Sunday, August 14, 2016
Photos
Clay slept a solid uninterrupted 9 hours last night. I went
to bed a couple hours after him because if I don’t type up the notes for these
blog entries then the day’s events are lost in the mist of time! I was also up
a couple of times. I didn’t sleep well on the beds and they were made
ridiculously. They had a bottom sheet with a really gross quilted thing
sandwiched under a top sheet. This sheet/quilt/sheet sandwich was open on the
top so the gross-textured quilted bit touched you and then most uncomfortable,
it was short sheeted so it only came up to about your waist when you got under
the covers! It was too hot for it anyway, but I never did get comfortable.
Anyway, we slept in to 7am! Clay wanted to drive back to Healy and eat
breakfast at Rose’s Café. I shot that down and I guess I ruined his whole day.
I thought he was just throwing out random and ridiculous suggestions as he is
wont to do, but he sulked for hours. Sorry! He could have just told me that was
what he had his heart set on. I wanted to get on the Internet. I wanted to make
a cup of coffee and go over to the Lodge and try to check email and get some
blog entries posted. I thought we could just pick up something from the coffee
stand to have a light breakfast while we used the Internet to research how and
if we really wanted to go back to Denali Park for the dog sled demonstration.
We had both been able to get connected to the wifi network but it had no
Internet availability. They told us we would be able to get Internet in the
Lodge. Not true. It was active only intermittently. So, I think I got one post
up. I never got email and it took nearly an hour to find out about where to
park and what bus to ride for the Denali dog kennels. That was 2 web pages! You
expect Internet difficulty at sea but in a luxury, hundreds of dollars a day
resort, not so much. Anyway, I decided I definitely wanted to go see the Denali
kennels and now we knew how, when and where to do it, so we hustled out and
finished packing up and getting the car and hauling our bags back down the
stairs and packing the car and checking out. Checking out was the first
painless things about Denali Park Village. I just handed her the keycard and
asked to check out of 518 and she took the card from me and told me, you’re
checked out-have a nice day. OK.
We parked at the visitor’s center and couldn’t find the
shuttle bus stop. We went inside and asked. The ranger told us we had 10
minutes before the buses started running and to walk outside and follow the dog
paw prints painted on the sidewalk. It was a pretty convoluted walk but a
minute long. There were probably already 30 people in line. We got at the back
as the bus pulled up. We got on with only a dozen or so people after us and
nearly filled the bus. NPS website said you could walk a trail between the DVC
and kennels and it was 1.5 miles and mostly uphill. It seemed like we drove a
lot longer than 1.5 miles. It was a good elevation change uphill! We could see
the trail first paved and then gravel alongside the road most of the way. We
were happy to be on the bus. Today stayed grey and rainy with intermittent
bouts of wind, blue sky and heavy rain and sunshine. It was literally 3 seasons
in a day cycling over and over. Thank God for our perfectly beautiful weather
all day yesterday! We did stay dry for our kennel visit so that was good, but
it was chilly. We got to visit the dogs and see the 3-week old puppies before
the 30-minute demonstration. These dogs were twice the size and weight of the
Iditarod dogs! It was informative and entertaining. We were ready to go when it
was over and the first bus headed back within 15 minutes of the conclusion. We
drove back out to Alaska Hwy. 3 and I entered the address for our motel tonight
at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.
The park is at MP 237.4. We made stops at about 162 for the
Denali View North viewpoint and it was a big disappointment compared to the
South View we had stopped on the way North. It didn’t help that Denali was not
visible at all nor that they didn’t have the clear panoramic photos labeled to
show you what you should be looking for and how it looks on a clear day. Next stop was the Alaska Veterans
Memorial/POW-MIA rest area. It was nice I guess and it was packed with people
looking for Denali which was completely hidden. We arrived at Mt. McKinley
Princess Wilderness Lodge about 2:30pm. It is a huge 25+ building complex. This
was an enormous case of false advertising. I picked this place for our final
night at Denali because I had read that with the mountain so seldom visible
that sometimes it can be seen from the South and not the North or vice versa
and staying in more than one location might improve your odds. Fair enough. I
checked this Princess Wilderness Lodge website and was sold by what were
clearly either decades-old photos or photo shopped because they said you could
spend hours sitting and relaxing and regarding the view of Denali on a clear
day or the Alaska Range otherwise. The trees are grown up so high, they’d have
to build a tower to have a view! When we finally found the Lodge where we could
check in, we couldn’t get anywhere near it. There must have been 30 cars, 15
buses and 1000 people standing outside. We decided to leave and drive on south
to find somewhere to eat lunch and kill a few hours and try again later. (I have
to say I was wrong. Once we got inside after 9pm we found the back glass wall
as I recalled the advertising and the view was accessible without having to dine,
etc. I still think the trees are taller and if you can get close to or inside
the building because of the mobs it is not a place to relax. So, I still think
not really truth in advertising.)
