Where’s the Mountain?

Sunday, June 14, 2009 – Day 45

This was basically a travel day.  The weather for the most part was sunny and bright.  We left Palmer after we had confirmed a campsite reservation for the Denali National Park area.  The scenery was phenomenal but that word is getting over used.  We travelled through Sarah Pallin’s home town of Wasilla, Alaska…a very nice little town. Didn’t see Sarah around though; I would think that she is probably in Juneau, doing what governors do.  We took a short spur highway to the town of Talkeetna where on a clear day you can see “the Mountain”.  It was clear but we couldn’t see the mountain – this point is still 124 miles away from the park entrance.  We also learned that the mountain can make its own weather and the summit is cloudy 80% of the time. 

The spur highway into Talkeetna is only about 14 miles out of our way but we’d been told by a number of people that it was well worth the trip.  This is a tiny town with narrow streets – hardly RV friendly.  We drove down a couple of streets and couldn’t find any places to park an RV so we got on the road leading out of town. At the last minute Janet saw a sign for the school so we tried it.  School is out for the kids here and it was also a Sunday so we parked and walked back into town.  The town owes it’s existence to the fact that it is a stop for the Alaska Railroad and for whatever reason the Cruise ships have day tours up here.  The town is filled with trendy, boutiques, gift shops and restaurants. 

We continued on to Denali State Park where there are a couple of spots to see the mountain.  Still no luck!  The host at one of these spots told us how he had been working on something and was headed back to his trailer around 11:00 PM and he just happened to turn around.  The sun was hitting the mountain from the rear and the few clouds lower down were illuminated in a bright pink colour.  That was about three weeks ago he told us and he hasn’t seen it since.  This does not bode well for our chances to see it, but we will persevere.

We got to our campsite at the Denali Rainbow RV Park, which we had reserved for four nights.  Without a doubt the worst park that we have been in on this trip (and maybe every other trip!)  We are “shoe horned” into a spot only slightly wider than our trailer and we look out on rusty oil drums and front-end loaders.  A really bad place.  But we do have a strong Wi-Fi signal so we can stay in our trailer, close the blinds and surf the Internet when we aren’t out exploring.