We finally had the chance to make the journey to Denali National Park today. It was a 200 mile drive one way from Wasilla. The weather seemed pretty good here at the RV Park so we decided to take a risk and head on to the park.
We are so ready to head back to the lower 48 because the only consistent things in Alaska are rain, low cloud cover, and expensive gas. Now, we are not trying to complain as we know this has been an amazing journey thus far that so many folks would like to do. However, we can honestly say that we have not had a day without cloud cover.
About 75 miles into the trip up the Parks Highway it started to rain (go figure). The rain is never as big a problem as the low cloud cover. There are so many things to see but, unfortunately, these sights are covered by the clouds.
We arrived to Denali and drove the Ridgeline into the Park. You can only drive 15 miles in with your own vehicle; the rest must be with a tour group. We decided not to take a bus tour as it was such a crummy day and headed back out toward home. The park did have some sun and overcast skies but you could not see Mount McKinley because of the cloud cover. The Parks Highway had the supposed best views of the mountain but, again, it was covered so no dice for us.
We guess the view of Mount McKinley would be amazing to say the least. However, we found out that it is completely visible only 30% of the time. No big deal as we both got to spend time together. Besides, we wanted to say we had been there…it would have been wrong to come to Alaska and not visit the park.
The park is definitely worth seeing but certainly not the defining moment of our travels through the years. The scenery is interesting, but not breath-taking. We felt that British Columbia was much nicer as are the Canadian Rockies or Glacier National Park as well.
We thought we might see some wildlife but they, too, decided to cover up and not be seen. Plus, we filled the tank up twice. The grand total cost for the day: roughly $150. Hopefully tomorrow will be better as we finish our time in Alaska by visiting the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
We did not have any pictures today but have a video tour on the Facebook fan page of what our Trailmanor looks like on the inside. We should have footage of breaking it down for you to see in the coming days.
Hope to have photos tomorrow evening. See you tomorrow and, until then, enjoy the video!
by tim
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