We drove south to Trapper Creek pop. 426. We spotted a
Trading Post whose sign said they had groceries and we made a mental note to
stop by there and pick up breakfast supplies for tomorrow. From the looks of things,
we weren’t expecting to eat at Wilderness Lodge. We didn’t see anywhere to eat.
We drove another 20 miles or so (saw a beaver lodge along the road) to the
Talkeetna Spur Road and took it. It is 14 miles back North to Talkeetna. On the
way, we passed the Kahiltna Birchwoorks. Clay said he had seen birch syrup for
sale somewhere and we could see the tapped birch trees around it. We made
another mental note to stop back there. Next we passed the Denali Brewing Co.
Another mental note. We were really wanting a meal that would be both lunch and
dinner by now. Clay was especially peeved at the cinnamon roll I ate this
morning and his miserable breakfast sandwich instead of the heaerty breakfast
with fast Internet we could have had at Rose’s. OK. Talkeetna, finally. What a
little tourist hell. It was like the State Fair in a gray rain. I think it is
another Princess creation and they bus all those people there who then mill
about aimlessly. We found a parking spot on our 3rd pass through and
I had picked a food trailer that looked like last night’s Thai. This one was
Big Mountain BBQ. Every dining place we had passed was packed and people were
eating outside under umbrellas and canopies and I didn’t want any part of that.
This place looked brand new and it was right at the corner of the main drag and
easy to miss. I convinced Clay it was as good or better than the other places,
just not popular yet! I think I was right. It was good. We sat under a canopy
out of the wind by the window where we ordered. They are in their first season
and trying to get known. Just as I had predicted! I had pulled pork nachos for
$8 and I really liked them. There were so many that Clay had to help me finish.
Clay had a pulled pork and ham sandwich for $11 and he said it was very good.
Recommend if you need a bite in Talkeetna. We enjoyed our big late lunch/small
early dinner and got out of Talkeetna! We stopped at Denali Brewing where Clay
had a 3 shot flight for $6 and he didn’t like or finish any of them. He did not
get any to go! Next stop was the Kahiltna Birchworks. This was fascinating.
Birch syrup has a 23-day maximum annual season. It is very expensive. We took a
free tour/demonstration with lots of tastes and had a Birch ice cream to share
and bought a little bottle of first run syrup. Highly recommend if you find
yourself in the area. They have a website where they said you can learn what we
did there. Sorry no Internet still, so I cannot link but it is www.alaskabirchsyrup.com. We stopped at the Trading Post in Trapper
Creek and bought our breakfast supplies and got back to Princess Wilderness
Lodge by a little after 5pm. There were no people, one bus and fewer than a
dozen cars! We parked across the drive and walked in and got in line. We had
prepaid for this stay back in February too. It was $136.44 for tonight. We drew
a ground floor room in building 20. There is no Internet except in the
restaurants. Huh? She said we should be able to get Internet in the Lodge lobby
since there are restaurants there. It is probably a 20-minute walk to it from
here or a shuttle bus wait/ride that long. I think we plan to go over before
bed and maybe a snack. We’ll see. Clay has been napping. There is a ceiling
fan. There is a coffee maker. There is an ice machine in the building 20. There
is no view and no AC. People have been walking right outside our window so I
don’t know how we’ll sleep here. Last 2 nights on the 2nd floor we
kept the window open with no worries. Neither lodge had a room safe. This room
is much larger and nicer than last night’s but we haven’t tried the bed yet. I
don’t think I can honestly recommend either!
There is Internet in the Lodge lobby on a secure network, but
they give you a free password and it is better quality signal than the last motels.
We did have bar appetizers and didn't like them. We checked the menus and the prices were about half the prices for comparable dishes at Denali Park Village, so there's that.
Good night for now. Tomorrow we spend the night in Anchorage
and the next night we’ll be sailing!
Photos
Photos
