Arrived in Alaska about noon on 6/28. We were excited. We had been told to stop at a place called Chicken not too far across the border from the Yukon into Alaska. We decided to drop in to this funny looking place (population 10). Chicken signs and paraphernalia was everywhere – including the bar where we stopped to get a beer at and admire the giant chicken. After chatting with the nice bartender and putting on our favorite music on the record player we ordered lunch. The reindeer sausage and chicken pie were very good. Chicken is on the Klondike Loop. Miners had wanted to name it Ptarmigan but they couldn’t spell it – so Chicken it was. After buying some chicken socks (because who doesn’t need chicken socks?) we headed to Fairbanks.
Fairbanks was a good town to take care of chores- laundry, oil change, dog bathes and showers. We looked for a good place to stay and ended up a dirt road. We traveled to a closed ski resort first to ask about camping. Firefighters were setting up camp and checking the wildfires in the area. They said it has been a busy summer season. We went up across the road to Pedro Dome Road. It was a high hilltop. We parked, set up and let the dogs roam. After being admonished in the last campground for our music being too loud, we set up our music and enjoyed the scenery. Bill sent the drone up and we saw five small fires over and beyond. It was 4th of July. We didn’t see any fireworks but we had a wonderful time looking out over the expansive landscape.
Follow the link for a short video of some of our favorite campsites: https://youtu.be/j01o-ejPrck
The next night we stayed at Pioneer Park. It was a very kitschy place but it worked for what we needed. We ended up wandering through in the evening to come across the Pioneer Pickers. They meet up every Tuesday and play music together. It was an audience of three (including Bill and I). It was inspiring to watch these musicians play together for the love of music and the comradery. The instruments included guitars, clarinet, base violin and mandolin. Each person would pick a song they liked and then the others would follow along.
The next morning, we left for the Denali Highway which is an alternate route to get to Denali National Park. It is a 134 mile, mostly gravel, wilderness route. It is closed in winter. There were so many places to boondock (camp for free) we didn’t know where to choose. We passed through the 226,000 acre archeological district that chronicles the over 10,000 year inhabitation and reliance on the natural surroundings for sustenance and survival. We ended the day at the entrance to the Maclaren Summit Trail at a breathtaking camp site.
The next day we took a long hike along the high ridges in the summit. The Maclaren Summit at 4,086’ is the second highest road in Alaska. We saw a peak sunset and a beautiful bald eagle up close.
We had noticed along the journey that the ribbons of rivers all seemed low. We also have not seen as much wildlife as we were expecting. A local said that the last five years have been lighter snowfall than usual. She also said that the snow that fell was “sugar snow”. She explained that this type of snow did not hold up the animals and it made it harder for them to forage for food. Because of the animal’s nutritional levels, they were not procreating as much. This was her theory. It caused us to stop and think.
We arrived at Denali Park and it was not too crowded. We enjoyed the Visitor Center and the short movie about Denali. We hiked the Rock Creek Trail to the dog sled demonstration. No motorized vehicles are allowed in the back country of Denali so dog sleds are the means of transportation in the winter. Denali is the only National Park with its own dog kennels and working dogs. The dogs are Alaskan Huskies. It is not a registered breed and they don’t compete in dog shows. They are bred for strength, attitude and fortitude. When the sled with wheels was brought out for the demonstration the dogs went wild – barking and pacing. It was interesting how enthusiastic they were about being put to work. It was fun to watch on too short a track.
There is a 92 mile road in to Denali. In the summer you are allowed to take your personal vehicle in 15 miles but the buses don’t go past mile 29 due to a rock landslide a couple of years ago. They hope to have more road open in 2027. We walked a trail on the Savage River hoping to see some wildlife. The wildlife we met was an elderly lady hungry for conversation. After about an hour we were able to continue our seeking path but to no avail. We were able to see Mt. Denali off in the distance.
Denali is a huge wilderness area, but because we were limited to just the first 15 miles of it (neither of us much care for tour busses), it was a bit of a bust for us. We hope however to revisit the park later in our travels, with a Flightseeing trip from nearby Talkeetna.
Off to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The largest in the national park system with the most peaks over 16,000’ on this continent. It is also the least visited in the park system. We once again took the very scenic Denali Highway on our way to remote McCarthy and the Kennecott mine.