Parks Highway

September 2: Left the campground (fish camp with lots of rabbits running around) and meandered up the road. Stopped at Talkeedna. A very touristy town, but nicely done. It’s the jumping off spot for climbers going to Denali, for flight seeing, and rafting. We had lunch at an historic road house. Also picked up cinnamon buns for breakfast tomorrow. Roadhouses and cinnamon buns are oldtime Alaska. We saw our first glimpse of Mt McKinley on the way to Talkeedna. Best places to see the mountain are from Talkeetna or Denali State Park scenic view points along the Parks Highway. We did get a few pictures here. That turnout to be a good thing, as by the time we got to Denali State Park the mountain was in clouds. Edna did walk up 800 feet at the Denali Viewpoint South on the Parks Highway.

Spent the night at Byer Lake Campground in Denali State Park. Lovely campground. We walked down to the lake and saw a couple of loons. Had a campfire complete with somemoors. Must have been 60 degrees, today. Cound not have been a pretter day!

September 3: Checkout time is 3PM, so we went for a hike. Went to the lake first and saw some loons. Then we walked to the old homestead cabin that is slowly going back to nature. From there we hikes to the suspension bridge. It crosses a salmon spawning creek; both dead and live salmon were in the creek. We took some pictures and fooled around a little, and started back. On the way back, we met some hikers who that told us we should go on to the waterfall (not much farther according to them) about ½ hour. Later, we learned this girl runs a 17 mile race through these mountains. These are not groomed trails: up and down through the mud, across board (8” wide), with plenty of roots and boulders. The red squirrels were dropping the spruce cones from the trees to store for the winter. They scolded us for getting the way.

Back across the bridge we went and up the trail. These hikers with a dog (Rhodesian ridgeback-St Bernard cross) would wait for us up ahead. I think to make sure the “oldsters” stayed on the correct trail. We made it to the falls. It was pretty. Edna went out on the rocks and had her picture taken by the hikers. We had left the campground about 9:30 AM and got back at 2:00 PM. We met several hikers along the tail. Everyone is very friendly here.

Soon we were back to Escape To and traveling up the Parks highway, stopping at lots of photo ops along the way. We are spending the night a Cantwell RV Park. This is where the Denali Highway goes over to the Richardson Highway. It was the only entrance to the National Park until the Parks Highway was built. Our extended hike at least 4 miles did in my ankle and Edna is sore. Nothing about the trail was flat or easy. However it was nice to be out in the woods for most of the day.

The scenery in Alaska is always changing. There are always mountains in sight, but they change: lush green and heavily forested, scrub trees and brush, totally barren, wide open tundra, and of course snow covered glacial. We have driven through passes, alongside small streams, to swift flowing glacial rivers, and wide braided rivers. The sky can be clear as can be, and then there is rain in a matter of minutes. You can drive in and out of clouds. Its been sunny where we are, but looking out the window, there’s a rainbow ahead, It’s never boring.

We will be in the back country campground of Denali for the next 4 days. Looking forward to it.