Day 2 - Epic Al-Can Odyssey

Day 2 - Wasilla to Denali, Alaska
258 miles

We only planned to be in Alaska for four days total, so we packed as much “Alaska Stuff” in to each day as possible. And we did it all – by land, water, air and of course, motorcycle. On this day we completed the drive to Denali National Park in the beautiful, but really cold, sunshine.

Our first side trip was a jet boat ride to the interior of the park via the Nenena River. We had never seen anything as pristine. There was not a single piece of trash along the waterway, virtually no sign that humans had ever even been here.

We were close enough to the mountains to see the variation in rocks and formation, and how the sun played games with the shadows on the mountains’ sides.

We saw some wildlife, including a wandering moose.

Back at the fishing village where the tour started, we panned for gold,

We walked away with an obvious fortune in our pocket.

We visited the resident pet reindeer. Unfortunately the owner’s wouldn't let us in on the secret of how these fantastic creatures learned to fly.

From just south of the park, we drove north to our hotel, dumped off our gear and headed to the local airstrip for an aerial tour of the park.

Personally, I wasn’t thrilled with flying in a small plane above the mountains, but knew I’d never get another opportunity to do it, so I pulled up my britches and climbed aboard.

It’s hard to know what to expect from a trip like this – it was just described to us as a 1-hour tour of Denali Park and Mt. McKinley – but it seems you always kind of have something in your mind beforehand that you think it will be like, and most of the time, it’s not like that at all.

Except this time.

Flying above the mountains, and glaciers, and valleys to the top of Mt. McKinley was exactly as I had pictured it in my mind. The terrain changed with each passing moment and the difference between the landscape below one side of the plane and the other was amazing.

In our on-going adventure conversation, we wondered again, what the first people who saw these wonders and made their ways through the vastness, thought. We marveled at what prospectors and adventurers had gone through in trying to conquer this wilderness of trees and snow and glaciers and rocks.

We had to break through a cloud bank to see the top of McKinley, and there were the peaks.

We circled a few times and were amazed that anyone could walk/climb all the way to the top. As we made our way back down to ground level, even more stunning scenes moved beneath us.

Back on the ground, we headed back to the hotel and hopped a bus that took us out to 4-time Iditarod Champion Jeff King’s Husky Homestead dog camp.

If you don’t know anything about Alaskan sled dogs, check them out. Same with the Iditarod Race. I can’t begin to explain the dogs or the race here.

Jeff King and his crew did a fantastic job explaining racing sled dogs to the group that was there with us.

They socialize the puppies early to ensure they are very, very used to strangers.

They let the dogs run, which they seem to love to do for hours at a time, anyway possible.

And heard story after story of what the mushers go through to survive, and what the dogs take tremendous pride and joy in, during the 1000-mile Alaska cross-country race.

It was close to 9:30 at night when we got back to the hotel and we realized we’d been so busy soaking in everything we could that we missed dinner. We found a good restaurant, settled back with a couple beers, relaxed and relived the day. It was nearly 11 when we finished, and in True Northern Style, it was barely even dark outside.