Visiting Alaska, Part 2

On Sunday, we attended church at the building right next to the temple and then we drove up to Denali National Park, about a 4-hour drive.  We stopped along the way at a viewpoint to possibly see the big mountain but there was a fair amount of smoke in the air thanks to a lot of fires.  Forest fire season in Alaska is apparently most of the summer.  There were a lot of dead pine trees in the forests we saw that were probably dead due to a huge beetle infestation.  Alaska has a LOT of pine trees and it was sad to see all those dead trees.

For Sunday and Monday nights, we rented a dry cabin to stay in.  Staying near Denali is quite expensive so we decided to stay in a dry cabin with a kitchen to save money.  A dry cabin means using an outhouse and not having a shower.  The cabin was very clean and quiet but I have to admit I would have enjoyed running water and a flush toilet.  One thing about Alaska in the summer is that sky doesn't ever get completely dark, so I could go out to the outhouse at 3am and not need a flashlight because it was still light outside.

Denali National Park is a huge park but unfortunately not very accessible--they've done a great job protecting the land with the result of making it hard to see.  The first 15 miles have a free shuttle bus that comes with your admission (or you can drive your own car) but then after that, you have to buy additional tickets to take the bus farther into the park.  The problem with the transit buses is that they are very slow.  To go 60 miles into the park takes about 4 hours with an additional 4 hours needed to come back.  During these 60 miles you are likely to see a lot of wildlife but you also have to sit on a bus for 8 hours.  After driving more than 4 hours on Sunday in a not-very-comfortable car, we were not that interested in riding a bus for 8 hours.  So we rode the free bus in and got out to hike.  The day was somewhat overcast and foggy and we enjoyed the hike which was somewhat chilly at times.  I never regretted bringing my winter coat and wearing pants.

The hike was great with lots of wildflowers but unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife.  Around 6pm on Monday we decided to try the transit bus and tried to buy tickets.  Unfortunately, with it being close to the 4th of July, the tickets were almost completely sold out and there was no way we could take a bus into the park which would leave us with enough time to get back to Anchorage to fly home on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, we opted instead to go to a touristy town called Talkeetna and possibly go on a boat ride to see more wildlife.  Unfortunately Alaska was in the middle of a rare heat wave and the boat operators thought it was unlikely we would see any wildlife due to the high temperatures.  So we drove back to Anchorage and had dinner at the Moose's Tooth Pizzeria which is a very popular place to eat and, after eating there, we can see why.  It was really good.

We watched a sled dog exhibition which was interesting.  Parts of the park are protected wilderness which means nothing motorized is allowed there so they use sled dogs to carry supplies and do other work they need done in the wilderness.

There is a spot where two rivers meet where you can see the different water coming in from each.

We did see a few moose by the side of the road.

In summary:
The Airbnb's worked out well for the most part and were much cheaper than hotels.  We didn't love the last place we stayed but it was fortunately short.  Turo is a reasonable way to rent a car.  We probably should have gotten a nicer car to make driving more comfortable.  We were trying to save money on gas but it turns out that gas is one of the few things in Alaska that is cheaper--food is quite expensive.  We enjoyed our boat ride where we got to see lots of cool sights.  We wished we had a little more time in Denali and taken a bus farther into the park so we could see more wildlife.  We also didn't really see the mountain because of the weather but this is not surprising--only 1 in 3 visitors gets to see the mountain.  We enjoyed the bike ride in Anchorage as well as the Moose's Tooth.  We may never get back to Alaska but we accomplished our goal of getting there!