2005/07 Alaska and Back Again - Denali campsite |
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Dear All,
In part 2 of the Alaska 2005 story, we had made it to Fairbanks and spent a day driving up north on the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle. The plan for the rest of our trip was to travel anticlockwise around southern Alaska, visiting Denali, the Kenai Peninsula, and the Wrangell Mountains, before making our way back to Vancouver Airport. We’d arranged with Karen and Stewart to meet in Chilliwack, in three weeks.
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Parks Highway (North Pole to Denali) |
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Friday July 22nd
Our good weather continued into a bright Friday morning, but we made a latish start after our midnight dinner at Denny’s. Our first priority was a stop at Safeway to stock up with food for our time in the wilderness.
Our second was to go and visit Santa. Edna wanted to go and see the village at North Pole, so 
we headed a few miles back down the highway to Santa’s place. The “North Pole” name was, of course, a marketing ploy, as the town is nowhere near the real North Pole. Despite this, Sandie was inspired to go into Santa’s shop and get this year’s ornaments, but I have this allergy to shopping, so I went and found a couple of Santa’s reindeer. These were Dasher and Blitzen. Dasher was big enough to push Blitzen to one side and eat his food – don’t remember that in the movies! Reindeer are domesticated caribou, and they look much the same, maybe a bit fatter.
From North Pole, we headed south on the Parks Highway towards Denali. It was slow going through the Alaska Range mountains, as the road was being rebuilt, but then we dropped down to the Tanana River and made good time on the flat until we hit a moose jam. This was 
caused by a bull moose getting too close to the highway. This resulted in a few dozen tourists, like us, leaping out of their cars and converging on the moose with cameras and videocams. The poor moose, confronted by all these humans, chomped on a few plants and then retreated to the forest. The locals, tired of tourists, blasted through this scenario at 70 mph, hoping to bag a pedestrian. All part of the Alaska scene!
Back in Fairbanks, I’d booked up in advance for a campsite in Denali as this was a weekend. The campground’s name was the Riverside, and I’d had this vision of cool shade along the river. Well, the campground was above the river, and bulldozed out of the mountain, with the railroad on one side and the highway on the other! And no trees!
The place was run by a couple of students, who had little interest in anything other than collecting the money. However, this seemed to be the attitude everywhere in the town, which has grown up around the Denali National Park. Our neighbour’s camper had a sticker which read “The tourist run is in. Remember, catch and release!”