Day Fourteen - Cantwell, AK

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Woke to an overcast day. We'd been warned about the constantly changing weather around here. On the docket today was driving into Denali National Park and catching a glimpse of The Great One. No, not Wayne Gretzky. Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley.

Our method was a self-guided Jeep tour of Denali National Park. We went with the self-guided tour because it was much cheaper than the guided tour and we wouldn't be limited to the guide's predetermined route. A guidebook of suggested routes was included in the rental. It had short descriptions of the routes and information of the area.

We met James, our rental delivery man, in the parking lot of one of the many lodging complexes near the entrance to Denali National Park. Our mode of transport for the next four hours would be a Jeep Renegade. He asked who would be driving. I raised my hand although we all had discussed prior that everyone would have the option of driving if they wanted. James was just looking for someone to put on the hook for all the damage we would cause to the car and everything around us when we went wild. As I filled out the six-page form, James explained all the details of our rental car and that most rental companies wouldn't allow the cars on dirt or gravel roads, but they weren't like those rental companies.

We piled our cameras and coolers into the back of the Jeep. I jumped in the driver's seat to start our tour of the park. The road was nicely paved as we passed one of the campgrounds inside the park, the post office, train station, bus station and visitors center. As we made our way out of the hub of the park and into the wilderness we were constantly on the lookout for wildlife and a certain mountain. There were pullouts along the way for viewing and photo opportunities. Unlike the turnouts along the highway, the only thing obscuring the view here were the low clouds. You couldn't see much of the distant view, but you could still see just how vast the park was. We would hit pockets of blue sky, but not often.

Each time we stopped I would ask if anyone else wanted to drive. They each declined, citing it was nice to be able to just be a passenger for a change. Dave and Teri switch off driving from one campground to the next. Mike prefers to drive, which allows me to take picture after picture documenting our travels. It was nice to be the one behind the wheel.

At one of our stops there was one of those signs that points out what you're looking at. Or should be looking at if the weather actually cooperated. I thought I understood what I was looking at and taking pictures of and I felt very underwhelmed by the whole thing. It was nothing like I expected. Oh well, you can't have everything. It was still fun to drive the car.

Private cars are allowed to go only to Savage River at Mile 15. Beyond that, only the tour and transit buses are allowed. There is a guard shack there where the pavements ends with a Park Ranger stopping personal vehicles and explaining your options. Option One was to park in the gravel parking lot and walk one of the trails there or just explore the area near the lot. Option Two was to turn around in said parking lot and head back down the hill. We chose Option Two as the parking lot was a little full and we wanted to see what else we could do with the remainder of our four hours of rental car.

We made our way back down stopping again at some of the vista points. The clouds were breaking up more, exposing greater patches of blue. We consulted our complimentary guidebook for ideas of what to check out next. Our time was limited and the other routes weren't designed to allow for different perspectives of Denali, but were directions to other places of interest in the area. They were too far away for us to be able to return within our time limit.

One of the other campers in the RV park suggested to Dave we drive to the end of Stampede Road, an old mining road. Off in search of Stampede Road I drove. We couldn't find it. I don't know if we passed it, or hadn't gone far enough, but decided to try a better way of using our time. I chose an interesting looking dirt side road and announced, "Let's see where this goes!" It was in the same bad condition as all the other dirt roads we've been on, but by now we weren't surprised. It was a residential road that made its way up a hill, sometimes becoming a 1 1/2 lane road instead of 2. Farther and farther up I drove, choosing to go left at a fork, around corners obscured with overgrown brush, finally arriving at a lake. It looked like we had stopped at someone's house or a construction site, or both. There was a two-story house and a vacant lot to the left with heavy equipment parked and a port-a-potty. Teri was in need of a restroom by this point and took advantage. Mike and Dave got out and walked to the lake and took a few pictures. We didn't stay long. I'm pretty sure we were trespassing on the property of someone's eventual lake-front house. Continuing to the right past the house I drove us past more houses and an actual public access area to the lake. Oops! The road we were on eventually looped back to the highway. We still had about 45 minutes on the clock. Not enough to stray too far from the condos where we picked up the car and where Dave and Teri's truck sat waiting.

This time we decided to drive through each of the three campgrounds inside the park. The campgrounds were dry; no hookups at all. The sites were really nice, though most would have been way too short for us. There were trees everywhere and room in each site to spread out a little without encroaching on the neighbors. If I was younger and still camping in a tent, I would have definitely chosen to stay inside the park. After touring each of the campgrounds at the posted 5 mph we still hadn't eaten the last of our rental time. Again, not enough time to do much of anything so we donated that time to the rental company and traded the Jeep for the Ford truck we'd arrived in.

On the way "home" we stopped off at a bakery. They had enormous cinnamon rolls. Much bigger than the delicious pastries we picked up in Coal River. The McKinley Creekside Bakery actually had two sizes of cinnamon rolls: Texas sized and Alaska sized. The latter was easily twice the size of the former. Among the other pastries in the case were large chocolate brownies and strawberry rhubarb coffee cake. We left with an Alaska cinnamon roll, a brownie and a piece of coffee cake. A few breakfasts for me and a sweet dessert for Mike.

From there we stopped at a gas station just to check the price of diesel. Both trucks would be in need and this station was handy. The station sat way back from the road. There was a large unpaved area in front I thought might be available to truckers as a rest area. The condition of the unpaved approach to the pumps was ridiculously riddled with giant craters. There is no way I would drag an RV through there. If we were going to fill up here before leaving for our next campground it would most definitely be the day before, without the trailer.

Home at last we loved on the pups, fed them and ourselves and settled in for the evening. For me that meant opening the laptop and trying to get caught up on these blog posts. Internet access is more of an obstacle than I anticipated. Yes, the RV parks have Wi-Fi, but in most cases it's not a strong signal, nor is it a constant signal. Again and again we lose the connection and have to go through the steps to get it back. Even with the built-in signal booster the Wi-Fi is spotty. Uploading pictures to the blog is extremely frustrating when this happens and lately I've been shutting everything down in frustration and just going to bed and reading. Thank you for your patience waiting for the next episode of Mike and Aileen's Alaskan Adventure.

I'll talk to you again, hopefully soon.

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