Interior Alaska
By Jaimy de Vries
After an amazing scenic drive through the Hatchers pass we arrived in Central Alaska where our big wilderness adventure starts. First we will stay two nights in an old transit bus, aka “the magic bus” (reference to into the wild movie) in Talkeetna. The next days we will drive up to the Denali national park entrance from where we’ll explore more of the wilderness. After our adventurous trip we take a nice scenic train ride to Fairbanks where our Alaska adventure will come to an end.
The "magic" bus
On our road trip to Talkeetna we did kill some time and we did it good (see previous blog post). We arrived at 5 pm. We looked forward to this stay weeks before we even got to Alaska: the bus!! Similar like the magic bus from the movie into the wild. A movie that motivated me to travel and go to beautiful Alaska. It’s almost the same bus, but this one was close to a town (Talkeetna) and was quite luxurious. We had electronic power, a kitchen with gas and we could make a fire inside. The only thing we didn’t had was wifi. Well if that’s the worst thing…. We enjoyed staying in the bus, cooking, playing games together and do some writing. We took a little stroll in Talkeetna downtown a cute little town with lots of giftshops and restaurants and we found a wifi spot to tell our family we’re okay!
After our “magic bus” we had another into the wild experience: we went to Denali national park.
Me cutting wood
Jaron gave it a try too
Home-made spaghetti with red wine
Denali wilderness park
After Talkeetna, the gateway to Denali national park, we actually went Denali national park. It was first settled by the nomadic Athabascan people, who traveled between summer and winter camps. During the gold rush lots of miners came to this place in search for more gold. After world war 2 the Alaska Highway was built, what boosted the economy of this region and now it’s Alaska’s top attraction. The expansive park sprawls across 9,420 square miles (almost 25.000 square km). The park’s highlight is the majestic Denali, North America’s highest peak that you can see everywhere in Denali national park. But Denali has also many beautiful remote lakes, glinsting glaciers and carpets of wildflowers. It’s also famous for the wide variety of wild animals, including caribou (reindeer), moose, grizzly bears, wolves and Dall sheep. Denali national park is a wilderness park, one of the highest protected areas. Visitors can only see a small part of the park, the rest is pure wilderness. There is only one road that goes into the park.
After a 2,5 hour drive from Talkeetna we reached the park. The park is really good accessible and we were suprised you can park there for free. You only need to pay a visitors fee of $15 for one week. Around the visitor center there are various easy trails. The park is free accessible till mile 15 at Savage river. You can come here by car (parking limited) or take a free shuttle. They offer these shuttles to prevent lots of cars driving into the park. It works really well! There is a paid shuttle for $30 to get deeper into the park…to go further than the free accessible mile 15. The road ends at mile 92, but unfortunate the road accessibility ends at mile 43. This is because after mile 43 the road got heavenly damaged due to Pretty Rocks Landslide.
On our first day we decided to take the free shuttle to Savage River to get a bit familiar with the shuttle system and mainly the park itself. We only took the Savage river loop trail. There is a cooler hike, called the Savage Alpine trail, but this trail was closed due the bear activity. There was an animal carcass where bears were feeding on, this can be dangerous. They can get aggressive and agitated if you walk closely. On our shuttle back we saw our first big wildlife in Alaska so far: a moose! Finally!! And not just one, no a whole moose family! They were on the move, trying to get as far away from the grizzly bear that’s hunting their cub. Our first day was a good warming up for the next day. We ended our day with one of the best burgers we had at Jam Jam Spot in Cantwell and we had an amazing room with bath tub. A good way to end our day.
Drive to Denali National Park
Savage river loop trail
Moose family running away from a Grizzly bear who’s hunting their cub
The next day we needed to wake up very early. There were limited seating’s on the bus and we wanted to go early. But the only spot available was 6 am. Auch, that’s a bit too early because that means waking up at 4 am. But hey! The best moments to spot wildlife and to get good sceneries are very early or late. So… at 6 am our bus tour started. The beginning area between visitor center and sable pass is moose area, while the bus driver told this we spotted our first moose. Several others followed. While continuing our drive the clouds turned pink-blue and the sky was very clear. It’s going to be a good day! And we were even more lucky! We had an amazing crystal clear view over Denali mountain. That’s quite rare, because most of the time clouds cover the view.
The bus is a hop-on hop-of bus. You can ask the driver to stop and walk out into the wildernis. Exciting right? This is one of the best things to do in Denali. There are no trails and they want to keep it that way. So if you decide to hike, they ask you to walk next to each other (don’t walk into each other footsteps) and zig-zag your way through the bushes.
Our early morning bus
First spotted moose
A clear view over Denali mountain
First we drove all the way to the end in the bus, because the first busses are mostly fully occupied, so getting off early makes it difficult to get on a next bus. And it’s a nice way to first explore where you want to take off. We saw many wildlife along the way: first a couple of moose’s and then a grizzly bear, then another grizzly bear, groups of caribou’s and far in the distance some white dots (Dall sheep). Seeing that many wildlife, especially so many bears, made us a bit anxious to just step of the bus and wander into the wilderness. When we reached the end many people got off, but that spot wasn’t our favorite so we decided to stay in the bus and get off at another point. It was a good choice, because we saw a grizzly bear from up close! It was walking on the road, the bus was driving behind him but he didn’t got off.
