Alaska- Parks Highway- Denali State Park

Milepost 162.4

Sunrise 3:53AM Sunset 12:08AM

OOOH!

June 19 Tuesday We left Fairbanks at 9:25am and headed south –first time since we started our trip that we are not going north. As we drove along the Parks Highway we would occasionally catch a glimpse of the mountains in the distance. We were just snapping pictures around every bend. Here are a few.

AHHH!

WOW!

So Beautiful!

Notice the magic bus on the left

We didn't have stops planned so I just kept checking the Milepost book which is never far from me as we are driving. We were looking for a gas station and a place to pull over to have lunch thinking we would just make sandwiches. However, the 49^th State Brewing Company, which was listed at milepost 248.4, caught my eye. The description in the book sounded like fun as I quote “Denali's Premier Brew Pub! Stop in and try one of our delicious hand-crafted microbrews. Our kitchen is open for lunch and dinner, serving huge burgers, steaks, crab, wings, nachos, salads and more. Visit the “Magic Bus” from the movie “Into the Wild” in our Beer Garden”.

We couldn't pass this up! We pulled in and were greeted by our waitress, Emily, who was so friendly and welcoming. The place was big and rustic-looking, very nice. You could see the brewery behind glass from the restaurant. There was also a large deck with tables. The bar inside almost went the length of the whole building, there was plenty of seating. We had a glass of their brew that was on tap – 49 Blonde. It was smooth and delicious. We each ordered the burger, which was huge (8" diameter)! We could have shared one. We visited their gift shop which was in a large tent outside and strolled around their beer garden to see the “Magic Bus”. This was the one that was used as the prop in the movie, the original one has never been brought in from the wilderness.  

Mt. McKinley from our campground - click once to enlarge

Dusk- about 11pm Gary from Australia to the rig

We drove to Denali View North Campground. This is a state campground and you park there for $10 a night. Absolutely gorgeous views of the mountains, especially Mt. McKinley. There were only 2 other vehicles there all night. So peaceful! We met one of the other campers, a most interesting man from Australia named Gary, who we invited to the RV for a visit. We must have talked for 2 hours! He has traveled everywhere and was full of travel advice for Australia. We wrote down a lot of what he told us for future reference. A most enjoyable evening!  

Did I mention that there are a lot of mosquitoes here? Really the first we have encountered on our trip. Every time Gary popped out of the camper to photograph the mountains they attacked him!