July 18th, 2018
I thought I left at 6:50am, and was driving passed the University of Fairbanks when I saw their outside clock read 5:50am! My watch and phone reset to BC time! Oh well. LOL
On my way south towards Denali, or what once was called Mount MacKinley, I made a stop in Nenana. Nenana is where the golden spike was nailed by President Warren G. Harding, who was the first US President to visit Alaska. It was pretty cool to see the location where the golden spike ceremony took place … it must have been quite the thing for the community back in the day.
This spike signified the completion of the Alaskan railroad from tidewater to the interior on July 15, 1923. Before the ceremony a hole was drilled in the tie for the last spike to be hammered in by the President. After the ceremony the golden spike was returned to the owner and to this day remains in private ownership.
Another interesting point about President Harding that his trip to Alaska was part of a cross country tour he was doing giving speeches from the train. He called this tour the “Voyage of Understanding”. He started this tour in June of 1923, in which he had visited many states from this time including the July 15th visit to Alaska. President Harding was on touring in San Francisco when he died and did not complete his tour. It was planned that after California he would return to Washington, DC via the Panama Canal.
After a few minutes, I headed south towards Denali National Park. Before I left Fairbanks, I had tried to book a campsite as this was highly recommended in one of the books I read. Unfortunately, I was way too late to get a spot. Everything in the park was booked until the end of July! I had no idea there would be that many people going up to here.
I stopped at a few viewpoints to take some lovely landscape shots.
As I drove by the park, there were already a great deal of people driving in. I chose not to go to the park as you need to pay $10 entrance fee and $60.00 to take a bus up to the end of the park. You need a full day to do this and should be staying in the park to minimize driving time. The campsites outside of the park are over 50 miles away.
I continued to drive and stopped to take some photo’s of Denali Mountain (Mount McKinley) as it is the tallest mountain in North America. It was quite a beautiful site I must say … so majestic. It stood so much higher above the other mountains and looked like it was completely covered in snow. I can't imagine climbing that one, personally.
At the last place I stopped to take a photo of the mountain, I was talking to an elderly couple who also stopped to take a photo. They indicated how lucky we were. When I asked if it was because of the clear sky, they stated it was. They had some friends who had been coming up to Denali for years and not once did they get to see all of it as it was usually covered in with clouds.
I got back on the road and continued south. I made a side road stop in Talkeetna. This was an interesting town and I could not believe all the people that were there! I mostly saw people eating or visiting stores, but I could not see that there was any main event taking place.
I continued driving south and passed by Anchorage. I didn’t feel like a visit to another major center and headed towards Homer. I knew I would not make it that far and turned off onto a side road that went to Portage. I had asked an information center staff member of any place where there has been wildlife sitings and he indicated that this place he had heard black bear were in the area. He also indicated it was a quiet area to go … this I needed. When I was camping in Fairbanks, there were planes flying directly over head, train whistles and vehicles roaring by … I did not sleep well. LOL
I turned off the road and went towards Portage Glacier. Just short of the glacier is Black Bear Campground. This campground, is not full and is very quiet …. Ahhh … loving it!
After setting up, I took the short drive to Portage Glacier. You drive through a small tunnel and there was a pull-out with an excellent view of the glacier.
There was a sign that talked about the toll that you pay to continue on the road. It costs $13.00 return for a regular sized vehicle to go through the longest highway tunnel in North America ... 2.5 miles long. This tunnel was constructed by the army in 1941 and was completed in 1943 to run a railway through. There is only one lane in the tunnel and is also now being shared with vehicles. Vehicles going to Whittier can do so every hour on the half hour and to go to Portage it is every hour on the hour. When a train runs through they must take time to ventilate the air in this tunnel. It is quite an engineering marvel, indeed.
After taking some photo's, I thought I would come back in morning if the wind calms.