Healy/Denali Town Center (August 4-7) - Sam's brother was in Fairbanks for work at the time so we stayed in his hotel parking lot the night before and woke up to meet him inside for a nice continental breakfast - great start to the day! It was a short drive to Denali, just under 2 hours. There is one thing we've noticed that Alaska LOVES - their espresso's. In each town, or in the middle of nowhere, there are trailers/trains turned into little shops that sell coffee drinks and usually some bakery or sandwiches, and their sign almost always advertising espresso's. Each one unique in their own way makes you wanna stop at all of them! So on our way to the Denali area we ended up at Gold Hill Express because we filled up with gas right next to it and we both like convenience :) We got a mocha which was very sweet, but very good. High five for sugar highs! Abby has a family friend that comes up to Alaska each summer to work for a water rafting company in Denali so we got in touch and she recommended we stay at Denali Outdoor Center which is located in Healy, 10 miles from the Denali town center. This park was beautiful and we lucked out being able to stay in the best site, with no reservations! We enjoyed camp for awhile, walking Nelly down to Otto Lake so she could swim and get some energy out. There was a European couple on the dock so we were trying to be polite keeping Nelly on the shore, but oh did she wanna jump off that dock so bad! We let her get a couple in, sorry not sorry? We started hearing music and laughter across the lake so the curiosity kicked in and we headed over to find a blueberry fest! FREE mini blueberry pies topped with blueberry ice cream and blueberry popcorn - umm yes please, and thank you! It was a great appetizer and then we headed over to the the Totem Inn to grab dinner. After that we made a quick stop back to camp to see Nelly and kill some time. On our way back we saw a Moose and two calfs - so exciting! We headed back to the bar area of Totem Inn that night to meet Aly (the family friend who works for the rafting company) and some of her friends. One being Savannah, who works for an ATV adventure company. ATV & Rafting Tours (August 5) - We were able to fit into the 1 o'clock ATV tour and the 6:30 rafting tour - both for free! Huge saving!! We started the day off with a big egg scramble and walk with Nelly, then we were off for tour #1. We took a shuttle from the Denali town center to a section of public land that is surrounded by Denali National Park (ATV riding is illegal in National Parks). We had the choice to ride on a single or side by side and decided on the side by side because neither of us had been in one before and we weren't sick of each other yet! The tour went through some very beautiful spots and we stopped three times at overlooks. We were starving by the end (3:30) so stopped at 49th State Brewing on our way back to camp for a drink & hot pretzel and cheese. Something about hot cheese makes everything better... am I right, or am I right? We got back to camp to give Nelly some attention before our next tour. Took a walk down to the lake, this time to a different spot through the woods, past unused tent sites, and it was beautiful. Before we knew it, it was rafting time! Out of the two tour options we were put on the more adventurous one with class 3 and 4 rapids. We rafted down the Nenana River and it too was a beautiful trip. We were wearing dry suits since the river is made up of glacier water and at one point, where it was a bit more calm, we had the opportunity to jump in if we wanted. Once one person went in, we all did, it was really cool to just bob in the water! The tour lasted 3 hours so we were pretty tired by the time we got back. Denali National Park (August 6) - This was not as adventurous and exciting as we were hoping it would be. Dogs are only allowed outside your vehicle in restricted areas (like the parking lot) and the cheapest bus tour we found was $80/person which we didn't feel like paying, so we were limited to the first 15 miles open to the public. From that point forward only shuttle/bus tours are allowed. The only wildlife we saw was a caribou. There was no parking available near the Savage River, which would have been fun to hang around a bit, so it was a quick in and out, but we'll be back one day! Also the camping sites fill up quickly and have stupid dog rules :/ Denali National Park was just not for us. Get this though ... later on we found out there was a shuttle to take you a bit further in for about $30/person. Mannnnnn. Ya win some ya lose some I guess. Denali State Park (August 6-7) - From the National Park we made our way to Byers Lake Campground within Denali State Park. On our way we kept passing cars pulled over and people out on the side of the road. We finally realized they were picking berries, so we decided to follow suit and grab some bowls and our hiking shoes. Nelly had fun at first, running around thinking we were going for a long hike, then she realized we were just staying in one area and had enough. We put her back in the camper and continued picking for about an hour, accumulating a half gallon of berries! Once we got to the campground we set up camp and took the truck down to the boat launch to take the Green Bean (our canoe) for a ride. Sam had built a new canoe motor mount when we were in Banff so we tried that out for the first time and had a very relaxing ride! The sun was setting and the views of the mountains were beautiful. Anchorage (August 7-10) - We left Byers Lake Campground in the Denali State Park around 1 and had a 2.5 hour drive to Anchorage. We stopped at the Denali Viewpoint South to catch a glimpse of the 20,310 ft. mountain, Denali or McKinley, whichever you prefer to call it. It is North America's highest mountain. The weather plays a huge role in whether or not you'll be able to see it - they say in the summertime visitors only have a 30-40% chance of seeing it, even inside the park. I'd say we got pretty dang lucky :) Once we left, we passed...you guessed it...an espresso stand. Got our mocha for the morning! When we finally got into Anchorage we were appalled - Walmart did not allow overnight stays - what?! Thankful that Cabela's allowed us to stay not just one night, but three. It was actually a great location and we've come to find that a lot of RV parks are just parking lots anyway. They do it figuring we'll stop in and buy at least one thing, and I could have easily stocked up on beef jerky, but do I REALLY need it? That's what I have to keep asking myself on this trip. The answer was a sad no. Sam surprised me for dinner by taking me out for pizza! Oh have I missed pizza. We went to Moose`s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria which is one of the highest reviewed pizza joints in Anchorage and has house-brewed beer. We weren't disappointed and as always, had leftovers for lunch the next day :) Sam had to work the next two mornings and while he did that I cleaned and organized the camper (already time to do it again) and took Nelly for walks. His brother Ben was in Anchorage as well, so we picked him and one of his work friends up to go watch float planes take off and land at Lake Hood. We also checked out the bar Darwin's Theory with the rest of Ben`s work group. It was a quirky, fun, and smart bar for offering free popcorn! A regular across the bar got us all our first drinks and before we left the bartender went over to him to settle the tab, which was at least 4' long! How long was he there buying people drinks??? Good man! We picked Ben up from his hotel the morning of the 10th to head to the Kenai Peninsula - another free breakfast :)
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