Homer Back to Cantwell

We left Homer planning to drive the 8 hours back up to Cantwell. As it turned out this was a great decision on our part. In order to get back to Cantwell we had to retrace our steps along the Turnagain Arm. Laura was on the phone with the Cantwell RV Park making reservations and was reading off credit card numbers when DR noticed the bore tide wave working its way inland in the channel adjacent to the roadway. He started pounding on Laura to look and she followed DR’s pointing out the window and so we both managed to see what was a single one to two foot bore tide wave with a few ripples following it coming in the Turnagain Arm. Hooorah!!!! DR later checked the tide tables and did the calculations to confirm that the bore tide should have been where we saw it when we saw it. Sorry, we didn’t get any photos of the bore tide, we were driving inside a construction zone.

Just to assure us that Murphy is never far away, VanGo’s dashboard lit up with an engine checklight, a brake pad service warning and a low diesel emission fluid light. DR had his computer talk to VanGo’s computer and we determined that the engine checklight was bogus. We refilled the DEF fluid and DR looked at the brake pads and didn’t feel it was as urgent as it sounded.

About an hour from our destination we turned onto a long straight away and we were both blown away by our first sighting of Denali. It was pretty hazy, but not a cloud in the sky. We had read and been told that only 30% of visitors to Denali National Park ever actually see Denali (aka Mount McKinley) the tallest mountain on the North American Continent. It was absolutely awesome. We immediately pulled over and tried to get some photos. A short distance down the road we pulled into a designated Denali viewpoint and got some more photos.

The Cantwell RV Park is one of our favorite campgrounds. Although it is parking-lot style the staff are great, the laundry facility cheap, and the showers, toilets and laundry very clean and we can get a space that is close to these facilities. It is also close enough that we can run up to the Denali Park Road and drive the 15 public miles into the park where we frequently see moose. Some may say that we really like this campground just because our favorite gourmet restaurant, The McKinley Creekside Cafe, is just 13 miles down the road, but honestly we only went out to dinner there twice this time.

our first view of Denali

Denali

fireweed flowers

dramatic mountains and sky

bull moose

moose cow

moose cow and two calves

cow moose

cow moose and two calves

mama moose cow