From Denali NP toward Anchorage

July 18 - 20  Days 40-42

Leaving Denali ~10:00am, we drove down the Parks Highway toward Anchorage.  On the drive down, we drove through some small villages where I would ask myself, "what do these people do?, where do they work?"  We came into one village that hosts an annual fireweed festival about the third weekend in July when the fireweed is blooming.  It is a beautiful, fuchsia colored, wild flower that blooms from the bottom up. 

Once the blooms reach the top, it starts to go to seed.  When it goes to seed, the locals claim there are only six more weeks until winter.

It rained off and on until we stopped in Wasilla for the evening.  Wasilla is an interesting place; home of Sarah Palin and the fastest growing city in Alaska.  I must say, from what I've seen so far, if I had to move to Alaska, Wasilla would be my choice, judging from stores and demographics.  Although I do find it interesting that this small city of ~10k people has seven drive through expresso stands, many of which are open 24 hours.  Wasilla is the headquarters of the Iditarod Dog Sled race.  We went there because it seemed interesting and to give me the opportunity to see if this is something in which I would like to participate.  I am not interested!  But, we did get to hold some of the puppies.

The cost of groceries are more in line with what we are accustomed down in Wasilla.

As we got into Anchorage, we camped at a municipal campground then took our bikes and biked into downtown  Anchorage.  The campground office told us where to catch the bike trail, which we did with no problem, but what they did not tell us is the bike path took us through the seediest part of the city, past the shelter for the homeless, drunks, and drug users.  When we got past that, I told Bonnie we would find another way back to the campground.  Downtown Anchorage was not too bad when you could look out across the bay and see mountains.

 We did find a different route back and the length of the ride was 19 miles.



OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data):

• on the drive down from Denali, there were no mailboxes along the main highway, but where there were gravel side roads, all the mailboxes were lined up at the end of the road for the residents so the mail carrier does not have to drive down the side roads.
• we also noticed when driving down the main highway, there would be these fancy signs that read "Welcome to what ever" town.  But the sign was posted  several miles, 5-10, out before you actually get there.  Then when you do get there, it has 1 gas station, a post office, a campground, and maybe as small grocery store.  The larger villages will also have a visitor center which often would be the size of a bedroom in your house.