The driver tried to push him off the road, but he didn’t. It was a stubborn bear. He stayed on the road for a long while and we were driving behind him. You saw he got agitated. But it got very exciting when we were getting closer to another bus and there were tourists outside! Our driver warned them through the radio several times, but probably the other driver turned it off. Status: an aggitated bear running towards tourist who are taking pictures outside …and the bad part: with their back towards the bear. Just right on time one of them turned their back, saw the bear and they all ran inside. Pfiew. After he went into the bushes, he followed our bus for a short while and gave us a final look. The good thing, I got it all on tape.
On the right you see a picture of him, giving us an angry look. After that he set off back into the wilderness.
Group of Caribou
A close-up
Bear on the road
Still on the road (look at those cute paws)
Wilderness hike
In the bus we met Lukas and Fenja. We asked them if they are planning to go for a hike to. They had quite a cool hike in mind and asked us of we could join them. Sure! It’s always better to go hiking in a group. It’s safer, especially with so many grizzlies around. We stepped out of the bus, just before sable pass, into the wildernis. You experience right away when you get off the road. You need to push your way into the bushes, jump over river streams and the ground can be soft (moss) or very slippery (gravel). We walked our way up to the first mountain ridge, we did that zig-zag to prevent making trails and it was kind of steep. We spotted our first wildlife in the wilderness: a group a caribou’s. Cool! We also saw lots of traces of active wildlife, fresh too. Like bear scatter and caribou footprints.
We made a quick ascent and after an hour we were already very high in the mountains. No bushes or tree’s anymore, but slippery gravel. We walked over one ridge to another. We went higher and higher. At one point the ridges looked quite dangerous, covered only with slippery gravel and steep descents. We walked around it and tried to find the safest way to continue. Eventually we saw a ridge with gravel that looked safe to walk on.
Already quite high, but still some bushes
Walking up you get better views, and vegetation starts to change
More gravel
Walking over a ridge gets more exciting
We got a tip from a ranger that if we walk into the wilderness it’s best to keep an eye on the road, so you never get lost. But Lukas wanted to go that far that we can’t see the road. That is actually cool, then you’re in the real wilderness. And we did know the way back. We hiked to an area where we couldn’t see any sight of the road. Eventually, after more than 2 hours of hiking, we had sight of the Cathedral mountain. The wind started to increase. It literally blew our hats off. Lukas lost his. We reached the top of Cathedral, but also many other mountain tops and we were (again) blown away by the views. To be surrounded by a huge mountain rage with many colors, from green-to orange-red-brown and white, is just so impressive. I think this is the best mountain view I’ve ever seen!
Enjoying the view from the ridges
Lay down and enjoy
Me at the top
After reaching the top at Cathedral we started walking down. Because we were surrounded by big steep mountains with only gravel we decided to follow a river stream through a canyon. There was the risk that it got too steep and narrow what would’ve make it impossible to cross and we need to walk the whole way back. But luckily it was doable. It was funny to walk through the canyon with many warm colored rocks. A very different sight than what we had before: now it felt like we were walking through Nevada. We eventually arrived safely back to the road. We waited for the bus. Because there was limited space (only two) we said goodbye to Lukas and Fenja. We were so tired afterwards, we went for an early dinner and went to bed early.
River stream through the canyon
Strong flower surviving through gravel
Walking in the canyon
Denali visitor center
The next day we took some hikes around the visitor center and we participated on the Sled dog show. The hikes were nice, especially the Horsehoe lake trial, but after taking two hikes we were done. We were so tired, still from the other day. But still some energy left to see the dog sled show. But this wasn’t a real show. We just saw a team of dogs taking a small loop. Most of the show was about a ranger who talked us about her work her, the purpose (transporting goods) and life of the sled dogs of Denali and some general information about how awesome (sled) dogs are. After that we agreed we’ve seen Denali for know and said goodby to our amazing adventure here.
The Alaskan railroad
Yeah finally our Alaskan railroad experience! A must thing to do when travelling in Alaska. We took a train ride on the Alaskan Railroad. It was a beautiful scenic drive from Talkeetna, across the Denali National park, to our final destination: Fairbanks. Just after we left Talkeetna we had an amazing view over the Denali mountain. The biggest mountain of Alaska, covered in snow. We were quite lucky because only 10% of the people on this train can see mount Denali. Most of the time the view is blocked by clouds.
We drove through boreal forest, wetlands, glacier rivers, rivers rich of salmon, through canyons and tundra. While on the train there was a tour guide who gave us an explanation about the area we were driving through. That was really nice! It’s not just an average train that brings you from point A to B. we also got to learn more about the history of the railroad. The railroad was built for the miners. There were lots of small villages, sometimes just one house, across the railroad built by and for the railroaders. Nowadays most of these towns and houses are abandoned.
Fairbanks
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My travel guide for your Interior Alaska trip
We stayed in Talkeetna, Denali national park and Fairbanks. The best way is to drive through Talkeetna straight to Fairbanks and from there discover Denali National park, or take the Alaskan Railroad and stop in Denali for a couple of days. Everything is accessible by foot from the Denali visitor center.
Denali national park
- Recommended duration visit: 2-3 days
- Best places to eat: burger sandwich at Jam's Jam's spot (Cantwell).
- Best hikes: Alphine savage river, Horshoe lake trail, wilderness hikes after passing mile 15.
- Highlighted things to do: Anchorage museum, Alaska native Heritage Center, shopping at 5th Avenue, exploring Chughach state park, Kayakking at Eluktna lake, Turnagain arm.
- Best accommodation: Cheaper accomodation in Cantwell and Healy.
- My favorite activity: Wilderness hike to Cathedral mountain