Our 6-month adventure continues as we leave northern Alaska and begin to meander south.
Having just gotten back from our 3-day trip to the Arctic Ocean, we will be in Fairbanks for 2 more days. This is unusual for us in terms of how we normally plan trips. We hit several “re-plan portions of the trip” that aren’t worth explaining – and that meant a 2 day hole to fill late in the plan. We’re headed to Denali National Park area next, but we couldn’t extend our time there because everything is booked (the rule of thumb is to book lodging in Denali a year in advance). So Fairbanks it is – and with the wildfire smoke almost gone, we get a chance to “see” some things we hadn’t before.
What’s covered in this post
Catching up on the end of our previous Fairbanks post
Let us take a moment to talk about the things we did in Fairbanks that didn’t make it into our last blog about Fairbanks. Writing a blog takes more time than you think and we wanted to post about Fairbanks before we lost internet for 3 days travelling up to the Arctic Ocean. So here are the things we did in the last 3 days in Fairbanks that didn’t make it into the Fairbanks post. We discovered karaoke at the North Pole Alehouse and spent 4 hours with Nancy singing her heart out. This included Nancy leading the whole bar singing along with “Country Roads”.
Chena Lake
The weather was gorgeous and most of the smoke had cleared – we needed to do something outside. We went kayaking again at Chena Lake – where we got to paddle by a moose wading in the water.
Ice Museum
We visited the kitschy Ice Museum that included several ice sculptures from previous Ice Festivals and a cool indoor ice slide.
Day 1: The Alaska Railroad – Fairbanks to Denali & back (day 66 of the overall trip)
Denali Star Train – Fairbanks to Denali
Today, we’ll take the Denali Star Train from Fairbanks to Denali, spend 4 hours there and then take the train back – in one day. The train departs at 8:10am so it is another early morning where we need to be up and at the Railroad Station by 7:10am. We’ve booked the “Gold Star” level of travel that includes panoramic domed windows, reclining seats and sit down food service. There’s also an open but covered outdoor deck area to improve picture taking opportunities. We might be the only people on the train doing the over and back in one day – almost everyone has luggage and will be staying in Denali or going on to Talkeetna or Anchorage. After picking up our tickets and roaming through the small museum and gift shop, we board the train in our assigned seats. The train ride will take 4 hours and after 1 hour, we get called to the dining room for breakfast. There are three items on the menu and we both choose Biscuits and Gravy. We eat with Ann & Steve.
The weather is drizzly and cloudy so there’s no point taking advantage of the outdoor deck area. Most of the first 3 hours of the trip is through spruce forests where you see nothing but trees. But finally, in the last hour the view opens up and we get to see Glitter Gulch, the town of Healy and finally arrive in Denali.
Denali Visitors Center
We only have 3.5 hours since we need to be back at the train station a half hour before it departs at 4:00pm. Our first order of business is to understand the layout of the area by checking out the Visitors Center.
Horseshoe Lake Loop Trail
We learn of a hike called the Horseshoe Lake Loop. This is a great hike we highly recommend. The hike to the Lake is 2 miles, but when you also hike around the lake, it is 4 miles in length. After a brief hike uphill, the trail descends 250′ to the Nenana River. Here we are truly blessed to see a mother moose and her twins. We stay here for about 15 minutes and savor this closeness of this magnificent creature. We are here with about 20 other tourists and we all know to keep a healthy distance and to be as quiet as possible. Next we hike around the lake along a narrow path that hugs the shoreline. Then we have to hike back uphill that 250′ and back to the railroad station – arriving with 5 minutes to spare (3:25pm). As it turns out, the train is late arriving in Denali (3:50pm), but it still departs at 4:00pm on time.
Denali Star Train – Denali to Fairbanks
Having just taken the train in the opposite direction, we know the only views will be during the first hour. We are called to the dining room just as the views disappear. We sit with Nancy & Renee and enjoy a meal of pot roast. Once back in our seats, we settle back and enjoy the rest of the ride back to Fairbanks.
