Our Homer Odyssey: Denali National Park and the Interior

Brian parents wanted to see Mount McKinley and Denali National Park during their visit this summer, and we were happy that Brian's schedule allowed us to join in as well. We all drove to Anchorage (4.5 hours) for a night, and then the kids rode the train to Denali with Chick, Pat, and Linda (7.5 hours) while Brian and I drove (5 hours).
The last time we were in Anchorage there was snow on the ground. The drive this summer was beautiful because the fireweed was in full bloom.

The highway was lined with purple flowers and there were purple patches high up on the green mountainside.

The kids obviously loved the train. It was a double decker train and they sat on the upper level outfitted with a glass dome for better viewing. Here they are before boarding the train.

Mount McKinley, often referred to as Denali (the great one), is only visible one out of three days, or so we read. So, we were happy when we were afforded a glimpse on our drive up. Some of the best views of the mountain are from an hour or so outside the park. The peak of the mountain is sticking out just on top of the clouds if you have good eyes.

There is only one road into the park and you can drive your car up to mile 15 of 92, so if you really want to see the park, you take a bus. There are two types of buses: park bus and tour bus. They are both school buses, although the tour buses have installed slightly upgraded seats, provide more thorough narration by the driver, a box lunch, and television screens that the allow the driver to use a special camera to zoom in on any wildlife you might stop to view. Oh, and the tour bus costs four times as much. If you know Brian and I, you know we really struggled with paying more when there was a cheaper alternative. In fact, we debated not going in to the park at all because we have already seen all of the potential wildlife save for caribou. But, we shelled out the bucks and were rewarded with an amazing tour...

Braided stream, common throughout the park

Grizzly bear mowing down soap berries. Our tour guide explained that the bears experience hyperphagia, excessive hunger followed by an abnormally large intake of food during the summer months. I also eat out of a fear of being hungry. I'm glad to finally give legitimacy to my "condition." Hyperphagia explains my bizarre eating habits.

Another braided stream running through the park. You can see a little gold coloring on the lower part of the mountain as the fall colors are making an appearance in late July! I think the park would be amazing to see in mid to late August when the tundra is its most colorful.

Dall sheep being majestic on the rocks

Caribou

Caribou with a better view of the velvety antlers. I learned that caribou are the only member of the deer family where both males and females have antlers. They lose and grow new antlers each year. As the antlers are growing they are covered in a fur called velvet that helps get nutrients to the antlers to help them grow.

Artic ground squirrel. He really wanted to hang out with me.

View of Parks Road with Mount McKinley through the clouds

Another grizzly with fireweed in bloom behind him.

Dall sheep on the side of the road. Crazy amazing. The bus stopped a couple times at designated areas so we could stretch our legs and use the outhouse. It would also stop for any wildlife. Our ride was 8-9 hours and we went to mile marker 53. It's a 12 hour ride to make it to Wonder Lake and the end of the road.

Another caribou

Another grizzly. I think we saw 6 brown bears in total, but this was the only one with the cinnamon fur color. The others were more blond like the ones we encountered fishing on the Russian River earlier this summer.

This is so you can see the bus and how the animals are really non-phased by its presence. It is possible to hike in the park by taking the park bus that allows you to hop on/off any bus that comes by, and it is also possible to camp in the park if you apply for a permit.

I feel obligated to include a photo of the ptarmigan since it's the Alaska state bird.

While we were riding the tour bus with Linda, Chick and Pat took the kids to a dog mushing kennel owned by former Iditarod champion Jeff King. They learned about the 1,000 mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome and how the mushers care for themselves and the dogs during those 2 weeks. The kids were able to play with the husky pups, and now both of the kids have decided they want to run the Iditarod.

Behind Kate is the running wheel they use to exercise the puppies hamster style.

The day after our trip, Chick and Pat went into the park and we headed to Fairbanks (2 hours by car). We stayed in a hotel with a small pool for the kids and then we explored Pioneer Park where we learned about gold rush history and remembered what it's like to feel hot. Summer temperatures in Interior Alaska soar (mid 70s) and this was a record breaking summer. It might have hit 80 while we were there. By contrast the average summer high in Homer is 60. The kids required ice cream twice daily to cool off.

