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| Driving to Denali National Park |
I want to take just a moment to point out a few things about Alaska:
1.The roads are regular 2 lane highways, paved (for the most part...unless you hit road construction).
2. The main cities look like cities anywhere. They do have a little more of a "wilderness look" to the buildings and the scenery is amazing!
3. There are not mounds of snow everywhere. Other than on the mountains, we did not run into snow anywhere. It's summertime and Alaska temperatures can get into the 70's. The weather does change rapidly and it does rain in the summer so make sure that you wear layers and have some water repellent clothing with you. One of the things that really struck us was how green and lush everything was.
Making the Drive to Denali National Park
The actual drive to Denali National Park was very interesting. The roadway was a two lane paved roadway with normal speed limits. Traffic was not heavy. We planned on just making the drive for the second day and it was a good thing. This state is huge! It takes quite awhile to get from one place to the next. There are several places to pull over and take in the surroundings but there are not a whole lot of places to eat! So pack up your snacks and plan the better part of a day to get to your destination!
Since my Aunt and Uncle had lived in Palmer, Alaska years ago, we took a small detour and headed through the town that they called home. It was about a half hour detour but gave us some insight into the towns of Alaska.
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| Scenery on the way to Palmer |
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| The town of Palmer, Alaska |
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| You don't see these in Ohio! |
After a brief tour of the city, we drove back to the Alaska Route 3 and continued our trek North. Next town was Wasilla and that was about the last of the real towns for awhile so if you need to stop and get gas or pick up some food/snacks...this would be a good place to do so.
Talkeetna
After having read the travel guides, we decided to make a stop in Talkeetna, Alaska. It was a few miles off the main roadway but the promises of a small, quaint, town with some gift shops and places to eat along with a promise of a great view of Mount McKinley or Denali as the native refer to the great mountain. Talkeetna turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for us to be honest.
It certainly was a small, quaint town:
With Gift Shops:
And places to eat:
However, by the time that we arrived, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was now drizzling and there was absolutely no view of the mountain at all. We also didn't find the small city to be all that friendly. We went into a few of the gift shops and they were small and very nice but the owners/employees really didn't go out of their way to make you feel welcome or provide much information about their city. In fact in some ways you felt that you were intruding on their city. Maybe it was just us or the dreariness of the day but it was the feeling that we got. It did look like they did have a lot of helicopter and small plane tours that were available from this area to see the mountain...again with the weather that day, I didn't see anyone in line for the tours.
We looked around a little bit and headed north. This was about a 30-45 minute stop for us. I'm sure others could spend longer so make sure you plan the time if this is somewhere you would like to make a stop along the way.
McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge
A little further on down the road, we were still in search of a glimpse of the great mountain and by this time some food...since we were a bit too early for lunch in Talkeetna. Again, food was at a premium as
there was little gas or food to be found during this part of the drive. We saw a sign for a road called McKinley View Drive and figured what the heck....maybe we could see the mountain and stop at the Lodge for some food. Since the cruise lines are such a big part of Alaska tourism, Princess Cruise Line has built several Lodges to house their guests. We had made reservations at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge for the next two evenings so we decided to check out the sister Lodge here and see how it was. First thing you notice is that most visitors arrive by busload and are part of a land and sea cruise option. So people arrive in large groups and if you haven't made a reservation, you may be out of luck in some of the dining areas. This was the case for us at the first restaurant that we tried. We were able to find a table at the bar/grille restaurant. Our food was good...a bit pricey...but considering that there was nothing else around...we had no problem with the prices. There were restrooms available and viewing areas where you could see the mountain.....well on a clear day you could see the mountain. Since our day was still cloudy and drizzly...no luck with the viewing but we did get some nice views of the Alaskan Mountain Range.
The views were beautiful and I'm sure would have been even more majestic had Denali been out that day! We stopped at several pullouts around the area of the Lodge to try to see if we could see anything but without much luck. It got to be kind of funny because we kept looking to the area where the signs and had the Mountain labeled among the other peaks of the range and we weren't sure whether we could see the mountain or not! We had just decided that the peak in the distance was "it" when a local person began telling some visitors where the mountain would be if it was visible!! Well...guess not! The pictures are really hard to decipher as mountain peaks tend to look a whole lot alike!
We finally stopped at one pullout and there was painted picture of what you should be able to see of the mountain from there....the north and south peaks. After about 15 minutes staring at the mountain...we saw what we thought looked like the picture they had posted. However...it could have been an illusion by that point! Here is what we believe with no particular certainty...may be the peaks of Denali:
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| The peaks of Denali??? |
Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge
About 4:00 PM or about 10 hours after we left the Homewood Suites in Anchorage, we pulled into our home away from home for the next few nights...The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. As stated above, this is one of the properties owned by Princess Cruise Lines and is one of the stops on their Land and Sea option. The property is huge and is located in an area referred to as "Glitter Gulch". It's a small strip with a plaza with small gift shops and a gas station. Nothing fancy but more than is in other areas. There are several Lodges in this area and many of the cruise lines use them for their passengers. Again, when we arrived, we were greeted by busloads of passengers that were arriving for the evening. Check in was quick and easy however. They had customer service employees that were set up to help with the tour planning and we were easily able to check on our tour times and meet locations for the following day.
We were in the Grizzly section of the Lodge and it was a bit of a walk from the lobby but not that bad. They do offer a shuttle for guests to get to their rooms and they do a really good job of moving the cruise passengers' luggage to and from the busses and getting them where they need to be.
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| Our Building at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge |
The buildings are rustic looking and the rooms are pretty basic. You know when the only amenity is a "hair dryer in room" it's not a plush resort! Our price was about $320.00 per night so it's not cheap to stay here but if you are looking for something that is nice, clean and close to the park, it's a great place to stay. The grounds were beautiful and the lobby was very nice. Rooms had two double beds, a bathroom and sink area, and a small table and old style TV with 14 channels...one of which is the Alaska Channel. Again, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable.
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| Our room at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge |
The main areas were very nice and well themed for the area.
They had several restaurants. One of the restaurants is a dinner theater. We had read several reviews advising against seeing the show and so we avoided that. They had a pizza place/bar and grill and a more upscale restaurant called the King Salmon. We ate there both nights and I had the most amazing dinners I have ever eaten. The first night I had the King Salmon and it was absolutely amazing and the second night I opted for the Alaskan King Crab Legs. They were the biggest crab legs I had ever seen!
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| Alaskan King Crab Legs at The King Salmon Restaurant |
Our servers were friendly and were very informative and the dinners were satisfying and tasty.
The Lodge area also had several small gift and specialty shops and made for something to do during your down time. The main area had a cafe with the best Cinnamon Rolls and coffee and a great gift shop that was fun to look around. There was also free WIFI in the main building so it was a nice place to go and sit and catch up on the world. Phone service from our room was a bit iffy!
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| Gift Shop at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge |
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| Cafe Area at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge |
After all the driving and getting our bellies full and our email checked we were ready to head to bed for the next day at the Park. Since we were even further north than Anchorage...the days were even longer but we were so tired even the sunlight at midnight couldn't keep us awake!
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