Dude! I can't believe it's taken me this long to post! I'm sorry I got completely sidetracked! Okay, I'm back and let's do Denali!
So Denali is formerly known as Mt. McKinley and it's the tallest mountain in North America (something like 20,000 feet above sea level). They changed the name from Mt. McKinley because President McKinley had NOTHING to do with the mountain OR Alaska, in fact he had never even visited the state! Some guy just decided it should be named after him because he was just elected or something. The Native Americans in the region always called the peak Denali or "great one," so it was a huge slight that was perpetuated for WAY too long; just another example of cultural imperialism. President Obama just renamed it in honor of the native people and I gotta say it was a good move. Not only did McKinley have nothing to do with the mountain, but Denali just sounds WAY better!
Okay enough history, let's start our journey!
From Seward to Denali took about 6 hours. Map time:
We started way down at the bottom and drove into the middle of the state. Okay, not even the middle, the state of Alaska is HUGE!
We better get a move on!
So, that was Denali! We left in the early afternoon, so we had time to drive to Anchorage. Map time again:
To get to Anchorage, we had to backtrack more than halfway back to Kenai. So why didn't we just stop in Anchorage on our way to Denali? My flight home left from Anchorage, so we wanted to end the trip there. There's a little bit of reason behind the madness.
Driving pics:
Yes, they were all abandoned.
Speaking of abandoned, check out this double-decker bus:
It's like from Harry Potter!
We got inside:
I don't know why I took a picture of that plaque, but it just looked really old.
We went upstairs:
I don't know why we were so into this, but it was just on the side of the road randomly.
We got into Anchorage in the evening, checked into our hostel and got some grub.
City pics:
They still have Blockbuster:
We walked a couple blocks from our hostel and got pizza:
Not bad.
The only thing exceptional about the city of Anchorage is that this is the only city in the world I've visited that has absolutely nothing exceptional about it. It's completely nondescript. There was no interesting architecture or beauty in the buildings. There were no super nice people (at least 50% of the city is weirdos (like the druggie kind)). I just didn't think there was anything special about it whatsoever. I know that's crappy to say, but that was my first impression (and it didn't really change with time). Some parts were okay, but nothing stood out. If you go to Alaska, just use Anchorage as a place to fly in and out of, don't waste your time sightseeing because there's really not much to it. I even asked the guy at the front desk of the hostel what we should see as in sights and attractions and he said NOTHING! Everything to see is outside of Anchorage. And he's from Anchorage! So, it's not just me people.
Anyway, stay tuned for the rest of Anchorage because we meet up with a dear friend of mine and she takes us outside of the city (thank GOD!) and it was spectacular!
So Denali is formerly known as Mt. McKinley and it's the tallest mountain in North America (something like 20,000 feet above sea level). They changed the name from Mt. McKinley because President McKinley had NOTHING to do with the mountain OR Alaska, in fact he had never even visited the state! Some guy just decided it should be named after him because he was just elected or something. The Native Americans in the region always called the peak Denali or "great one," so it was a huge slight that was perpetuated for WAY too long; just another example of cultural imperialism. President Obama just renamed it in honor of the native people and I gotta say it was a good move. Not only did McKinley have nothing to do with the mountain, but Denali just sounds WAY better!
Okay enough history, let's start our journey!
From Seward to Denali took about 6 hours. Map time:
We better get a move on!
Bye Kenai Peninsula!
When it was my turn, Aaron got this money shot:
These signs are everywhere:
which is why the speed limit is so low in Alaska.
It got a little gloomier as we got closer.
It was already the late afternoon, but we decided to head into the park and buy tour tickets for the next day.
We went to the Wilderness Access Center to get info and tour tickets:
Turns out the shortest tour they had was at least 6 hours on a bus! We didn't have time and didn't really like the idea of sitting on a bus for 6 hours, so we opted out. We paid our fees ($10/person for a 3 day pass into the park) and drove into town for some grub.
It's basically one strip of road with a bunch of tiny markets, shops and restaurants.
