Dawson City to Denali National Park
Over the past seven days we have traveled many, many hundreds of miles on mostly dirt roads of varying quality, rarely faster than 25 - 35 miles per hour. That may not sound like a great deal of fun, but these have been some of the most spectacular roads we have ever been on. The Dempster (as you’ve seen), The Top of the World Highway, and finally the Denali Highway (ranked National Geographics number two “must drive” road). Nearly every mile was above the tree line offering expansive views of rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys, wildlife, and plants of subtle but lovely autumn colors. Even after 10 hours bouncing along a rough road we’ve been eager to do it all over again the next day. We have been puling off the “highways” and camping in BLM sites, usually alongside raging whitewater creeks. Nice sounds to fall asleep to!
As we drive we are listening to John McPhee’s book, Coming Into the Country. Though somewhat dated, it is the prefect companion for this part or our travels. He brings the people and landscapes even more alive.
Since we are very poor planners, we never know where we will be the next night, so we make no reservations. We got lucky today is this was the first day since June 1 that Denali National Park campgrounds weren’t fully booked months in advance. We got a good site right in the park. Sometimes it pays to be lucky!
Not so lucky is the fact that the weather has suddenly changed to more typical Alaskan fall conditions. It is showery, foggy, and chilly. Seems that we may not see the mountain. We’ll stay two days and see what happens. It is all beautiful nonetheless.
Beautiful! And it looks like the girls are following along!
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