Day 22 - July 5th, 2010 Chena Hot Springs to Talkeetna, AK

It was good to get back on the road again after three days of essentially laying around.  Chena Hot Springs was fun but there was more fun to be found.  Today we would travel south from Fairbanks towards Anchorage.  Sure enough, it started to rain heavily on  the way into Fairbanks which justified a long breakfast at Denny's, the same one I had hid from the rain in back in 2006.  Obviously, Tammy is not enthused about the rain.

Rained nearly the entire way south.  Stopped at a roadside bar named Skinny Dick's for a soda.  Tammy spend half an hour just reading the wall postings in the place.  Certainly needed no photos from inside here.

Denali Park was an intended stop but the rain, fog, and cloud cover discouraged that.  Truth is we misseed the turn-off to the park and just kept riding south looking for better weather.  Only about 20% of visitors actually see the top of Mt. McKinley and I knew we wouldn't see it this trip either.  Later talked to a couple from Wisconsin who had taken an 8 hour bus ride thru the park and saw nothing but rain and fog.  Would have liked to have seen the visitor center though.

Distant scenery south of  Denali Park was good and we crossed numerous deep gorges on long bridges.  One scared the heck out of us because it was high and very, very windy.  Probably a worse scare than any deep road gravel encountered.  Hurricane Gulch bridge:

Made it to the town of Talkeetna just north of Wasilla.  Quaint little town that had gone from nothing to a tourist trap.  Numerous good eateries and micro-breweries.  Just fun walking around and viewing the local hippies.  Seemed to be a get away for Anchorage residents to go to their wekend house.  Flights were available here to fly around Mt McKinley for about $450 each.

Good campground but the 11 PM train thru town surely woke everyone.