Friday 8th September
On the road again! And heading back down south from Fairbanks. The weather this morning was so much better than the day we drove north so our views for the drive back down were much better. We stopped at some overlooks that had been rained in on our way north.
We made a brief stop in the tiny town of Nenana, whose claim to fame in the annual Nenana Ice Classic. Predicting precisely how soon or late the ice melts at Nenana has become a heated competition. Each year a 26-foot-tall tripod is embedded into the ice on the Tanana River on the first Saturday in March. Then everyone waits. Usually long into April, sometimes May. And for $2.50 a ticket, anyone and everyone—resident of the 49th state or not—can guess when winter will finally allow the river to thaw out and the structure to sink. The guess that comes closest to the official time wins. Last year, the jackpot was $233,591! The competition started in 1906 as a casual bet between friends on who among them could best predict the ice’s breakup. The ice literally supported completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1923. The bridge across the Tanana River at Nenana was one of the final stretches of rail needed to connect Seward and Fairbanks. As workers built the bridge, scaffolding briefly rested directly on the ice. If the ice gave way before the bridge was finished, it would endanger the workers and the project. The competition has grown and the system of calculation and bets is now highly refined. Ice breakup is determined by movement of a tripod placed on the ice for the competition. When the tripod moves enough to “trip” its attached wires, the Nenana Ice Classic clock stops, recording the breakup’s date and time. Down at the shore of the river we could see the tripod waiting for the winter. Nearby we passed the Nenana Depot and Railroad Museum, it’s on the National Register of Historic Places as Nenana was a headquarters for the building of the Alaska Railroad.
We stopped briefly in the town of Healy at the 49th State Brewing Company, which much to Neil’s disappoinment wasn’t open! Then we finally arrived at the entrance to Denali National Park.
We stopped in to the Visitors Center to purchase our park entry fee and to take a look at the exhibits and collect a map, then decided to head out and drive the first 17 miles into the park to the Savage River area. This is as far as you are allowed to drive your own car into the park, the only way to go further is on one of the Park service buses. I’d booked us a ticket on the Transit bus tomorrow but the weather today was good so we figured we would see as much as we could today. We stopped at the Mountain Vista area to walk a trail down to the Savage river. For much of the walk we didn’t see another soul, it was wonderful to feel like we had the park to ourselves.
After enjoying our walk at the river we drove back to the park entrance and grabbed a sandwich at the cafe before heading down to walk the Horseshoe lake trail. This turned out ot be a real highlight, the walk went steeply down to the forest near the river and on the river banks we could see up to our hotel. From there it wound back past the very pretty emerald coloured lake, which was so still the reflections of the surrounding trees and steep banks were fantastic. The lake exists largely due to the industrious work of beavers and we saw several beaver dams, these little guys are wonderful engineers! There were several places where we could see where the beavers had chewed away at the trees to provide lumber for their dam.
As we walked near the dam some walkers ahead of us drew our attention to a cute little critter who was scurrying around the dam. It tunred out ot be a Stoat ( or Eurasian ermine). Neil managed to capture a picture of him but I only got a quick video. Further along we came across some cute little squirrels collecting pinenuts for the winter
After a really lovely walk we drove back up the road to check into our hotel, the Denali Princess Lodge. This is another huge complex owned by the Princess cruise line.
We settled in to our room and then set out to do some laundry – while we waited for the load to finish we dropped into the Fannie Q saloon to have a drink. The bartender encouraged us (amongst others) to try a Duck Fart, the Alaskan State shot. It’s a layered recipe of Kahlua, Baileys and Crown Royal whisky, and was delicious!
After we’d finished our laundry we headed over to King Salmon restaurant for a delicious dinner. We both loved the Salmon chowder starter and our roast chicken main.
After dinner we headed back to the room for an early night, we have an early start tomorrow!
Saturday 9th September
There are a few different options of transport to gain access to the more remote areas of Denali National Park. My first choice would have been to book us on the Tundra Wilderness tour ( a guided and narrated bus tour) but they were all booked out for this day even the many months in advance when I was planning the trip. So our backup plan was to take the East Fork Transit bus, a more low key bus trip that is supposed to act as a hop-on, hop-off bus tour into the park as well as providing access for campers at the interior campgrounds. The drivers are not required to provide any narration on these tours but many of them do anyway ( and luckily our driver did!) I’d booked us on the 8am bus so we were up early to get ready and have breakfast and get down to the bus depot in the park by 7.45. The bus arrived promptly and away we went. These buses are the old “school bus” type with divided windows that did make photography a bit challenging, but our driver did his best to make the trip interesting. He kept a watch out for wildlife and encouraged the passengers to yell outif they saw something. The weather today wasn’t as good as yesterday, a mixture of cloud, showers and some sunshine.
One issue that is a challenge at the park currently is that the buses can only travel to Mile 42 at present. In 2021 a landslide on Polychrome Pass closed the Denali Park Road due to unsafe conditions. The area, called Pretty Rocks, at Mile 45.4 of the park road, had been steadily sliding for quite some time, requiring vigilant maintenance on the narrow gravel road. But in 2021 it was decided that a more permanent solution was necessary, and they’re still working on it. At this stage they don’t expect the full park road to open until 2025. It’s apity because, as I understand it, the really spectacular views within the park are beyond the closed area. However, we were here and determined to see as much as we could. Our higest point on the route was Sable Pass where we had snow on the ground – it was very cold!
WE made a couple of stops along the way at overlooks for toilet stops and also when wildlife was seen. We saw caribou a couple of times and also Dall sheep on the cliffs but no bears.
After the tour we headed back to the hotel to grab some lunch and to have a wander around the shops across the road and along the path behind the hotel that overlooks the river. For dinner we chose the Grizzly Bear restaurant, a low key burger place. The burgers were great and we sat there for a long time as the rain poured won outside.
Tomorrw we head back down south again.