We said goodbye to our little Talkeetna cabin but not before heading to the Talkeetna Roadhouse Bakery to find that famous cinnamon roll we heard about in Seward. I set an alarm to be there early and not risk a sellout! The bakery smelled fantastic and the lady who owns the bakery was the best. Within 10 minutes, she told me about early morning trips to town with her Grandfather during her summers on the Jersey Shore and about watching a pastry chef in Bali. Oh my goodness – these were so worth a morning alarm!

Talkeetna is such a cool little town. They have made such an effort to maintain the buildings and the stories behind them,,, including gardens♥️

We finished breakfast and packed up our clean clothes to head to Denali, and the city of Healy. But not before a few more pics…

As we headed out of Talkeetna, we thought about going north to “technically” cross the Arctic Circle because when are we going to be back? And then we realized it was a 7-10 hour drive one way from Fairbanks, which is 5 hours from Talkeetna. Uh, nope!

We headed north to Denali State Park before we got to Denali National Park. In planning for this trip, Alaska Tourism and ChatGPT suggested that the best views of the Denali Mountain were actually in Denali State Park. Our drive was actually directly through the State Park, so it was no problem. I am so glad we did! WOW!

Michael found a hike around Byers Lake that looked within our range, about 4.5 miles. (When your 18-year-old suggested a hike to do together, you always say yes)! So off we went. The Hike was beautiful! The scenery with the recent warm weather has completely changed – everything is green! And 78 degree weather with 20% humidity is close to perfect!

These twisty trees were my favorites, and the burl knots looked like butts in the trees 🤪. The bear fur stuck on the trees was a bit unsettling (but the boys said it might be moose or moss).

We ended up only going about halfway around the lake because of trees down along the trail, and we were getting hungry 😀 We decided to head up to the North Viewpoint in the State Park. Again, we were driving right beside it and this spot had picnic tables for the latest franchise location of Mom’s Cafe. Lunch with great but the views were not. The clouds have set in, and you could no longer see the top of Denali. Oh well, we have seen him before and maybe we can again over next few days.

Back in the car for a little longer to get to Denali National Park. We passed more giant snow markers. As we were driving, Leo asked how big Alaska was compared to Texas? We said you can’t compare it to Texas – you have to compare it to the entire United States.

We Made it!

We decided to head into the Park and check out the Visitors Center to get our maps and talk to the Rangers about the best hikes. I also had paid for a multi-day pass and wanted to get my moneys worth 🤣)

Michael got a picture with the ram, and Leo got one with the wolf… is a sign? (Actually, this was totally staged 😁) The Visitors Center was really interesting with a focus on the native customs and the survival skills of the early settlers. I think I may try this recipe for blueberry pie, but I’ll skip the bear fat lard 😂.

We definitely want to see the Denali Sled Dogs tomorrow so we checked out the movie, The True Heart of Winter. These pups are bred here in the park and handle the winter maintenance within the park when the snow gets too deep or too cold for machines.

The road into Denali goes about 93 miles into the 2 million acre park. There are is also an additional 4 million acres of wilderness that belong to the part but are conditional wilderness… meaning they are totally untouched. But you can only drive 15 miles into Denali in a private automobile. Today we decided to go as far as we could see what we could see along the way today. I’m so glad we did because the wild life was busy today. This Moose was clearly used to being the center of attention. He just walked and posed.

Then this family of reindeer completely ignored everything except the food. I guess with everything just started to bloom, they are busy foraging despite a bus, and about 10 cars watching them.

We went all the way to mile 15 – Savage River Trailhead. We will absolutely be back here tomorrow.

The views on the way back were beautiful and the same animals were still just munching along. We loved that these two moose just meandered across the road without a care in the world.

We checked into our new home for the next few days in Healy, AK. The Cabin is great – larger than the one we stayed at in Talkeetna. The bBoys have their own area in the loft, and Mike and I have an actual bedroom downstairs. The kitchen was small but perfect. I’m not sure who stocked this cabin but they did an awesome job. EVERYTHING you could need is here! But like every tiny house/cabin, everything has a space where it belongs, and as soon as you use it, you put it away.

We fixed fajitas for dinner, and planned to finish our Garbage game from Talkeetna. However, once we finished the dishes and sat down on the couch with a little TV, we started head bobbing with sleep 🥱

We decided to crash early because tomorrow is a busy day. (So excited to have an agenda tomorrow 😁)