Chapter 8: Going To The Dogs
It was time for a rest day. We’d been going hard the last few days, alternating between making long drives on bumpy, sometimes-paved roads in the middle of nowhere and paying someone else to take us on a bus on a long, bumpy, sometimes-paved road in the middle of nowhere.
So we slept in all the way till, I dunno, 7 a.m. or so. The teens probably slept longer but Julie and I are just physically incapable of sleeping in anymore. I don’t know when exactly you lose that ability, but I think it’s somewhere between the 79th and 127th iterations of your little kid bursting into your room at 6 a.m. on a Saturday to demand your passcode so they can play unsupervised games on the iPad.
Anyway, we eventually got up and ate our pop tarts, but we decided we needed an improvement over the crappy hotel room coffee, so we drove into the tourist trap area outside the park gates and stopped at a coffee shop there. I knew I was in trouble right away when one of the baristas started giving me crap for my Philadelphia Eagles cap. So I asked him what his team was, and added, “Don’t tell me…Dallas?” Then I went to my standard defense, which is a version of this meme:
(The joke being that most Cowboys fans are frontrunners who jumped on the bandwagon when they were winning championships in the distant past. They're all Yankees fans for the same reason.)
(Yes, I know what they say about having to explain a joke. Shut up.)
Of all the coffee shops in the world, I get the one managed by a Cowboys fan. Sigh. Most likely, this meant that they served their best coffee over 30 years ago but still wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from telling you how great it once was.
I’m kidding. Kind of. We actually had a good-natured back and forth and the coffee was pretty darn good. I don’t think the guy spit in it.
We drove back into Denali National Park and parked by the visitor center. Drew had a couple of items left to work on in his Junior Ranger book, so we knocked them out and then went on a short hike. It led down a hill and through the forest to a small bridge over Hines Creek, where we had a view of the railroad bridge crossing the same creek.
It was a pretty easy walk. Just enough to get some fresh air. As you can see, the kids were captivated.
The visitor center looked like a neat building. Too bad we weren’t allowed inside.
Drew turned in his booklet and was once again sworn in to get his badge. Then we got back in the van and drove another mile or two up the park road to our final stop in the park: the
Denali sled dog kennels.
In normal years, tourists are allowed to wander the kennels, pet the dogs, speak to the rangers who train them, and watch a sled dog demonstration. But in 2020, the entire area was closed to visitors completely due to the pandemic. I’d hoped we would get to visit in 2021, and…was mostly right. The kennel was open, but they were not holding any demonstrations because apparently COVID spreads faster when dogs are actively running or pulling a sled. I dunno.
In any case, it was certainly better than nothing. The path was set up in a U-shape, and we were told to enter at one end of the U, stay inside the ropes, and we could take as long as we liked as long as we moved in a clockwise direction. But we couldn’t turn around and go backwards due to the pandemic, because COVID spreads more easily if you walk counter-clockwise. We were welcome to pet the dogs if they were within reach. Some wanted more affection than others. This one was absolutely thrilled to be touched by a 7-year-old.
This one, named Venture, seemed more into the idea. SUCH A GOOD DOG!
Sorry, it’s hard not to go all *doggy voice* when there are so many adorable creatures around.
A few of the dogs were kept in pens rather than out in the open. I suppose they have their reaso—wait, what??
Ok, so maybe they’re not the smartest creatures around.
These two dogs were having themselves a tussle, while the others looked on in excitement.
Topo, however, just wasn’t having any of it.
The one time all of the dogs showed noticeable excitement was when they all suddenly jumped up on top of their doghouses, seemingly all at once.
As it turned out, they were able to tell exactly when the rangers/volunteers had emerged from the shed carrying their morning meal.
Our favorite of the bunch was this beautiful creature, Behnti.
She was kind of a hot mess. At first, she was very happy to lounge by the ropes and have the kids love on her while she basked in their affection. But after the food was brought out, she got a burst of energy and was all over the place. She was starting wrestling matches with other dogs, and then when they lost interest, she decided to go treasure-hunting.
She kept digging in this one spot until the volunteers tried to stop her and move her away. But Behnti watched them like a hawk, and no matter how much they guarded the spot or covered it back over with dirt, the second they got distracted she was all over it, digging a hole to China again. It provided an endless source of amusement for us.
She just looks like a stinker, doesn’t she?
Once we were finally able to tear everyone away from the sled dogs, we had our lunch and then drove a couple of hours down the road, turning onto a spur road that led us to the town of Talkeetna.
I’d read about Talkeetna in quite a few travel books/websites about Alaska. It was portrayed as a central hub of all sorts of activities for people visiting the Denali area—you could sign up for flightseeing, white water rafting, 4x4 tours, fishing expeditions, etc. But when we got there, I think we all wondered what all the hubbub was about. It’s basically a tiny one-street town. There’s a few shops and restaurants and…that’s about it.
It didn’t take nearly as much time as I though it would to wander and explore the town. We found a Denali park office and thought about checking out the exhibits inside, but once again it was closed due to COVID requirements.
At least the hotel was nice. I’d found the
Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge through the
Pursuit Alaska travel site, one which offers a variety of tours and lodges for visitors. The key discovery was that they held a Black Friday sale in which all of their tours and lodges were 40% off regular prices, so I’d booked a few items on the day after Thanksgiving. This hotel was one of them, and it was an attractive place to stay—sort of a Wilderness Lodge-lite.
There was the obligatory lobby with the tall fireplace:
And a patio out back where you could get a view of Denali and the Alaska Range. Or, at least I’m assuming 30% of visitors could.
Staying here had been part of my grand plan to maximize our chances of seeing Denali, in case we hadn’t been able to see the mountain the day before on our park tour. As it turned out, we’d been fortunate earlier in the week. Which, of course, I was very thankful for.
We relaxed a bit in the lodge and wandered the grounds before heading to town for dinner. It was somewhat crowded given the relatively few options, but somehow we lucked into a table for 6 just as another large group was leaving at the
Denali Brewpub.
We got off to a bit of a rough start as the server rattled off a couple of items that they were already out of for the day. But we just worried about the things that were under our control, and I zeroed in on the Pretzel Dip sandwich—basically a French Dip in a pretzel roll.
Oh man, that was good. The beer I tried wasn’t all that great, so that was a bit of a bummer. But I think that was just my poor choice. I'm sure if I tried some of the other options, I could have found one I liked more. Anyway, the food made the meal a winner.
Except at the end, when we tried to order another peanut butter pie and were told they were out.
So we took the L on that one and went back for some rest. We’d be back on the road in the morning.
Coming Up Next: Some fog, some rain, some ice, some sun, and then we stumble into a race.
