Our Return to Alaska - The Great Alaskan RV Adventure 2

Having had a fabulous first RV Adventure in The Beast back in 2010, we were game for doing it again in 2014.  Fortunately our friends in Fairbanks had an equally great time using our timeshare in Hawaii, so we did another two week barter with them.

This blog will mostly be about our Alaskan experiences, rather than the details of RV vacationing in Alaska.  For those reading this blog, wanting those sorts of details, I encourage you to check out "David & Von's Great Alaskan Adventure" blog here.

And so the story begins . . .

Travel from Milwaukee to Fairbanks was uneventful.  The Culberts met us at the airport and had us set up in the RV at their work’s parking lot.  After a good night’s sleep, we had breakfast at the Cookie Jar.  Known for their wonderful home bakery items, we enjoyed our meal with four cinnamon rolls to go.  They are a Restaurant.com participant, making our meal very inexpensive ($35 including the cinnamon rolls and tip).

After breakfast we went grocery shopping at Safeway.  After buying food for our first week in Denali, I commented to David “Wow how much do you think we spent?”  He said he had no idea.  I replied “I bet we’re at about $150, give or take.”  We spent $149.99!  Couldn’t do that again if I tried.

We spent a leisurely drive to Denali National Park.  As expected there were several areas of road construction, but no stop or slow down was more than about 10 or 15 minutes.  We arrived at the main park entrance at around 1:30pm.  Check in at Riley Mercantile was very slow, with lots of people in front of us without reservations and all RV sites in the campgrounds reportedly sol d out.  It was amazing to me the number of people who just showed up and expected to be able to get a campsite.

We were able to check in for all five of our nights (four at Tek and the last, fifth night at Riley.  I was happy to not have to potentially deal with the line again.

Our drive from the park entrance to the Tek Campground was rather unimpressive.  Not much wildlife to see along the way in.  We did see a Ptarmigan hen with around eight chicks.  They were pecking in the gravel, eating who knows what.  They didn’t seem to skidding of people, going about their business as I snapped a couple of photos.

At Tek CG, we are able to secure a nice spot right across from the bathrooms, campsite #7.  This would be home for the next five days.  I really like the campground at Tek because of how secluded and private the sites are.  The Tek shuttle bus pass makes staying at Tek especially affordable.  For the price what works out to less than a single trip on the bus system, you have unlimited shuttle trips into the park during your stay at Tek.  We paid $34.50 for our passes, with a first trip face value of $47.25 (to Wonder Lake).

Staying at Tek has some minor restrictions, including the fact that until you are ready to leave, you cannot return back to the park entrance to do activities such as the Visitor Center or the Dog Kennel Demonstration.  For Tek campers, you must plan to do those things either before you head into your campground or on your return out.  This was our primary logic behind booking our last night in Denali NP at Riley.  The other reason was that at Riley Campground what that they have dumping and (water) refill stations available, which would allow us to take care of the RV needs before heading on for the next few days of wilderness camping.