Alaska Highway, Day 10: Anchorage, AK to Cantwell, AK (via Denali National Park)

Today: ~300 mi from Anchorage, AK through Denali National Park to Cantwell, AK

Approximate Route Map

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Our adventure began today with JT and myself going off to finalize the sale of the Subaru. The buyer was interested in the car, but did not want to deal with the complications of a California title. So, first we had to transfer the title to Alaska, and then he would buy it. Easy peasy. Of course, it had taken us heroics to get a California title in under two months. Wouldn't that be a bit of a problem here?

"Yeah, this isn't California," our buyer told us. And right he was:

A little weird, right after getting the CA title...

We managed to get one last picture with the car before parting ways:

We hopped a ride to a nearby car rental agency, who rented us a Kia Rio at a frankly extortionate rate of ~$100/day. Protip: if you're ever thinking about buying, renting, or even just borrowing a Kia Rio...kill yourself. It's a terrible car. You can do better. Maybe by walking! On the other hand, the rental agency did have a sweet sign inside:

On our way back to the hotel after brunch, JT and I checked out the Alaska Law Enforcement Museum in downtown Anchorage, which had an interesting collection of uniforms, weapons, assorted gadgets, and one beautifully restored 1952 Hudson Hornet patrol car:

Shortly thereafter, we returned to the Howard Johnson, played a bit of luggage Tetris to get all our gear packed into the back of the (rather smaller than the Subaru) Kia, and headed north to Denali National Park. At this point, we were all still happy, because we'd spent all of zero miles in the Kia:

Nathan's excited to drive again!

We haven't yet realized that the seats were made to fit a dwarf with severe scoliosis!

 The road up to Denali is interesting. As you leave Anchorage, you pass through the outer suburbs, and then hit an intermediate zone between the cities and the totally isolated interior. In this zone, it seems like the principal business is selling lots of fireworks to bored Anchoragites:

Yes, yes, there are nice views along the highway. You're probably tired of them by now. This one is unique, though: thanks to the really nice weather while we were driving up, this was the best view of Mount McKinley that we had on the whole trip (it's that white thing, just left of center). And we're still a few hundred miles south of the mountain, here.

Mt McKinley

The previous night, we had looked for lodging closer to Denali, so that we could spend a day and a half at the park without having to make the roundtrip from Anchorage. We originally made a reservation at the Latitude 62 Lodge in Talkeetna, having heard that that was closer to Denali. "Closer" was right - but it was still at least a couple hours from the park. On the way up, we drove past a couple small towns, and ended up deciding to stay in Cantwell for the night, at the Backwoods Lodge. After dropping our things off at the lodge, we moved on towards the park.

Denali was the "other" destination that we had pre-planned before coming up, so actually making it out the day right after we got into Anchorage was pretty exciting. I had to get a picture of myself at the park entrance sign:

While we were figuring out what to do in the park, we stopped by the bookstore. Nathan, the whole trip, had been simultaneously fascinated by and terrified of bears. Seeing a big book of bear attacks didn't really help matters:

Yes, Nathan. It's usually ugly when a bear attacks. 

Denali is set up such that (in the summer), you can only drive your own car a limited distance into the park. To go deeper than the Savage River Campground (14 miles in), you have to take a bus. We arrived pretty late - around 6 pm (leaving us 5ish hours of daylight still, remember) - so the buses had stopped running. We decided to just go in to Savage River for the evening and see what could be seen.

Denali is also unique in that there are few explicitly marked trails. In most places near the bus stops or parking lots, there are a couple easy trails that are marked out; those interested in anything more than trivial hiking are not only allowed, but encouraged to go off the trails and hike anywhere. This leads, in many places, to informal trails being beaten into the tundra. Savage River was no different. On one side of the road, a formal trail winds along the river for a mile or so, allowing you to get a lovely view of the water and the valley beyond:

At the distal point of the river loop trail, you can either head back, or start hiking uphill along an informal track that takes you up the side of a mountain. Naturally, we took this one, and of course, the view from above was quite a bit better:

On the other side of the road, there are no trails, but you're free to hike down into the river bed. The Savage is a "braided" river, meaning that the river's track follows a number of meandering paths along a rocky bed, splitting and merging many times as it flows. After coming down off the hill, we hiked down the river bed for a ways, until we got tired of jumping over (and occasionally in) the flow of the river between rock piles. Rolling clouds also threatened rain, making the prospect of being outside significantly less pleasant:

We hopped back into the car (me with a completely soaked shoe) and drove back to Cantwell for a lovely meal of canned chili and popcorn. The chili was a bit of a joke: I had bought it in Seattle, thinking that it would make a convenient camping meal (open can, heat can over fire, eat). But, no one else seemed quite as enthused with that plan, and we had alternative food both camping nights (Subway at Liard River, pizza from Fast Eddy's at Eagle Trail). Here, though, with few food options in Cantwell (and no energy to explore them), the chili was a lifesaver. Score!

Tomorrow: Cantwell, AK to Moose Pass, AK (via Denali National Park)