August 6, 2022 marked the end of our seven-day sea cruise. It was now time to take a six-hour bus ride after passing through the two-mile Whittier tunnel; Anchorage; Wasilla and many other small towns for a two-night stay in Denali Park (see upper right of the map below for where Denali Park is located).
On the way to Denali Park, our bus driver told this story as we passed through Cantwell, located just before Denali Park. Cantwell was one of the last U.S. towns to get television, and when they did, it came by satellite to the only bar in town. One night, the regulars were watching ‘America’s Most Wanted’ and the bartender was identified as the most wanted perpetrator. When the FBI came to arrest the bartender, they arrested the mayor of Cantwell on different charges because he was also a wanted man. This shows that you can run, but you cannot not hide — even in Alaska. Alaska seems to be the place where people who don’t want to be found can escape into anonymity — which makes for some interesting characters and marvelous stories for the tour guides to tell.
Denali National Park and Preserve straddle 160 miles of the Alaska Range and display so much elevation they are often lost in the clouds. Dominating this skyline is North America's highest peak. Denali ascends majestically to 20,310 feet and is one of the most awe-inspiring sights in Alaska. Denali (formally called Mt McKinley) is cloud covered 90% of the year, which it was when we were there. The photo on this blog’s opening page is of Denali, but courtesy of Google photos. Our tour guide mentioned that, in 150 tours he guides a year, he sees Denali about 18 times.
We stayed for two nights at the Holland America’s McKinley Chalet Resort. During our first night there we attended a summer stock comical stage production on the history of the first group to climb Denali on June 7th, 1913. Since then, many others have climbed Denali, which on average takes about 2-3 weeks to climb up and three days to come down.
Early the second morning, we boarded a Denali Wild Life Tour bus, for a six-hour tour into Denali National Park. Here we we saw grizzly bears, caribou, Dall sheep, eagles and buffalo. We later saw moose, but they were outside the park.
Lessons Learned:
1. It can snow in Alaska in the summertime.
2. Meals and drinks seem to be a lot more expensive when they are not part of all-inclusive package. The reality is we pre-paid for the “free” meals and drinks when we booked the tour in early 2020!!
3. It great to travel, it even better to come home.
Credits:
Created with images by marcmooney - "denali park mountain"