We left Fairbanks with a plan to stop in Trapper Creek for the night on our way to Seward.
We had such a great travel day with numerous fun stops.
First stop was for lunch. It was a beautiful location. It would have been a fun place to camp for the night. I’m pretty sure somebody did because there were the remains of a campfire.
There are many areas in both Canada and Alaska where you can camp on pull-outs and other land as long as it is not privately owned. It’s pretty cool.
We made a quick stop at Igloo City, which was interesting
IGLOO CITY IN CANTWELL, ALASKA, is the strangest kind of tourist attraction. First, it’s in a remote region of one of the most remote states in the United States. But second, and more surprisingly, it’s an attraction that never even opened for business.
Intended to one day serve as a hotel, Igloo City was never completed. It was constructed sometime in the 1970s, but could not meet the building codes of the time; while it might be easier to meet some of those codes today, too much of the hotel has deteriorated over the years to make renovation worthwhile. Not for lack of trying, though; ever since its construction, the building has gone through many owners, none of whom could get it up to par.
The four-story concrete structure can be seen by airplanes at 30,000 feet it is so large. But the interior was never finished. We know this because the igloo is no longer padlocked as it once was—with so many parts starting to fall apart, it’s impossible to keep curious passersby from wandering in to explore—and many have made their way inside.
It’s primary significance today is that it mark the halfway point between Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska’s two largest cities on the Parks Highway.
Then it was time to see if Denali would reveal all her beauty to us.
According to AlaskaTravel.com, only about one third of travelers to Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska are able to see the mountain due to frequent cloud cover. This is because Denali is so tall that it can create its own weather, especially in the summer, when clouds and fog can shroud the mountain up to one third of the time. Some say that the mountain is only completely visible around 20% of the time.
We stopped at the North View and the South View, which are just a couple of the recommended stops where one can see great views of Denali if the clouds cooperate. We were at the North View for around an hour, and while it was beautiful, for the most part, the clouds were the feature! The peaks were viewable briefly but were covered up with clouds again very quickly.
Mike took the above photo at the North View.
The South View turned out to have the much better view.
And I photographed a magpie! I had seen one sitting on a fence as we were driving, looked it up and identified it, and I had hoped to get a chance to photograph one.
It was an incredible day filled with so much beauty. We landed at our campground late afternoon and relaxed. Mike cooked some food to keep us fed for a few days, we talked with a local couple for a while, hooked up with Mary, John and Melissa (Mary’s daughter) for a little bit, and called it a day.
