Trip Day all the way to Kantishna

The end of the Denali National Park and Preserve is called Kantishna.

Kantishna is a mining town that has retired and most of the old town site is privately owned. It is totally surrounded by National Park land. To get to the end of the road is quite a journey. Let me take you there from Teklanika.

The way you get around the National Park beyond Savage River Bridge is by bus. You can drive your RV, TT, 5er, to CT out to Tek, but you have to take the bus to get farther into the park. There are exceptions, professional photographers (I hear they pay thru the nose or rather wallet), residents, and employees of the lodges located at Kantishna and Denali NP, and they have a ‘lottery’ drawing that allows the winners to drive the park road. The length of the park road is normally closed October 1 and opens May 1 but it is weather dependent.

You have already ridden to Teklanika Campground with me. Today we will take the bus to Toklat River which is just past Igloo Campground (tenting only) and on over the very scary, P Pass, on to Eielson Visitor Center, Wonder Lake (with the reflecting pond), passed Kantishna and all the lodges, cabins, and airstrip to the end of the road. Then we will return. One thing to keep in mind is that time is “very important” to the drivers on the road. The time is not so much that they are being watched as it is where they all are on the road when one of them is ready to drive on a “one lane – I am not joking” area. Some of you know that heights are not one of the things in this world that I abide and enjoy. I hate being high in anything other than an airplane. So lookout for some of this road that we travel. I couldn’t even take a photo looking toward the bottom.

Again, the photos are plenty the space is small. I will upload more to my Picasa web site and share it out for those of you who want to view them. Some of the pics were taken thru the bus window – no choice, that’s the way life is on the shuttle bus.

Here is the site and there are bunches of photos, good, bad, ugly. Most taken through the bus window.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100330881028379568823/20120706_MyTripThruDenali