Day 16: Denali National Park, Alaska

We used this day for exploring Denali. It is quite different from Yellowstone. Yellowstone is overrun with tourists and you can pretty much drive wherever you want. In Denali, you are only permitted to drive in 15 miles and if you want to see more, you have to take a bus. Mom and Dad advised against this, since they had done it before. The ride is three hours in each direction to see wildlife, and Mom said it is often like, “See that white speck way out there? That’s a stone sheep!” We decided this was not an effective use of our time, so we drove to mile 15 and turned around. Just as we got there, we spotted several caribou down in a marshy valley. Dad was excited to see caribou in the wild. He was keeping track of all the animals he hoped to see. Next was the mother moose that was said to be roaming the campground with her twin calves (we never saw them, unfortunately) and had been aggressive towards several campers. He also hoped to see some bald eagles.

Wild caribou

We drove back to the visitor center and explored some of the exhibits while killing time before taking a shuttle to see a sled dog demonstration. Denali raises huskies, which it uses in the winter for various purposes around the park. They use them because of the smaller carbon footprint they provide and because the mushers are a tradition in the park since its inception. We were allowed to interact with the couple dozen dogs they have. Many were friendly and happy to have attention. Then we had to take seats to see the demonstration. The dogs are pretty relaxed until they find out it’s time to mush. Then they all get excited, jumping and howling, hoping to be chosen to pull the sled. The mushers selected five dogs to pull a sled and they zoomed around and ended up in front of the audience. A ranger taught us about the pups and answered some questions. Then were allowed to interact with the dogs some more before leaving. Desmond was more interested in the 24-hour clock in the office, I think, but suggested the name Winter for one of the new puppies. I thought that was a good suggestion, and surprised he made that connection to the area, since it was so warm outside.

Making friends

Learning the art of mushing

Huskie memorial

We took the shuttle back and headed to the Science and Nature Center, where Desmond impressed the ranger with his interest and understanding of the skeletons, puzzles, and stuffed animals of local birds. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream from the Mercantile and took turns showering. Once again, we had to pay to use a national parks shower. $4.50 seemed a bit steep, but the site itself was a bargain ($14, I think), since Dad is a senior and member of the parks.

Hangin' with the ranger

"I'm totally not sleeping tonight," - Trudy

It's dusk at 2 a.m. I'm wide awake.

That night, Trudy didn’t sleep well, which was generally the case in Alaska. She woke up a lot and I nursed her a lot. I wondered if it was the extra light that came in. I wonder if Alaskan moms put blackout curtains on their baby registries?

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!

Day 14: Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska

We planned a break along our drive from Tok to Fairbanks in North Pole, Alaska. Desmond was quite excited about this stop and for the last few days kept asking, “Is this the workshop?” every time we stopped. Mom was worried he’d be disappointed when we got there because we weren’t exactly sure what he was expecting. Plus, it was about 70 degrees out, so not the winter wonderland we all imagine the North Pole to be.

Magical North Pole, AK

 

Our stop consisted of visiting the Christmas gift shop and talking to Santa. Desi had been telling us he planned to thank Santa for fixing “Big Clock” this past Christmas (his favorite clock, which had not been working was magically repaired on Christmas morning). He ran up to Santa and thanked him and Santa was a bit confused and had a hard time understanding what Desmond was saying as he plopped Big Clock down in front of him. He wasn’t interested in taking photos with Santa and just wanted to run around the store and see how many clocks he could find among the souvenirs. Trudy was very agreeable to sitting on Santa’s lap, however, and I think Santa enjoyed her company.

D thanking Santa for fixing his clock.

Trudy enjoying Santa's company

After I had picked up a few ornaments to take home, we headed outside to visit the reindeer. We were disappointed to see they were way back inside a pen and not accessible. However, my mom, who is very outgoing, had no problem asking if we were allowed in (since there were already a few people in there with the animals). The caretaker said yes, we could, for a small donation. So Mom gave her a few dollars and she, Desmond, and I went inside. The reindeer had collars with their names (Vixen, Prancer, etc. were all represented) and they were pretty docile and friendly. I enjoyed petting their antlers, which were surprisingly soft due to the velvet they were covered in. Desi scratched their heads. We asked a few questions and were on our way. I think visiting the reindeer made it a bit more worth the stop, especially for Desmond.

Petting the reindeer

We reached Fairbanks and had a few hours before dinner, so we secured a site at River’s Edge RV Park and drove a short distance to Pioneer Park. According to The Milepost, the mile-by-mile book that details what is located at each point in the journey, Pioneer Park is a great place for kids. Dad remembered going there on a previous trip to Fairbanks and was lukewarm about going. However, he didn’t have any other suggestions, and I wanted to pick a place Desmond would like, so we went. It would remind a person of Greenfield Village (Michigan) or Carillon Park (Dayton): a hodgepodge of old buildings relocated in a central place that help tell the story of Fairbanks' and Alaska’s history. They had an old paddle boat, many log cabins, and a few other buildings, as well as a really great playground, a train, and a beer garden with a restaurant.

Playground at Pioneer Park

Testing the old machinery at Pioneer Park. I didn't believe we'd actually be in shorts in Alaska.