Day 2: A day of catching up and a scenic drive (day 67 of the overall trip)
Repeating Part of the Drive on the Elliot Highway
We have one last day in Fairbanks and after almost a month, we’ve seen and done all we know to explore. The weather today is stellar – crystal clear skies and temperatures in the upper 60’s. We decide to repeat part of the drive to Manley on the Elliot Highway – because when we last traveled that road, the wildfire smoke obscured the views. We won’t go all the way to Manley, we just plan to go as far as the Overlook. This is the third time we will drive the first 2 hours of the paved portion of the Elliot Highway. Once we take the unpaved road turnoff west to Manley (rather than going north onto the Dalton Highway), this is where the scenic views begin. We finally get to see what we’ve read about and are so happy we chose to repeat this drive.
Noth Pole Alehouse Karaoke
After the six hour drive, it is time for dinner and we try a new place called Fenders. The name is associated both with the fenders on cars as well as the guitar brand. After a mediocre meal, it is time to head to the North Pole Alehouse for another night of karaoke. The DJ, Rocky, remembers “Nancy From Virginia” and we recognize a few people from last week. This time Nancy gets the place rocking with “I Love Rock and Roll” as well as with a duet with local Erick singing “Love Shack”. Four hours fly by and it is a fitting way to end our time in Fairbanks.
Day 3: Transition to Denali/Healy (day 68 of the overall trip)
The weather is entering a rainy cycle and we basically expect rain for the next 2 weeks. We only have a 2 hour drive from Fairbanks to the Denali area, so we don’t rush leaving the hotel. We have some repacking to do since we had to shuffle a lot around to free up 2 backpacks for the trip to the Arctic Ocean.
Skinny Dicks
Once on the road, our first stop is at a dive bar called Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn. We walk in the door and the place screams “dive bar”. The place is filled with suggestive souvenirs, about 8 bar stools and 2 recliners. There are dollars bills from floor to ceiling and on the ceiling. The lighting is dark and the owner Terri serves us up 2 superb Bloody Mary’s. Other tourists come and go as we spend about an hour here. We talk with one couple that tell us they got stuck in Dawson City for 10 days waiting for parts to be flown in to repair their RV.
Nenana
Next we drive through the small town of Nenana – nothing to see/do here!
The Rest of the Drive to Healy
The drive is very similar to the train ride, but the day is clearer. We are staying in Healy, a small town about 11 miles north of the small town of Denali and about 20 miles north of Denali National Park. The lodging choices in this entire area are rather dated – and expensive. Since most tourists don’t have vehicles, they stay in Denali and travel back and forth to the park by hotel shuttle. The cruise lines each have their own hotel dedicated to their passengers only – those accommodations are newer and more upscale. We are saving almost 50% by staying in Healy – in the Aurora Denali Lodge. Our room is nicer than expected although it is just a basic motel.
49th State Brewery
We head into Healy and stop for dinner at the 49th State Brewery. Google Maps shows about 4 places to eat in Healy, but all the rest turn out to be mere food trucks. The brewery has a ton of ambiance with a lot of wooden decor. They have a robust selection of beer and Harrison grabs a blonde lager and Nancy chooses a chocolate/coffee stout. The food was outstanding.
We head back to the lodge for an early evening since we were up late last night at karaoke and need to be up early tomorrow for our Denali Transit Bus.
Day 4: Denali National Park (day 69 of the overall trip)
There are two basic options for exploring the interior of Denali National Park. One is to take a tour bus – 3 different tours are offered. With these tours, you must stay on the bus from start to finish. Another option is to take a “transit bus” that doesn’t promise any commentary by the driver, but allows you to get on/off at any of the stops for an entire day. There are many hiking options along the way. Regardless of the option, tickets sell out quickly, months in advance. We’ve chosen the “transit bus” option which still requires you to choose a starting departure time – and since we’ve heard the parking lot can fill up quickly, we take a very early 7:00am bus that requires us to be at the park by 6:30am.
There is only one road in the park and it is 92 miles long and takes approximately 5 hours one way to drive. Unfortunately for many, a landslide occurred in April 2022 that wiped out 100 yards of the road. The landslide occurred between miles 45 and 46 of the road. The road is currently only open until the East Fork Bridge rest stop at mile 43. They don’t expect repairs to be completed until sometime in the summer of 2023. This is disappointing as we’ve read the truly spectacular part of the park is between mile 43 and the end at mile 92. We can take a very expensive helicopter ride, but we decide we’ll save that part of the park for a future road trip.
