and had only two hours to hike before we’d have to catch the last bus returning to the Wilderness Access Center. Wonder Lake was incredibly serene and untouched, despite the clouds of mosquitos. One thing we heard over and over about Denali? Bring heavy-duty bug spray. This advice is not to be taken lightly.

We took the McKinley Bar trail, a narrow path leading down a hill from Wonder Lake and into the basin below. We crossed a few rivers on plank bridges. We didn’t see any other humans at all, though we could occasionally hear a shuttle on the park road off in the distance. We made a point of talking loudly in case there were bears around. I had a bear bell, but it’s mostly intended to remind you to make noise.

hiking on glacial moraine: permafrost covered in grass and moss

on the mckinley bar trail

It was mindblowing, being out in the middle of nowhere like that. I’ve never felt such a sense of complete wilderness, and vulnerability; there’s no question that nature is in charge in Denali.

wonder lake: mile 85 on the park road (a 12-hour roundtrip)

We hiked back up to the bus stop to catch the last bus from Kantishna. It was driven by the crabbiest woman ever, who opened the door and shouted, “DARLENE’S BUS!” We would hear that at least 40 more times on the several-hour journey. At one point, she yelled at me because she could hear my bear bell rattling. I didn’t even hear my bear bell rattling.

denali traffic jam

Near Polychrome Pass, we came upon a grizzly bear walking alongside the road. When we stopped, he came all the way up to the door of the bus. I was standing in the front, probably 4 feet away from him. I was, in fact, a little nervous about that. Further down the road, we watched a moose family.

moose family!

It was a quicker return to the Wilderness Access Center, because we didn’t stop to see things, just to use the bathroom occasionally and to pick up hikers along the way. We got back around 9pm, which made the entire trip about 14 hours total.

We had to do some searching for dinner, and finally settled on the Nenana View Bar and Grill at the resort across the road from our party cabin. It was far too fancy a place for us to be in dirty hiking gear, but we didn’t care. We had pizzas and chatted with our awesome server from Bulgaria. When she found out we were from Minneapolis, all she could talk about was going to the Mall of America!

Monday morning, we took the park shuttle from the visitors’ center to the dog kennel, where we got to meet the dogs, and see a sled-pulling demonstration. It was kind of rainy, but the dogs were raring to go regardless. They were probably wishing for snow.

denali sled dog kennels

sled dog demonstration

We rode back to the visitors’ center and shopped (A LOT) at the store. We bought a bunch of postcards and then went to eat in the cafe there so we could fill them out. Fyi, the restaurant in the park is surprisingly good. Spectacular dining is hard to come by in that area, since your options are so limited.

We dropped our cards off at the post office, the headed over to the Horseshoe Lake Trail. It was kind of cold, but the rain gear we had was very sufficient. My waterproof jacket from REI was an excellent investment.

horseshoe lake

The mosquitoes were terrible, but we were well-protected. On the trail, we saw woodpeckers, and these strange burled trees. Even on one of the more popular trails, we hardly saw any other people.

We hiked back up to the road and drove the 14 miles down the park road to the Savage River bridge. It’s the farthest private vehicles can go into the park; after that, you have to take a shuttle bus. We headed down the trail to the north. For about a half-mile, it’s paved, and then it becomes a narrow path heading into the canyon.

savage river

glacial runoff entering the savage river

We saw tons of ground squirrels, who let us get very close so they could yell at us, and dall sheep up on the top of the surrounding hills. Glacial runoff was melting into the river, mixing clear water with silt from miles away. We hiked over shallow streams and waterfalls, occasionally wondering how the hell we were going to make it back. Also, I peed on a peak overlooking the river. I rule.

We ate lunch on the trail, then headed back to the bridge. Near the road, we encountered a family of ptarmigans. I love those birds! They’re like Alaskan quail.

We drove back up near the visitor center to see the train trestle, then went down to the station. There was a train sitting there, and we resolved immediately to return to Alaska, and travel by rail.

alaska railroad trestle

We decided to drive to Healy in search for Independence Day party supplies and food for dinner. There was a little convenience/liquor store combo on the corner of the Parks Highway, so we turned off and thought we’d drive into town to see what else was there. A few miles down the road, we realized that was all there was of the town. We turned around and stopped at the store for snacks and liquor. We then headed back to the park entrance. After checking several restaurants (all of which were insanely crowded), we decided to just go back to the same place as the previous night.

We realized that the crowds were because the cruise people had just arrived on the train. There was a long line there, too, but it wasn’t as bad as the rest. We had pizzas and devised our new travel motto: have fun, be awesome, don’t die.

Words to live by.

We got to sleep in on the 4th of July, getting up shortly before 8am to make the 9:30 bus to the Toklat River station. It was clearer, with no sign of rain for once. We called home to reassure my mom that we were alive, then went to the visitor center for coffee. The girl there remembered me, which of course meant we were already regulars.

morning fog

Our bus driver, Rich, was great. He had a story about everything, and went around the bus asking people where they were from. He talked about the moose rut and sports with equal amounts of enthusiasm.

mom and baby bear

polychrome pass

We rode to Polychrome Pass, and decided to hike from there. We talked to Rich about the routes in the area, which were all really just game trails. The paths on top of the pass were really muddy, so he suggested we grab a shuttle back to the Toklat River instead. We started hiking down the pass, being sure to talk loudly. We’d just seen bears nearby.

from polychrome pass, with glacier!

