(June 9-14, 2018 – Fairbanks to Healy and Denali National Park, Alaska)

From North Pole/Fairbanks we headed down the Parks Highway towards Healy, Alaska, for a five-night stay at the Denali RV Park. Road conditions were good along the Parks Highway, as was the weather – mostly sunny until we neared Healy, then patches of showers and increasing overcast. The rain held off until just after we setup camp, then came down in earnest.

Travel Itinerary 2018 – Alaska Part I

The Denali RV Park was a very nice basic campground with 30 amp full hookups and stunning mountain vistas. The RV park made a great base for exploring nearby Denali National Park and Preserve, as well as Healy and other sites nearby on the Parks Highway. We had mixed weather during our stay – sunny and partly cloudy mixed with afternoon rain showers or heavy rain. Still, nothing to put a damper on our activities and we enjoyed our stay at the campground.

During our stay we took several day-trips into Denali National Park and Preserve. The park entrance was only about five miles down the road from the campground.

One day we stopped at the visitor center and drove as far as mile fifteen to the Savage River Checkpoint – this is as far into the park as personal vehicles may go. Along the way we took our time and enjoyed the stunning mountain vistas and a few moose sightings.

Another day, we booked a six-hour tour on the green-line transit bus which goes as far as the Toklat River – about 52 miles into the park. The green-line buses are less expensive than the fully guided tours, but still have commentary by the driver, make several scenic stops, and stop for wildlife sightings. 

Since we would be gone most of the day, we left our pups at the trailer and arranged for the RV park’s dog-walking service to get them out for a break several times during the day.

We are glad we took the bus tour, as the scenery was spectacular and we saw a lot of wildlife, including moose, caribou, grizzly bears, Dall sheep, and a willow ptarmigan. We thoroughly enjoyed the drive and cam highly recommend the experience if you ever get to Denali. We did find that more popular tours book up fast, so get reservations ahead of time if possible.

Other highlights of our stay in the area include shopping at the McKinley resort shops just outside of the park entrance, as well as several meals at the 49th State Brewing Company in Healy.

We especially enjoyed 49th State Brewing because they had a covered patio where we could take our pups for brews and grub. The food was good and we really enjoyed sampling several of the brews – the pups enjoyed attention from the servers and other guests, as well as the occasional scrap! The brewery also has on display a replica(?) of the bus used in the Into the Wild movie. Very interesting to see.

All too soon our stay was over and it was time to move on down the road. We enjoyed our stay and would love to return another time. Our only regret was that the weather did not cooperate such that we could get a view of Mount Denali – too much haze and cloud cover. Maybe next time we will see Denali and take the eleven-hour tour out to Wonder Lake.

That’s all for now. Safe travels and enjoy the journey!