Reflections Two - America From Our RV Door: Alaskan Adventure - August 8-9, 2014

As the week came to an end, Joyce and I planned a little road trip. Glenn had gone camping with his brother, nephew and family. That left Al, and he planned to work the weekend.

But first, on Thursday, being a sunny warm day we went to Pioneer Park here in Fairbanks. We enjoyed looking at the old buildings making up the park, and strolling through the shops. We had not ridden the train that goes around the park, so we climbed aboard.

We discovered a part of the town that we had not seen before aboard the train.

We left early on Friday to drive to the quaint little town of Talkeetna. We had visited on our four day trip, but did not get to spend much time looking around. I admit it is a "tourist trap" but we both wanted to go back so we took the weekend to visit.

When we reached Nenana, we got breakfast at the cafe Rough Woods Inn.

We had a good breakfast then continued our journey.

There was some construction along the way and by the time we reached Healy, Alaska, we needed another break. Healy is a short distance outside of Denali National Park and Preserve.

The drive from Fairbanks to Healy is breathtaking. I so love the mountains.

We finally reached our destination and had a few hours to look around.

We ate at a family style restaurant. "Just find a seat anywhere". It looks like an old farmhouse with long kitchen tables.

On our drive back we found lodging at the McKinley Princess Lodge. It was beautiful, nestled in the mountainside.

Our accommodations were lovely.

The lodge was beautiful inside.

The large back porch overlooked the mountains toward Mt McKinley.

She showed us a little bit of her glory while we were there. Look above the clouds to the brighter snow capped Mt. McKinley. It towers above her sister mountains.

This pic is zoomed in so that is why it is not very clear, but you can see in comparison how much the Great One stands above the other mountains. Mt, McKinley stands 20,320 feet tall.

Our "cabin". The room was very nice.

And the flowers beautiful.

Basket hanging outside the main lodge.

The next morning we had a bagel and enjoyed the scenery on the porch a bit but we had a ways to go to reach Denali. We knew we wanted to spend some time in the park and explore some more shops.

Joyce had not gotten to visit Denali Park (only to catch a train) so we decided to go to the dog sled demonstration.

The dog tack room.

Enjoying the afternoon sun.

After the talk from the ranger, explaining how these are the only working dogs in the US park system and their importance, it was time to hook them up to the sled. These dogs knew when it was time to show us their stuff and excited they became. It was as if each one were saying "pick me, pick me"! Barking and jumping, raring to run.