The Transit Bus Drive to/from East Fork Bridge in Denali National Park – and aa hike to the landslide
It is yet another overcast day. We hop on the green transit bus and our driver, Barr, just loves Denali so much, we end up getting a lot of “free” commentary. She’s very courteous to stop the bus whenever she spots wildlife. We are fortunate to see Caribou and Dall Sheep. She says in prior years, she would often see one bear per day but for some reason, she’s only seeing about one a month this summer. After just over a 2 hour drive, we arrive at East Fork Bridge and get out of the bus.
We learn we are allowed to hike to the landslide – about 2.25 miles – and to our delight, the sun is emerging, so we begin the journey. The entire 2.25 miles is a slight incline and this portion of Denali is known for its sweeping views of mountains. We chat with fellow hikers along the road and walk with 4 women from the UK for a while. We finally get to the landslide after an hour of walking and it is mind blowing to see if in person (as opposed to the photographs we’ve seen). They’ve been working on options to fix it and it seems the only viable option will be to build a bridge where the road once stood. And building a bridge hosts its own challenges. The sun is strong so not only do we have our coats off, but the top layer shirt. We stay at the top for a while hoping to catch a glimpse of the 20,310′ Mt Denali – North America’s tallest mountain – but are unsuccessful. Clouds are so prevalent in this area that only 30% of people that visit Denali National Park ever get to see the mountain. We will have many more days and opportunities to try to see the mountain. We hike back downhill to the awaiting green transit bus and by the time we get to the bus, the sun is back behind numerous clouds, temperatures have dropped and we’re back in full coats.
We have a new driver for the transit bus trip back. Denise also provides “free” commentary which augments information Barr gave us on the trip out. We hear one of the passengers behind us comment that they had taken the Nature Tour yesterday and they actually saw more wildlife and learned more information today on the transit bus. Seems we made a good choice. The wind has picked up and clouds are really rolling in – we can barely see anything. We decide to take the bus all the way back to the Visitor Center and not do any on/off today. There’s really only one other hike we wanted to do, but we can save that for another day if we want.
The Town of Denali
We hop in the Brown Beast and decide to explore the town of Denali. We’re lucky to find a parking space quickly and we start to hunt through the multiple gift shops. There’s essentially one main road through town. On one side are most of the cruise ship hotels and on the other side are about 3 blocks of gift shops and small ice cream and snack shops. We spot a “pizza and pub” across the street, so we walk back to the truck and decide to drive over since that main road has a lot of traffic.
Lynx Pizza
The Lynx Creek Pizza & Pub is perfect (and we learn it is operated by Princess Cruise Lines)! We belly up to the bar and meet Oliver, our bartender, as well as Alexandra and Landon, more transient summer workers that found their summer jobs at coolworks.com. They are hoping to go ATVing today but workers are on stand-by lists. All ATVs are currently rented, so they can only go if some tourists cancel. Oliver’s shift ends and he joins us at the bar while our new bartender, Tiny, takes over. A couple at a nearby table brings us the last slice of pizza they were unable to eat (better than throwing it away) and it hits the spot. We order an Italian Sub to share and it hits the spot too. A group of other travelers comes to the bar to order drinks and they remark that there’s no bars in this town. We tell them about the 49th State Brewery in Healy and they take note. We do know there are other restaurants and lodging options scattered south of the town of Denali – but they are truly scattered, each about a mile away from each other.
Day 5: A Day Off to Rest & Catch Up (day 70 of the overall trip)
The weather is just not enticing us to be outside today. Not only that, but we realize we have really been on the go hard and just want a break for a day. We take today to compose the Arctic Ocean Tour blog entry and binge watch some TV and movies in the room. We don’t leave the room except to get supplies from the truck to make lunch and dinner in our room. The electric skillet comes in very handy to cook some sweet and spicy chicken over rice for dinner. Honestly, it was a great day!
