Tok

After an another uneventful border crossing, this time into Alaska, we headed for Tok. Things were still rather gloomy and chilly, so we wanted to find camp as soon as possible. We checked out a couple of spots along the road, and finally settled on the cleanest site, though not the most private.

The first thing we noticed were the giant mosquitos! They were swarming all around us and were huge. Thankfully, Wes had the forethought to order a massive mosquito net that we haven’t even come close to needing up until that point. We quickly draped the net over the open side of the awning. Between that and the Thermacell, we were saved! It was late enough that we just ate, changed, and went to bed. It was cold, but manageable even without a fire.

The big ol' mosquito net!

We woke to a lovely sunrise and managed to get on the road early. On our way out we saw a mama moose and her calf munching on leaves on the side of the road. It was so cool! We stayed far back, took some video, and continued on our way to Fairbanks.

Pano of our sunrise that morning.

Fairbanks

We made great time to Fairbanks, and luckily our hotel let us check-in early. We arrived at the hotel and were pleasantly surprised by a clean and cozy place. It was right in downtown Fairbanks so we were surrounded by little shops and restaurants; we were even able to walk to lunch! We ate at a cute little Thai place with a vegan menu. Then we walked around, stopping to get coffee and check out a couple gift shops, then headed back to our place to get some laundry done.

Fairbanks photos. It looks gloomy but it was pretty nice and there was color everywhere!

Our drive to Denali was fairly short, so we took out time the next morning. We got ready for the day and made our way down to the complimentary breakfast. We then headed across the street and did the river-walk around the Chena River. It took us over a couple of bridges and it was nice to get our and stretch our legs a bit. We headed back, got all packed up, and checked out. We went to the nearest familiar grocery store to get supplies for Tek.

We gassed up and made our way to Denali National Park.

Denali

Teklanika River Campground is the furthest a civilian vehicle can drive into the park. You must stay a minimum of three nights and your vehicle cannot leave your site. Because we didn't want to be stuck at camp for three days, we decided to purchase a Tek Pass. This allowed us to get on the bus and travel the 60-odd miles through to the end of the park.

Our site inside the Tek River Campground.

We ended up with a great bus driver who made stops at every animal we saw. This included nearly ten grizzly bears, several moose, a few heards of caribou, a couple of black bears, and even a lynx! We also got to see Cathedral Mountain and both Denali peaks. It was awesome!

Some of these are from a close hike we did, and others from the start of our bus adventure.
More hiking and views from the bus.

Anchorage

In Anchorage, where I am writing this now, we had a three night stay at a nice hotel. We ended up being guests of the day so we got some free upgrades and breakfast vouchers for our whole stay. We were able to have a good balance of rest and adventure during our time here. Between the weather and the fires going on, we didn't make it out of the city, but we were able to see a lot.

We checked out the Anchorage Museum and had a blast. There was a ton a beautiful artwork, along with a few exhibits featuring different parts of Alaska. We even got to see the limited Death on the Ice exhibit that was all about an exploration crew that mysteriously went missing and perished. I loved this one because there were actual artifacts from the ships that were finally found in 2014, over 160 years after it went missing.

We were able to make it out for a nice dinner at a fun spot, 49th State Brewing Co. It was delicious and cool to experience a local hangout.

The next day we walked and walked all around the city. We saw the state dedication site, a firefighters memorial, the train station, and we walked part of the coastal trail.

Alaska is so colorful!

This morning we got all cleaned up and are currently doing laundry before heading out to the road. We are making our way back to Tok (hopefully a little farther) after laundry and a quick stop at the store. It's a little bit of a late start to a long day, but we are itching to get back on the road and make our way home.

This will be our last post for a little while as we will be back into Yukon territory and won't have service for a bit. Thank you all for following along! I can't wait to share more photos with you.

-Bri