August 21st - Day 24 - Fairbanks to Denali National Park

Today was one of the shortest drives of the tour, a mere 125 miles. This meant an easy start time of 10.30am. Once again the weather was smiling upon us with sunshine and blue skies. What a contrast to the rain we had in Fairbanks last week.

We had been told by Uta, our host in Wiseman, of a very good bookshop on the outskirts of Fairbanks. I wanted to buy a book I had seen in our cabin in Wiseman called Arctic Homestead. The book is about an American family who decide to move to the Alaskan wilderness in the 1970's, taking advantage of the Homesteading Act, which enabled people to take possession of land they settled on, provided they met certain conditions. The Act is no longer in force. It seemed to have similarities to the life that Uta and Berni have created for themselves in Wiseman. We found the store and I bought the book as well as another one on Alaska.

We left Fairbanks on the Parks Highway that links Fairbanks and Anchorage. Denali National Park is about 100 miles south of Fairbanks.

Following Bob as we approached Denali.

Then we had our first view of Mt Denail. We were still some 40 miles from the mountain.

About 10 miles from our hotel, the Denali River Cabins, we passed through the small town of Healy. Healy has become known around the world as the stepping off point for Chris McCandless, the young American who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness. His tragic story was made famous by the book, Into the Wild, which was then made into a film starring Sean Penn. I read the book several years ago and long before we thought of doing this trip, so I had a sense of sadness as we passed through Healy.

We passed the entrance to the park and 8 miles further on we reached our hotel. We have two cabins facing the Nenana River.

We had a snack lunch and then drove to the Park to see what tours were available for tomorrow. On the way we had to stop at the railway line to let a passenger train pass that was full of Holland America and Princess cruise line tourists, coming from Anchorage and going to the park.

We booked for a six hour bus tour to mile 53 in the park. There is only one road and you are only permitted, for $20, to take your car up to mile 15. We decided to do the drive in our cars, with the hope of seeing some wildlife. No such luck there, but we had a very pretty drive and then a two mile walk along the Savage River Loop Trail.

On the drive we were able to see Mt. Denali in the far distance, but it was too far away to take a photo. When we go further into the park tomorrow, we are hoping to get some good photos of this 20,000ft mountain. As we drove out of the park we took this shot of the park and the Alaskan Ra.nge in the backgound.

This evening we are northern lights gazing once again. The sky is clear and last night, we were told by a Denali park ranger, they had a spectacular display of the lights.