June 24, 2018

Hi, I’m Denali

We really enjoyed our cabin experience in Talkeetna.  We chatted with our host Don this morning about the good and bad of the business.  His has a four-month season, period.  He has seven cabins and is building his eighth.  He does everything himself with part-time help from his Montenegrin helper and helper’s girlfriend.  Running the numbers, if he can generate a grand a night for 100 nights less helper wages, expenses and taxes he should be able to eat for the whole year.  He said he could make more with a job.  We compliment him on his attention to detail that makes life very easy for his guests.  Plenty of hooks in the bathroom, a work area and towel next to the coffee maker, lot of room and seating choices and plenty of amenities.

We hit the road at 10:00, backtrack down to Parks Highway and head north to Denali National Park.  It is spitting rain off and on (surprise) with occasional glimpses of brightness that make us think there is a sun up there somewhere.  The further we get up the road the more spectacular the landscape.  After an hour and a half of going north we swing to the east through a broad pass between two separate ranges. The pass is many miles wide with nothing but black spruce growing in the permafrost.  Bleak but beautiful.  Lunch is another Subway just outside of the Park entrance.  We had said earlier that if the local franchisee was smart there would be a Subway at the park entrance, and sure enough, there is a line out the door.  No tuna????????

This is our get-acquainted day with Denali.  As we first enter the park there are two moose grazing on the side of the road among plenty of bus and car traffic coming and going.  Cue the Moose is our first thought.  In scoring large wild beasts, we are now at Moose, 4 and Whales 4.  The moose will probably win.  Our first order of business inside is the introductory film in the information center theater.  We sit through an artful 20 minutes of sights and sounds of wildlife in Denali and then a half hour film of dealing with Denali hiking, camping, getting lost, wading in rivers and interacting with the critters who live there.  There are great educational displays of the flora and fauna of the park and instead of animal pictures there is one of each stuffed and mounted so there is no mistaking sizes.

A number of trails start from the information center.  The desk ranger has given us a couple suggestions and we pick one that is about a 2-1/2 mile round trip.  The trails are smooth wide gravel and easy walking.  We are wearing the same attire that we would have on strolling down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis while many of the folks we encounter are dressed for a safari.  We all look strangely at each other.  This area close in to the visitor center is pretty normal National Park stuff.  Woodsy paths, rivers, wonderful natural beauty and an occasional animal sighting.  Tomorrow we do the guided bus trip into the interior of the park that is all tundra and mountains

There is a drop in elevation as we walk to the first of two rivers that we will cross.  There is a log bridge across the first and about a quarter mile farther on there is a pretty fancy looking suspension bridge across the second.  Both rivers are roaring with snow melt which makes for a full sensory experience with the mountains in the background.  On the return trip we encounter a fresh pile of moose poop on the trail that wasn’t there 20 minutes ago.  Our alert levels go up a couple notches but we don’t see or hear any movement.  There is almost sunshine as we finish our “hike” and we are right on the 2-1/2 miles as promised.  For a trip to Alaska we aren’t getting a lot of exercise.

We pick up our bus information for tomorrow afternoon.  We will be leaving at 1:40 on an 8 hour ride through the interior of the park.  There will be a lot of leg-stretching stops along the way. Our B&B for tonight is about 16 miles north near the town of Healy.  It is a couple miles off the main road and a very pretty setting. We are greeted at the door by bubbly Dawn who shows us the ropes and our little room off of a common area.  The designer touches are very well done with Keurig coffee machines, pretty finishes and lots of art on the walls.  In our tiny room there is no TV (only in the common area), zero amenities (not even a bar of soap), no hooks in the bathroom and no place to sit or work except in the common areas.  This place is all superficial and last night’s was all substance—we preferred last night.

Bubbly Dawn has recommended Black Diamond restaurant near Healy for dinner tonight.  It is just south of town and it is not only a restaurant but also a 9-hole golf course, a lodge with horse and buggy rides, and ATV rentals.  There may be more but that is all we saw at first glance.  The greens on the golf course have some low spots where the mower bridges so the grass there is a couple inches long.  Now those are some tough putts.  Dinner is mediocre—John with a fish sandwich, fries and a salad and Mary with a smoked salmon appetizer and salad.  Service is equally mediocre with a couple local ladies and one eastern European.  (The Subway had a couple eastern European brothers working the sandwich line today.)

It is a little before 9:00 when we get back to the B&B and there is a moose just beyond the parking area munching on some feed that was left there for her.  She glances at us and then gets back to the chow.  This must be a regular occurrence for her.  The views here are indeed spectacular, and Mrs. Moose just adds to the scene.  Mary goes up to the breakfast room to get a couple coffee pods for morning and the Californians and South Koreans who are chatting there are discussing the Caribou at the trough.  Mary eventually convinces them that is it a female moose, and they now believe that in spite if her non-safari dress she is the wildlife expert on site.  Off to bed with moose now leading whales.

Todays observation: Today was the day we saw the Alaska you read about and see in the brochures.