Day 36 -- Heading down to Anchorage from Denali

Travel   From: Denali NP, AK   To: Anchorage, AK   Distance: 253 mi (407 km)   Travel time w/brks: 7 hr 18   Distance since start: 8,071 mi (12,978 km)

Wednesday 7/26/2006

We ate breakfast at our campsite in Denali. Lilli made eggs and sausages. There were hungry birds around the trailer that I did not spot as he put the plates with warm food on the table outside the trailer. I barely turned around to reach for something into the trailer as a sea gull came down by the table and started to wolf things down. I had to shout to scare it away, but it still only moved to the roof of our trailer. As I sat down and waited for Lilli to come out and join him, the same bird tried to eat from Lilli's plate right in front of me. After we had packed up we went down into town, outside of the park, and hunted for fuel and a few souvenirs. We could not find any diesel in town so we had to pick that up later. Lilli towed the trailer going south.

The ride down was without much interest. We stopped along a rest area to see if we could not spot Mount McKinley from the south, but it was still engulfed in clouds. We just have to assume that there is a mountain there. We ate some lunch at the rest area, which also was a State Park camping area. During one part of the drive down we passed through an extended and smoke filled area. We must have been very close to an active forest fire in the area.

Our destination campground was supposed to be one of the better in Anchorage and we could tell that their claims were true. We can highly recommend it. Although the sites themselves were plain gravel, there was full hookup, excellent laundry facilities and the kids raved about the showers. We finally changed the water filter, after the kids complained about the water flow being a bit slow.

First 35 days: makes you wonder why so many do NOT use a filter for incoming fresh water..

While Lilli was gone shopping, a neighbor of ours came by and offered all sorts of foods and supplies they did not need. It turns out that they had rented a Class C motor home and had now reached their final destination. The next morning they were returning it to the rental agency. We accepted without much whining. The gentleman explained that he had rented it from an agency that specialized in transporting new motor homes from the factory in Iowa up to Anchorage. So, they basically had 10 days to bring a brand new motor home up on their behalf. The cost: $700 for 10 days (all equipment included except gas). Additional days were $55. This sounded exceptionally reasonable. They were two couples in the motor home. They had flown into Iowa and they were subsequently flying out of Anchorage to return back home. I think the agency was called The Great Alaskan Adventure.

Before dinner, I had spent some time looking for options to take a boat tour in Seward (Kenai Fjords NP) or Whittier (Prince Williams Sound). The weather is more rainy than not in this part of Alaska at this time of year. If you make your reservation for a cruise too far ahead chances are very high that it'll be a rain-out. I explored the weather forecast for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, it called for sunshine tomorrow (Thursday) but then rain for seven days following it. That applied to both Seward and Whittier. After some research it sounded like Kenai Fjords was more interesting for us. Prince Williams Sound has plenty of spectacular glaciers, but not much wild life. The opposite is true for Kenai Fjords. He was not able to reserve anything for Friday. After we had eaten dinner, we watched some TV and then went to bed.

Campground   Name: Anchorage RV Park, AK   Our hookups: 30amp, water, sewer, cable   WiFi: Yes   GSM service: Yes   TV Channels: Yes   Cost: tbd/night   Reservation mode: Phone

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features some purple flowers on the side of the road.