Denali – Our Last Day

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 – Day 48

A far cry from yesterday morning when we were up at 05:00 AM.  Slept in till 10:00 this morning, but that was OK as we both needed to catch up on our sleep.  This was a down day today, with not a lot on our agenda.  We walked the stores and gift shops along the strip and except for a few novel items in some stores it is pretty much the same as the first gift shops we visited in Skagway.

In the afternoon we went to see the sled dog demonstration once more.  This was the first year for this interpreter doing this dog sled demo.  She does however live in Fairbanks and mushes in the winter, so she was familiar with how to do it.  It amazes me how these handlers move these muscular dogs into place and get them hitched up in just a few minutes. What’s even more amazing is the power these animals have to get a sled weighing 150 lb with a 150 lb driver, moving from a standing start up to 17 miles per hour in just a few feet.  They just come sailing around the track.  We were thoroughly impressed.  It was warmer today and the dogs seemed to be content to just rest in the shade rather than being sociable.  They prefer temperatures of –10 F

We drove to the 15 mile checkpoint just to see Denali for the last time and returned to the trailer.  We did some cleaning and had an early supper.  Tomorrow, we travel to Fairbanks and then the Arctic Circle for Summer Solstice.  We certainly liked Denali National Park, it’s a real treasure,

COMMENTARY - The Denali Rainbow RV Park had numerous shortcomings.  You can’t always go by the descriptions in the ads.  The place is basically a construction site parking lot with old oil drums and front end loaders decorating the property.  We were shoehorned into a small space next to their electrical panel and backing onto the gift shops.  The main sewer pump out is right next to our dining room window.  Glad they didn’t have to pump it while we were here. Seems like someone found a better use for the land than a parking lot.  Let’s grab some cash from the RV’ers coming to Denali.   This is NOT a Big Rig Friendly park…while we were here we saw several RV’s come in and try to park only to move to a non-serviced site or move out of the park completely.  The water is atrocious.  It is so hard that you cannot build up a soapy lather for either washing or dishwashing.  (We didn’t even want to try doing a laundry!)  The FRESH water in the toilet bowl already has a yellow tinge to it.  And does it ever stink!  I think that they must go down to the Nenana River and bring it up by the bucket load.  They did however have reasonably good Wi-Fi Access. It is very obvious that once again the cruise ship lines have bought up the property closest to the entrance to Denali National Park, thrown their considerable weight and money around and once again forced the locals to the periphery.  Some shops which are located on the outskirts display signs in the doorway saying “Locally Owned”.  Driving 12 miles out of town to fuel the truck we saw many much nicer  RV Parks which were owned by locals.  Had we known this, we would NEVER have supported the cruise enterprise!!