The Great One (Day 11)

Today we traveled from Willow to Fairbanks, which runs through the Denali National Forest.

Denali is the tallest peak in North America. The name means "The Great One" in Athabaskan. When McKinley was running for office, a local prospector pushed for the mountain to be named after him because he was a strong proponent in The Gold Standard.  The name was denied because of law that said the mountain could not be named for anyone who is living.  So, when President McKinley died, the mountain was officially named after him.

Since then, Alaska has formally requested from congress that the name be changed back to the native name of "Denali".  The problem now is that there are other laws which state that these requests will not be considered if there is pending legislation on the matter, and there is a congressman from the same state McKinley is from who purposely keep pending legislation to avoid any name change.

The mountain itself is pretty impressive and there are a few pull-offs outside of the park on the way where you can get a pretty good view. On this day there were clouds at the top of the mountain, which is common because of the micro-climate of the mountain.

The national park itself wasn't that different than the other parts of alaska we were seeing.  I think one of the displays in the visitor's center said it best, "Denali's borders only exist on maps".  If you want to drive (or ride) through the park, you can only go 15 miles in before you must turn around.  If you want to commit to a 6+ hour bus tour, you can go in further.  My national park pass covered me + 4 others so we all just opted to go for a ride up to the 15 mile mark.  As far as wildlife, we saw caribou and seagulls.  I think the sheer mass of Alaska's wilderness downplays the wilderness of the park itself, or rather the park stands for a lot more than its borders, which we have been enjoying for many days now.

After about an hour and a half, we were back on Parks Highway heading north to Fairbanks.  About 20 miles north of Denali National park, I saw my first fox.  He sprinted along the right side of the highway and stopped fast to look back at something.

Before we got to Denali, we passed by "Wall * Mikes", which was a sight to see. We turned around and pulled in his parking lot.  This place was a cross between a junk yard and a Wallmart.  He had random things like license plates, animal pelts, new hardware, new spark plugs, and all the "junk" looked as though it was very thoughtfully placed.

You didn't have to talk to the guy to know get a sense of his world view as Glenn Beck was blaring on the TV in the background, Sara Palin signs and newspapers were featured all over, Illegal Alien and Atheist jabs on merchandise here and there, etc.  I've never seen a place like this and I don't think I ever will again unless I travel back up that road.  I did end up picking up a couple Alaska plates since there's not many souvenirs I can pack in the bike easily.

Just before Wall Mikes was a little town called Trapper's Creek.  We turned left off the road to head for a little roadhouse in Petersville which we were told was about 20 miles in.  The hunters were out in force around this area. It was pretty common to see trucks with empty trailers where they took off on their ATVs. There were also base camps where they would setup their RVs/Campers.  We got to the Roadhouse and were greeted by some barking dogs.  The place ended up being closed during the week, so we just ate a quick snack and turned around.

We arrived in Fairbanks around 8pm and had a drink at a cool looking and very run down bar about where my GPS pointed as downtown.  It was the usual selection of draft brew for here in Alaska, coors, bud, or Alaskan Amber.  This stop is going to be a couple days of hotel stay, so we thumbed through the milepost book and called the advertisers to find the beset value.  I didn't want to stay in a stinky motel with cigarette holes in the sheets like I did in Bellingham and fortunately I came across a great price at the Alpine Lodge.

Fairbanks has a much better feel than Anchorage.  There's still a lot of businesses, but nowhere near as much traffic. Everything is much more spread out.  There are rivers that run through town and it looks to be a very inviting place to explore.