A bus came by about 20 minutes later. We flagged it down and asked to be let off at the bridge on the Toklat River. There was an Amish family on the bus, which I found immensely fascinating.

snowmelt water mixing with glacial runoff in the toklat river

We found a driveway near the bridge, and hiked down to the river. The Murie Cabin is there, and rangers use it as a research outpost. It was kind of creepy, with nails sticking out of it to keep bears from chewing their way inside.

murie cabin

Behind the cabin, there was a port-a-potty. This was a big find, obviously, because facilities are so rare, especially clean ones with toilet paper. I was freaked out at being in the middle of nowhere, though, so I left the door open and talked the whole time. It’s not like anybody was going to accidentally come across me there in the bathroom.

We hiked along the little tributaries to the river, looking for places where the ice was still packed enough to be able to walk across. We were moving pretty slowly, always keeping an eye out for animals; the rushing of the nearby river was so loud that we wouldn’t hear a bear, and it’d be unlikely to hear us. You know what’s really rattling? Knowing that you could seriously be in danger of a bear attack. That’s not something you’re often concerned about.

On the banks of the Toklat River, we sat on the stones and ate lunch. Being there is something I’ll never forget.

We walked back up to the park road, with magpies following us and yelling the whole time. We saw wild hares all over in the brush. Heading up toward Sable Pass, we entered a restricted wildlife area, which meant we had to stay on the road lest we be eaten by things. That’s how I interpreted it, at least.

notice that the sign is all chewed up by bears.

Part of the way up the pass, a bus came along, but the driver said it was out of service, and another would be along shortly. We were fine, though; the nice thing about hiking in the mountains in Alaska is it’s not like, say, the Rockies. You’re only at 4-5,000 feet, instead of 14,000. Easy! We were just constantly on the lookout for bears and wolves. Another bus finally showed up, and it was full of very tired-looking people from Wonder Lake.

The driver of that bus, Brad, was talking about some of the other sights in Alaska. The one that excited me most, and the main one I intend to go back for, is the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. It’s a valley that’s buried in 700 feet of ash from a volcanic eruption, and you can hike in it.

We got back to the WAC around 5pm, had dinner at the visitors’ center, did some souvenir shopping, and then decided to drive back along the park road to see if we could find any more animals. Not only did the sun come out briefly, we saw a wolf! We turned around at the Savage River and headed back to the park entrance, stopping at the mercantile for breakfast supplies for our drive back to “civilization”.

i thought this was far funnier than stephanie did.

at the park exit

We went to our cabin to celebrate the 4th of July on the deck with the beverages we’d acquired in Healy. We realized that fireworks wouldn’t really work very well in Alaska that time of year, because it doesn’t get dark.

We were in bed by 10, but I set the alarm and got up at 2am to get this picture:

2am in denali on the 4th of july

You don’t really have trouble sleeping when you’ve been wandering in the wilderness all day, however.

We got up, checked out of our awesome party cabin, and headed back south. We saw a moose crossing the highway with two babies along the way. Traffic sucked in Wasilla, so we got to Anchorage around 1pm.

the igloo

We stopped for food and a memory card for my camera (apparently Denali is photoworthy?), then continued toward the Kenai Peninsula around two.

leaving anchorage: turnagain arm

The highway takes you along Turnagain Arm, part of Cook Inlet, then heads south. The landscape changes quickly; it’s all bridges and streams, and mountains covered in pine trees. The rivers were turquoise, and reminded me of Montana.

canyon creek

kenai lake

sideview: kenai peninsula

It also became very clear and sunny for the first time since we’d gotten to Alaska! We stopped a few times along the way to look at lakes and mountains, then reached Seward and checked into our hotel around 4pm.

small boat harbor, seward

One of the very awesome things about Seward is that everything is walking distance. We went down to the harbor and wandered in and out of the shops.

tsunami!

There were a bunch of fisherman on the docks, butchering fish. As they removed the heads and innards, they’d drop them through a hole in the pier into a waiting barge. The barge would take them out into Resurrection Bay and dump the guts; it was pretty much the seagulls’ best day ever.

The only way I could even stand being around the shark heads was by looking at them through the viewfinder. Shudder.

a barge full of fish heads and guts

seward harbor

We went all the way out onto the breakwater, then decided to head into the cute little downtown. I loved Seward immediately.

downtown seward

puffin!

As we wandered, my head began to hurt worse and worse. I realized that I was extremely dehydrated, so we stopped into an ice cream shop for water. We decided to go back to the hotel and drive to the store for food, because neither of us felt like dining in another restaurant that night. We got monstrous salads at the Safeway, and had dinner on our beds at 9pm. I was asleep by 10.

memorial to the kid who created the state flag.