Denali to Anchorage

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On the Parks Highway we drove south toward Anchorage. There were spots to see Denali along the highway, but with low hanging clouds there was no chance of seeing any mountain tops today. One very interesting spot along the way, was the Hurricane Gulch Bridge. The bridge is 550 feet long and stands 260 feet above the creek below. It was a long way down as we stood on the span and gazed at the small creek meandering it’s way through the gulch.

We passed a tragic scene along this highway. A motorcycle lie off to the side of the road and a blanket covered the driver. How sad that some family will soon get that dreaded phone call. God bless them.

We took a side trip to Talkeetna, an old-time small Alaska town that has become a tourist attraction. Talkeetna is the place where all climbers need to register for and begin their climb to Mt. McKinley. We stopped in the ranger station and saw climbers just starting out on their trek and one who was checking in after returning from summiting. We also visited the Historical Society Museum and saw some very interesting exhibits, including one about Don Sheldon the famous Alaskan bush pilot that we had seen on the History Channel.

Wasilla is a large town of about 6,000 people on the way to Anchorage. We stopped at a Fred Meyers which we found has a lot better shopping experience than Wal-Mart. Their stores are extremely large and carry everything from food to clothing and hardware to furniture. They are clean and they have people there who offer to help you. We wish they would come to the east coast.

Finding a camping spot was not an easy task today. The first one the GPS found didn’t exist anymore. The second was located right next to a prison. So we decided to try for a site in Anchorage. The first was a dump that wanted $40 for a tent site, the second one was a public campground with homeless people who had set up their tent cities, and the third was located in an industrial area next to trains and a small plane airfield. The third was the best of the worst and we paid our $29 and settled in for the night.

David and June who we last saw in Watson Lake came in shortly after our arrival. We caught up on their adventures since we last saw them. It was nice to see them again. Their trip is paralleling ours somewhat, so I am sure we will see them again. Two sites down from us were a very large family having a reunion. We listened to them and their children until almost 10 pm. Other than that , the campground was a lot better than we expected. No trains went through blowing their whistles in the middle of the night.

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Photos

Hurricane Gulch Bridge
This is the Hurricane Creek 260 feet below the bridge I am standing on. What a drop

Same big moose as last night
She just loves the campground roads

Mt Denali
If we could have seen the whole mountain yesterday, this is what we would have seen