We also bought gold pans and set off to Pedro Creek where gold was first discovered in the Fairbanks area in 1902. The creek is still open to the public for panning and we hear it's not uncommon to find gold flakes.

To be quite honest, everything looked like gold at first, since there were so many shiny things in the water...pyrite, mica, and who knows what else.

Slowly we started, picking out a few flakes that seemed to be contenders. It was difficult to get them out of the pan, so we just used our finger tip to wipe it on a hand towel. An eye dropper would have been ideal. As we were just about to leave, James pick up the towel and shook it so he could dry his hands. We all shouted, "NO!" so loudly that he started to have quiver lip and teary eyes. Then, we all started laughing as we lost our 4 teeny tiny, maybe flakes of gold.
On our way back we stopped to view the famed Alaska Oil Pipeline that runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

We actually went back to Pioneer Park to see if the gold panning shop was open. The guy in there was no Old Timey Prospector, in fact he recently bought the shop this summer. He appeared to be in his early 20s, and said he learned gold panning techniques from watching Youtube videos. Nonetheless, he taught us a lot about technique and we really should have gone to his shop before panning for gold on our own. We all came home with a small vial containing 5-6 gold flakes, our own gold pans, and a better understanding for the process. I hear there are places to pan on the Kenai peninsula, so maybe we'll try again later.

Learning how to pan for gold in Pioneer Park

We also celebrated James's 4th birthday in our Fairbanks hotel,

and visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks museum. Kate is ready to apply for college there. She is focusing on dog mushing opportunities and ignoring the -60 winter temps.

The museum had a nice exhibit on native Alaskan communities and another fascinating one on the gold rush. I thought it was interesting, James not so much...

The day after we told Kate we were moving to Alaska last year, we went to the library and checked out books and travel videos about Alaska to help us get excited. One of the videos was a family with small children traveling in Alaska by motorhome. We loved that they stopped in Homer, went sea kayaking, ate seaweed, and saw moose. Kate's favorite part of the video was visiting the ice museum at Chena Hot Springs. I think this is because there was an ice toilet in the video, but either way Kate's Alaska bucket list is pretty short: go to ice museum and see Iditarod. I've never been in hot springs before, so I wanted to go as well. It was another 1.5 hours from Fairbanks along a scenic road dotted with moose.

The hot springs were hot (107), but lovely as well. In the morning they were too hot for me. It was at least 112 at 10am and I couldn't get all the way in until they pumped a little more cool water in to moderate the temperature. The indoor pool was also spring feed, so very warm (94). The kids had a blast swimming while all the adults popped in and out of the springs for as long as our bodies could handle.

Brian taking a swim

James investigating the steam coming off the water in the morning. Because the four of us shared a hotel room for a week, Brian and I took turns sneaking out early when James woke up and going out for breakfast in the hotel while Kate and the other one of us slept in. Below, James and I out for early pancakes.

The resort uses geothermal energy from the springs to power the resort and North America's northernmost greenhouse. If you're willing to pay they have all kinds of tours available. We, however, went straight for the ice museum.

Everything inside is made of ice...the bar, stools, glasses, etc. There are even rooms to rent and a tiny wedding chapel. What an awful idea.

Brian and Kate snuggle into one of the beds at a cozy 25 degrees. We were told there would be a new reindeer pelt provided if we wanted to rent the room.

Kate couldn't have the martini from the ice bar, but she did take and eat the glass instead.

Since many signs and menus at Chena Hot Springs are in Japanese, they obviously do a fare amount of international business. It is an ideal place to see the Aurora Borealis, visible over 200 days a year. Since it barely gets dark in summer, we did not see the northern lights, but if you have to come to the interior of Alaska in the winter or want to see the northern lights, I would come to the hot springs.

The 12 hour trek back to Homer wasn't too bad as we invested in seat back DVD players for the kids, and we split up the trip by stopping in Anchorage for the night.