Day 7 - Saturday, August 08

We slept in a bit and after breakfast we headed to the famous Denali Park. Things are really restrict here. Visits are controlled and the easier way to get to the heart of the park is paying from $ 24.70 to $31.45 depending how long your wish to be in a bus, or you can pay $20 per car to drive your own car the first 15 miles only! We were luck and today it was FREE, but we could not go that far. Anyway, it was gorgeous! Just how we pictured what Alaska would be: trees, mountains and lakes. You feel like in Into the Wild movie. In fact, we saw a bunch of young people hiking, and they look just the film’s main character, Christopher McCandless.

From www.imdb.com: Based on a true story. After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters who shape his life.

This beautiful pink flower called Fireweed is everywhere, making the driving even prettier.

Side note: “the bus”

We were very close to the Stampede Trail, just off the Denali Park, where Christopher McCandless died from starvation four months after starting his journey into the wild. The bus that was his home from a while is still close by, but you need to hike about 2 days to get there. Apparently after the book was published in 1996, hundreds of followers hike to the bus to pay tribute to this symbol of freedom of the 1990s. I see Into the Wild the Easy Rider of the modern days.

From Denali Park, we drove south to Anchorage. The driving was a lot busier with many tour buses and RVs. Lots of cruise ships stop here and take its passengers to the Denali Park. We kind of miss our dead roads. In Anchorage after searching for hotels for one hour, we picked one downtown for its location and price. But it is super sketchy. Oh well, it’s just a night!

Anchorage is the largest city of Alaska, with 280.000 people, or more than 40% of Alaska total population.

Side note for Ishak: please show Nardine and Carol that I have been wearing the pink sweater they gave to me.

Day 7 balance

Kms: 460
Hours driving: 6 hours
From to: Healy (Denali park) to Anchorage
Hotel: Inlet INN ($81 plus taxes – really bad!)
Animals: none