The drive from Anchorage to Denali isn’t that impressive; it is surrounded by trees so you don't have many good views of the mountains. We broke up the drive by stopping by Eklutna Lake to enjoy the view and Wasilla to visit the home of one of our favorite bands, Portugal the Man. I think someone else lives in Wasilla, but for the life of me I just can't remember who... hmmm.
Random observation: Alaskans must love ice cream. There aren’t many places to stop along the Alaskan highways, but those that do exist all seem to advertise ice cream.
Anyways, once we arrived in Denali, we set up camp and drove in 15 miles to hike the 2 mile Savage River trail. While the road through Denali is 92 miles long, personal vehicles are only allowed on the first 15 miles. The next morning we took a 6 hour (round trip) bus ride to the Toklat River stop at mile 53. On the bus, we saw moose, caribou, and Dall sheep. I think we were one of the only buses that didn’t see bears. Jason and I didn’t see bears the entire trip. He grew a beard to scare them off in case we got approached by one, and it was so scary that they wouldn't even let us see them from afar. One of the earlier buses saw a wolf and lynx too… both which are very rare sitings. Once we arrived at the Toklat River stop, we hiked about 3 miles hoping to catch a glimpse of Mount McKinley, but weren’t successful. We did manage to catch the faintest glimpse of it through the clouds on the bus ride back though.
The next morning, we hiked the 1.5 mile Horseshoe trail and visited the sled dog kennels. The dogs are trained and used in the winter by the park rangers to patrol the park. Each year, they breed a new litter to join the pack. I think Jason wanted to bring one of this year’s puppies home. We didn't, of course. If he misses them too much, he can just watch them on their very own webcam.
After the hike and puppy viewing (and a quick shower and email update to family) we got on the road to Fairbanks. Once in town, we ate a quick lunch and headed to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska. It had a great exhibit of art from the region, culture & historical relics, and a nice display of animals and nature of the area. We decided not to stay in Fairbanks for the night, but go to Chena Hot Springs about an hour outside of town. Along the way we stopped at Silver Gulch Brewery so Jason could have another little taste of Alaska's microbrews.
Once we arrived at the hot springs, we realized that it wasn't quite what we expected. We expected it to be a bit more nature-y and a lot less touristy. But, we made the most of it. We had a good dinner at their restaurant, a nice soak in the springs the next morning, and had our only bull moose siting of the trip.
We decided to head towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park a day earlier than planned to give us a full night in the park. We had another great moose siting as we drove out of the Chena River State Recreational Area. The drive south was absolutely stunning. There were great views of the mountains and several neat views of the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
Up next, the second half of our trip.
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