Day 6: To Talkeetna & Back (day 71 of the overall trip)
The weather forecast isn’t much better today so we decide to go for a 3 hour scenic drive to Talkneeta, south of Denali Park on the Parks Highway. In another month we will be travelling north by train to Talkeetna so this drive helps to connect up this whole area. About 25 miles down the road we encounter road repair work going on that only allows for 1 lane traffic, and we must wait 15 minutes for the pilot vehicle. The ride is beautiful, even though it drizzles rain from time to time and clouds cover a lot of the mountains. It takes an hour to reach the town of Cantwell where the Parks Highway intersects with the Denali Highway that heads east into very rural interior. We will be taking that road tomorrow, but for today, we continue south on the Parks Highway. We’re now driving through Denali State Park.
An hour later we pass through an area called Trapper’s Creek that is a few stores for gas, groceries and souvenirs.
Next we pass the road to Petersville that we will drive down when we come back this way from the south. The Petersville Scenic Drive Road is nicknamed “the other road into Denali” and we’ll talk more about it when we actually drive it.
Talkeetna
After 3 hours of driving, it has stopped raining and we finally come to the turnoff for Talkeetna and 25 miles later we land in the tiny tourist town of Talkeetna with a population around 1000 people. We manage to grab a parking space just as someone leaves. The main “drag” of Talkeenta is about 1/4 mile long and is building after building on both sides of the road. About 1/3 are places that offer tour options such as ATVs, flight-seeing, zip-lines, fishing and rafting. Another 1/3 are gift shops, many of which offer art of many forms made by local artists. The other 1/3 offer food. It is Monday and as we see in a lot of other areas, that means not all food places are open. We wander in a few gift shops but we really want lunch. We have a hankering for a burger and a beer, but we’re not having much luck. Thai food is offered in 3 places – we still find it so interesting how common Thai restaurants are in Alaska. There are 2 ice cream shops.
We finally duck into the Denali Brewpub even though we aren’t in the mood for craft beer. We manage to find 2 seats at the bar and Harrison orders a lager and Nancy orders a cranberry-lime seltzer infused with CBD. Our food comes quickly and it is delicious. We chat things up with the bartender and (surprise) a local seasonal worker who splits her time between Talkeetna in the summer and Steamboat Springs, CO in the winter.
We wander around the town going in every gift shop and make our standard shot glass purchase. We’ve been in town for 3 hours and decide to head back to the hotel on that 3+ hour drive. We still haven’t seen Denali Mountain. We hope skies will be clearer when we’re back in this area in a few weeks.
Summary
Denali National Park is something you need to experience if you ever make it to Alaska. It isn’t the most spectacular park we’ve ever been to and was actually slightly under-whelming. BUT, with the landslide and the road closed halfway through the park, it will be a place for us to return someday when the road is back open and we can see that remote part. We’d probably choose to stay in Healy again over Denali. Talkeetna is also highly recommended for a day trip – or maybe just one night (but don’t go on a Monday when some restaurants are closed)
Up Next
We will head further into the remote interior on the rugged Denali, Richardson & McCarthy Highways to explore Wrangell-St Elias National Park and the south central coastal town of Valdez. Let’s just say the Alaska definition of “highway” is very different than a highway in the lower 48 states.
Prior Legs of the Journey
Part 1 – The Trip to Key West is located here.
Part 2 – Cross Country to Bellingham Washington is located here.
Part 3 – The Alaska Ferry Inner Passage to Juneau is located here.
Part 4- The Alaska Ferry Inner Passage to Haines & Skagway is located here.
Part 5 – Haines to Fairbanks Alaska is located here.
Part 6 – Three weeks in Fairbanks is located here
Part 7 – Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean is located here.
Your story is great as are the pictures. Did you climb into Bus 43 at the 49th State Brewery? It’s the one the used in the film “Into the Wild”. If you haven’t read the book, find a copy – mind blowing.
We were fortunate when we were traveling around Denali. The clouds parted & the mountain was in its full magnificence for 3 full days. Quite a sight.
We saw the movie awhile back. When we were at the brewery, we didn’t realize the context of the bus and didn’t really pay it much attention.
Your pictures are amazing – such great scenery! I really loved the ice sculpture museum – thanks for those pix. Looking forward to reading about the next leg of your journey.
I’m gonna need a copy of that Horseshoe Lake photo with the clouds at the bottom. I would love to blow that up and frame it for the house!
Looks like you guys are having a blast! See you when you get back.
Jim
Sure.. I’ll send you a link to the high resolution original…. all the photos on the blog are scaled way back and really not suitable for large prints