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The Kenai trip felt like one whole vacation all by itself. So, the “next” vacation started the next day with our departure on Monday morning for Denali National Park. Alaska means “the great land” and indeed it is. Our drive gave us incredible views of the magnificence and grandeur of this land. We stopped at many scenic lookouts but Mt. McKinley stayed hidden in clouds. We visited Talkeetna on the way, a quaint town and the launching point for most Mt. McKinley climbing expeditions. And we even pulled off to watch a dog sled team in summer practice pulling a wheeled sled. I had booked our hotels months ahead because we were told they filled up quickly, and I’m glad we did.

Tuesday morning bright and early, we arrived to gear up for our white water rafting trip in the Nenana River Canyon. We were suited up in full dry suits and were given helmets since we would be paddling (as opposed to riding the oar boat where only the guide paddles and steers.) The main instructions other than how to paddle was how to hang onto the raft with one hand and your paddle with the other if you went over the side in the rapids. And how to assist your fellow passengers that went over the side back into the raft (push them down then pull up letting the water and life jacket help with the work). We didn’t get any excitement of a person overboard, so in the calm areas of the river the guide let us go over the side to float if we wanted. Sure was nice to have that dry suit on! We had a great time riding/paddling ten or so class III rapids through the canyon for two hours.

The same day was our bus trip into Denali National Park! To see our animal photos, check out Denali Touring. To protect the environment, the park service does not allow private cars onto the 90 mile road through the park so we had booked an eight hour bus trip. Numerous buses go into the park every day to different destinations driving slowly to observe wildlife and stopping every hour and a half for rest breaks. They stop in the middle of the road when wildlife is spotted for viewing and photo ops. Neil got a lot of wonderful photos. Our bus driver was a kick. He said they call it a “grand slam” if you see all of the “big four” animals on a trip: the grizzly bear, moose, caribou, and Dall’s sheep. We were fortunate and saw all four and so he pulled out an old broom and explained that in naval tradition it is called “clean sweep” when your ship hits every target and so it would sail into port with a broom tied to the mast. He has extended that to a grand slam and had a broom raising ceremony at our next stop where he tied the broom to his rear view mirror strut!  We were fortunate to see several grizzlies and one with a cub. The Dall Sheep are tiny white specks up on the rocky mountain sides until you look at them through binoculars. We saw a few solo caribou near the road throughout the trip, and the moose and two calves were right on the road outside of park headquarters feeding.

Still no sight of the elusive Mt. McKinley; the clouds still surrounded it. They say that Mt. McKinley is so high it creates its own weather systems. We had read that in the summer it is visible only about 25% of the time. Back in days when the train was the only access to the park, people would come for a “24 hour” stay and, if the mountain wasn’t visible during the day, one of the staff at the camp would stay up all night to watch if it cleared and would wake visitors up so they could get a view. We were still waiting for our view.

In researching accommodations, we discovered a hot springs outside of Fairbanks. So the next day we set off to explore central Alaska--well actually just a tiny part of the center. As we drove, we saw someone taking a photo off the side of the road in the opposite direction and we turned around to see a clear distant view of Mt. McKinley shining in the sunshine—finally our glimpse of “the high one.” (The locals named the mountain Denali-the high one.). 

We didn’t quite reach the Arctic Circle but were close at Chena Hot Springs. They have a wonderful large outside Rock Pool that gradually increases in temperature from 105 to 117 degrees at the end near the inflows. We enjoyed soaking and lounging on the rocks in the sun in the afternoon and the following morning. Our housing for the night was a yurt! As we were eating dinner at our picnic table, a walking tour approached and stopped at the huge pipe right next to us (turns out it was one of the wells) and we were able to listen to the director of the energy projects describe details. It was so interesting we tagged along with the rest of the tour and learned about the amazing programs of renewable energy in place and under development at Chena utilizing the geothermal hot water source. Neil loves to describe it to friends but I am just going to point you to their web page on renewable energy to learn about their innovative projects to make the Chena Hot Springs resort completely self-sufficient and independent of fuel oil sources. The tour included a glimpse inside their ice museum full of amazing ice sculptures and “rooms” plus an ice bar that serves vodka in ice glasses. The inside stays below freezing year round even in the 90 degrees summer heat through the use of the hot water!

We enjoyed a hike at Denali on Friday morning to Horseshoe Lake—the same hike Mom, Madison, and I made on our trip. It was still just as beautiful and there was an extensive beaver pond at the bottom, although no beavers showed themselves. We did drive up to the view point for Mt. McKinley but alas it was in clouds again. As we drove back toward Anchorage, there is one last pull out that views the whole set of peaks surrounding McKinley and a great photo info board that shows you what you would see on a clear day. Right next door is the McKinley View Lodge built back in the ‘60s by a Talkeetna school teacher who lobbied for years to get the road built to Denali. The upstairs rooms have windows that look right at McKinley and we decided to give it one last try. They said it often cleared in the evening. We worked on the computer by the window watching into the night end finally the next morning at breakfast the clouds parted and we got to see views of the majestic peak. It is just so amazing how tall it is!

Our next plan was to drive over Hatcher Pass to Independence Mine. It is written up in all the books as beautifu,l but not more than 5 miles into it, it became a rough dirt road and a construction flag woman told us it got worse up ahead. We turned around and took the paved road loop and made it in the same amount of time with less wear on the car and us. The Willow Creek Valley is a gorgeous glacier-sculpted valley with a beautiful turquoise blue river running down it fed by the glaciers. We picked a random spot to take a river photo and there across the stream was a black bear pulling a huge salmon out of the river. Neil caught his progress on film and the fish really was that big in comparison to the bear; this is not a Photoshop enhanced picture! Independence Mine was a working and productive gold mine until 1943 when the war department closed it down as being non essential to the war effort. It is a self guided tour with informative signs and good descriptions of life at the mine.

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