Desmond enjoyed looking at and playing with all the old gears and artifacts as well as playing on the playground. I enjoyed popping into the various buildings in order to learn a little about Fairbanks. I noticed there were a lot of log cabins; when I think of log cabins I think of them being built in the 17 to1800s. However, since Alaska was settled much later, many of them dated from the 1920s-1940s, totally different from the architecture I’m used to seeing from the 20s to 40s. I just don’t think about people living that lifestyle so recently.

Alaskan Amber at River's Edge. Take that, Corona!

Since we ended up leaving Pioneer Park sort of late, we picked up some KFC for dinner and ate it at the RV park. The location was really nice, right along a river, as the name suggests. We took our dinner to a picnic table along the river and enjoyed some beautiful Alaska sunshine while we ate. Mom and I walked to the grocery store to pick up some necessities with Trudy and planned to have a beer along the river while Tommy put Desmond to bed, but in the end, Tommy met me by the river and we chatted while enjoying an Alaskan Amber.

Day 13: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska

Sprinkles!

Tommy, Mom, Trudy, Dad: clearly loving their gourmet feast.

A Canada must... right?

As we headed out of Whitehorse, Dad and I decided we needed to hit up Tim Horton’s for breakfast once before we left Canada (even though my parents have one a few miles from their house). We “took the scenic route” around town before ending up back downtown to hit up the Tim Horton’s near the visitor center, which we’d seen the day before. My goal was to use up as much Canadian money as I could, so I bought breakfast for everyone. Desi and Tommy got donuts (D only ate the sprinkles off and gave the rest to Tommy; good thing he’d already eaten breakfast), Mom and I got bagels (I loved my pretzel bagel!), and Dad got a breakfast sandwich and a donut. I also grabbed a box of donut holes to go and a shot of espresso for a bit of energy. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, so the caffeine in coffee really hits me. It was good.

Decent-looking roads; beware the frost heaves!

Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane

Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane

The drive out of Canada was long and arduous. Yukon’s road’s towards Alaska are the worst we experienced. The pavement is damaged as a result of thawing permafrost and results in something called frost heaves, bumps and waves in the roadway that can be minor or quite large. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me anxious to be riding an RV over the frost heaves. In my Outback, they wouldn’t have been so bad, but RVs don’t provide the smoothest ride, plus there’s the nagging fear in the back of your mind that they could flip, so it made for a long drive. In addition, the road was gravel for a long portion, which made the drive that much more unpleasant.

Vent experiment to reduce thawing that creates frost heaves

Workers wetting the road to cut down on dust

That's not scary at all

And then the roads took a turn for the worst...

A highlight of the drive through the Yukon was the spot where we stopped for a picnic lunch out of the camper. We stopped at Horseshoe Bay along Kluane Lake and it offered an amazingly gorgeous mountain view. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, and a simple sandwich never tasted so good. Desmond wanted to explore a bit, so we hiked away from the camper and viewed the lake from a few other points while he climbed on rocks and dug through the gravel.

Lunch at Lake Kluane

Another feature of note along the Alaska Highway, which started in Canada and continued on into Alaska were rock messages. Apparently, they were started by a swim team in the 1990s and people continue to put messages into the sides of the highway with rocks. Usually, they are someone’s name or a location. My favorite was the one that said, “ROCKS.” Haha.

Rock writing

Our last stop out of Canada was a place called Buckshot Betty’s. Dad wanted to try to run through some of his Canadian dollars, so we all bought some ice cream bars and ate them on the deck of the little log diner. 

We jumped back into the RV and headed to border crossing, which went smoothly and then we were in Alaska! Immediately, the roads improved (although later we would experience some construction and frost heaves; though none were as bad as the Yukon roads) and I noticed some old telephone poles, which even had the old glass insulators on them. I’ve never seen those in use; I was fascinated with their appearance and couldn’t keep my eyes off of them.

Old insulators on telephone poles. Alaska... leading the future!

We arrived at our destination for the evening, Tok, Alaska, which is apparently the dog sledding capital of Alaska because so many people in town are involved in the activity. We saw no dogs and no sleds in Tok ourselves. We stopped at a liquor store to pick up some wine and beer and as I complained to Dad about the mosquito bites on my knees from Liard, a local commented that I’d been attacked by their state bird. Hahaha.

The RV park we stayed at had many other RVs from Great Alaskan Holidays who were part of our caravan from Iowa. We couldn’t help talking to them when we ran into them. In Whitehorse, we caught up with the couple from Ohio who we’d had dinner with the first night. They had some trouble with the slide out of their RV popping all the way out and had to duct tape it in place. We had the same problem, only, thankfully, ours only came out about an inch; still more than I’m comfortable with. Thanks, Obama. (Actually, thanks Winnebago). 

At the campground I chatted with a couple from Maryland. Desmond wanted to check out the gift shop in the RV park’s office (they had some clocks) and I picked up some fur-trimmed fingerless gloves that I’m going to enjoy wearing next winter. 

Noon? Nope, dinner time.

Taken at midnight inside the RV with no lights and no flash... all natural Alaskan light from the air vent.

We finally got a taste of the long Alaskan summer days; the sun didn’t set until almost midnight (and it really never sets; it’s always light out, it just becomes more like dusk). This can really throw you off because it’s hard to judge what time it is. As much as we rely on modern technologies, it makes you realize how much we also still utilize our innate tendency to judge time by the location of the sun. In Alaska, at 11 pm in May, to an Ohioan, it feels more like 4 pm. And then you’re confused about the fact that you are tired.