Alaska #4: Denali, Mount McKinley, ice on the tent
News, Photography ·Saturday August 23, 2008 @ 22:44 EDT (link)
20080823: (Fairbanks, AK, to Denali National Park: 130 miles.) Up 0830; had coffee in the room; checked out 1029. Got an oil change at Jiffy Lube, since we'd put a lot of miles on the car going up here and didn't want any trouble going to Denali or on the way back. Headed out for Denali National Park at 1102.
Arrived at the Park at 1430, registered and got a campsite (Savage River site 21, the furthest-in "car camping" campground). We reheated our Thai food for lunch; the supports on the new Snow Peak stove we'd picked up in Fairbanks warped while we were cooking (still managed to heat up both our pots, but titanium's really not supposed to do that). We had our tent up and sleeping bags set up by 1620, and went driving: we drove out to Savage River, and walked most of the Savage River Loop trail; Honey hurt her ankle half way. The scenery was beautiful:
Later we drove out to the park entrance, and made various stops for pictures. We weren't the only ones: there was a lot of slow and stopped traffic on the park highway. Most people used the regular cutouts to stop and take pictures, but one twit decided he was so important that he'd just park in the middle of the road.
When we got to the store at the park entrance, they had no firewood (so we bought chocolate instead). We saw a West Virginia licensed purple van, but never made contact. Arrived back at our campground at 1928, and drove back to the store at 2028 to see if they'd gotten any firewood in, but they still hadn't. Saw a lot of moose driving back; back at the site 2221, went to sleep, coldest night of the whole trip, ice on the tent in the morning.
20080823: (Fairbanks, AK, to Denali National Park: 130 miles.) Up 0830; had coffee in the room; checked out 1029. Got an oil change at Jiffy Lube, since we'd put a lot of miles on the car going up here and didn't want any trouble going to Denali or on the way back. Headed out for Denali National Park at 1102.
