Saturday July 8 – Day 36 – Denali National Forest and drive
to Talkeetna
Our 8 hour bus tour of Denali National Forest started at
7:10am, and it was a 2.5 hour drive (and the boys refuse to be anywhere near
late to a scheduled event), so we planned to roll out at 4am. Until Erik woke
us up at (seriously) 3:18am. Ugh. We made it out of camp at 3:30am sharp and
arrived none too soon at 6:30am, which allowed for breakfast before the tour
started.
Between Fairbanks and Denali is virtually nothing. No towns of appreciable size, nothing. Just the occasional moose (We saw 4 en route,
including a momma and her twins).
Should you be travelling this area (the northern portion of
the Parks Highway) and find yourself in need of refreshment or lodging while
halfway between Fairbanks and Denali park, you can stop and stay at Skinny
Dicks Halfway Inn. They provide malted beverages and sketchy lodging to the
weary traveler. https://www.skinnydicks.net/
should you find yourself in need……We didn’t stop, but did giggle.
Our tour guide, Peter, had been driving a bus in Denali for
20 years now. That’s a lot of experience and familiarity. He provided tons of
background info on the area’s history, its development (or lack thereof) and
local flora/fauna. Excellent tour, and well worth the money. Along the way, we saw 4 of the “big 5”-2
moose, one wolf, about a dozen caribou, 6 grizzly (grizzer bear, pilgrim),
ptarmigan, and lots of small game. The
one we missed were the Dall sheep.
Unfortunately,
Mt. Denali was covered up with clouds (as it is ~60% of the time, so no big
surprise).
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