We got the AK Sampler (halibut, salmon, cod and calamari with fries) at this small place:
I can't believe I forgot to take a picture, but it was mighty tasty!
Then it was off to check into our hostel:
It was a series of tiny cabins in the woods:
Bathrooms:
Fire pit:
My all-girls cabin:
The Octagon is the kitchen and common areas:
They had tents also, but it was a bit chillier up here, so we needed 4 actual walls.
It was really fun to be in the woods staying in little cabins. It reminded me of our tree house hostel in Costa Rica, but obviously on the ground (and opposite weather).
We just hung around the hostel for the night and woke up early the next day to drive around inside the park.
We stopped into town for some breakfast:
Again, no picture! I'm really sucking lately!
We shopped a little at a couple souvenir shops and Aaron found his twin:
Whoa! Crazy!
Then we headed off into Denali National Park!
When driving in Denali, you can never drive your personal vehicle as far as the tour buses can venture, so we were only able to drive about 30 minutes in, whereas the tour bus can drive 3 hours in (which is why the shortest tour is 6 hours). Oh well, we'll take what we can get!
Only about 15 minutes in and we see Caribou (I called them reindeer in my video and I felt dumb, until I realized that Caribou ARE reindeer! Boo ya!).
The pics were better because we could zoom in. Aaron got some great shots:
So cool!!! Suck it tour bus!
We kept driving until we got to Savage River:
Not quite living up to the name. This was the farthest we could drive, so we turned around and headed back. We stopped on the way back and walked a short (30 minute) trail.
We walked the green trail:
Saw moose tracks and poop:
Yes, I took a picture of poop.
I wanted so bad to see a moose, but none in sight. The trail was beautiful though.
Then we got back in the car and headed for the exit. I THINK this was Denali because it looked so much more massive than the others, but I couldn't tell for sure:
I'm talking about the white mountain in the background. On a really clear day, you can see the entire thing, but we didn't get that lucky. I bet later in the day it got more clear, but we were long gone by then. I know that kinda sucks to go all the way to Denali and not really see Denali, but time constraints really limit what you can do when travelling. I'm happy with what I saw, so no regrets.
Before we left Denali National Park, we stopped at the sled dog kennels:
The sled dogs live on the premises and we even saw a few being walked while we were driving. Let's go say hi!
We went inside and looked at some old sleds:
They say you can pet the dogs, but none of them were interacting with us or approaching us, so we didn't want to bug them:
I got kinda close to one, but I chickened out:
These dogs have tons of visitors year-round and get pet and messed with all the time, so they seemed to be enjoying the peace and quiet and I wasn't about to interrupt that for them.
Driving pics:
TIM-BER!
Reggie's looking really fancy.
They had all these super random fireworks stands:
Speaking of abandoned, check out this double-decker bus:
We got inside:
We went upstairs:
We got into Anchorage in the evening, checked into our hostel and got some grub.
City pics:
Living in the stone age!
We saw a pizza place named after our dog:
He would love that!
We walked a couple blocks from our hostel and got pizza:
It was pork belly, red cabbage, onion rings and BBQ sauce.
The only thing exceptional about the city of Anchorage is that this is the only city in the world I've visited that has absolutely nothing exceptional about it. It's completely nondescript. There was no interesting architecture or beauty in the buildings. There were no super nice people (at least 50% of the city is weirdos (like the druggie kind)). I just didn't think there was anything special about it whatsoever. I know that's crappy to say, but that was my first impression (and it didn't really change with time). Some parts were okay, but nothing stood out. If you go to Alaska, just use Anchorage as a place to fly in and out of, don't waste your time sightseeing because there's really not much to it. I even asked the guy at the front desk of the hostel what we should see as in sights and attractions and he said NOTHING! Everything to see is outside of Anchorage. And he's from Anchorage! So, it's not just me people.
Anyway, stay tuned for the rest of Anchorage because we meet up with a dear friend of mine and she takes us outside of the city (thank GOD!) and it was spectacular!
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