Day 15: Fairbanks, Alaska to Denali National Park, Alaska

We hit some construction on the road to Denali from Fairbanks, which was really frustrating. A lot of times, on these highways, they are totally torn up and you have to wait for a pilot car to lead your long line of traffic through the construction. As a result, you sit for a while. Dad was jokingly narrating what the construction worker holding the stop sign must be saying to himself and making sound effects. This was making me laugh and pissing Desmond off. He kept shouting, “Stop that, Grandpa!” This only made me laugh, which only encouraged my dad more. As we were sitting waiting, I noticed in The Milepost that we were very near to where Christopher McCandliss, from the book/movie  Into the Wild was last seen before he hiked out into the wilderness and perished. It is believed he ate some poisonous plants, which caused him to starve to death. His body was found in an old, abandoned bus just two weeks after he died. The story is worth checking out. Right in the construction zone, the bus from the movie is located at a brewery along the way. If the construction hadn’t created such a mess and the RV wasn’t so difficult to maneuver, I would’ve made Dad stop so we could see it. As it was, I had to settle for a view from the car.

As we drove on towards Denali, I kept thinking about McCandliss and what a sad story his was and just kept looking at the vast wilderness that is Alaska. I don’t think I’d ever have the nerve to hike out alone like that… there are bears! Yikes!

Denali & campground

We arrived at Denali and Desmond spotted a clock tower on top of one of the lodges just outside of the national park, so we insisted we be allowed to check it out. Dad wanted to secure our site first, so we went into the park first and made sure our reservations were set. Denali was the only place Dad had made reservations. It was a good thing, because the desk worker was turning campers away. Desmond insisted on checking out the Mercantile where you get your campsite (and supplies like wood or equipment or ice cream) and begged me to buy him a compass. He had his favorite toy of the moment.

A little orienteering

Dad dropped us off at the clock tower lodge, but couldn’t find parking, so he and Mom drove back to the Mercantile to wait for us to call them to pick us up. Inside the resort, many workers came up to us to fawn over Trudy, telling us they, “Never get babies up here!” and we quickly noticed the lack of a Generation X population in Denali. It was overrun by Baby Boomers, who arrived by cruise excursions or by RV and a good number of Millennials, who were there to hike and tent camp. Across from our site, were two men sleeping in mosquito net hammocks. Tommy referred to them as bear roll-ups. Haha.

There wasn’t much to get excited about in the little tourist village outside of the national park: lots of tourist shops with essentials that were way over-priced. I won’t tell you how much we paid for a 12-pack of pop.

Campsite in Denali

Gee, thanks

The best part about camping

Or, maybe this is?

We headed back our site and Desmond played with Play-Doh while Dad grilled some sausages for dinner and Mom took Trudy for a walk and then returned to our site to catch some rays. Only my mother would sunbathe in Alaska!