Before we left Wasilla last week Monday, we grabbed some groceries and then headed to Susitna Brewing in Big Lake. It was raining so we weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere. The beers were great and the food was excellent. We treated ourselves to a growler of our favorite IPA from there and continued north.
I had found a free campground on iOverlander called Sunshine Creek. We were happy to find that it wasn’t busy and had clean pit toilets and a garbage can available. We set up and waited out the rain. We packed up the next day and headed into Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is a cool little town with two blocks of historic buildings, shops, art galleries and restaurants. At the end of Main Street is Talkeetna Riverfront park where the confluence of the Susitna River, the Chulitna and the Talkeetna River can be seen. This is also a great spot to see Denali on clear days.
We stopped in at West Rib Pub & Grill and had a beer that was brewed just for the Mayor, which is a cat.
Talkeetna is unincorporated and does not have a mayor but the residents named Stubbs the cat their honorary major. He held office from 1997 until his death in 2017. The town carried on the tradition by naming two younger cats as the new honorary mayors. Only one is still living and Aurora the cat continues to serve, unfortunately we did not get to meet her. We did get to hold some cute bunnies! I didn’t know I needed bunny therapy but we both enjoyed it!
After our walk downtown, we headed to Denali Brewing. There is a pub downtown but it was really busy so we went to the actual brewery just up the road. We grabbed an appetizer and enjoyed a couple beers before heading back to the free campground. We had very little traffic here and it was so nice and quiet.
We made our way north and had to stop in at Wal Mike’s in Trapper Creek. This place is so fun and has so much stuff! It was fun to look around at the Alaskan themed decorations and trinkets. We also were able to chat with Mike who has owned and operated the iconic general store for over four decades.
Then we headed up to Petersville Road. This is a road that has been on Craig’s radar since the last time we were up here. It was a little rainy and overcast as we drove west. We took Winter Trail to a river crossing that we weren’t so sure about.
It was late in the day so we just set up camp. Turns out there was nothing to worry about as we watched three stock vehicles drive through. I am glad we didn’t cross Thursday and just enjoyed our nice spot. Friday morning we woke up to clear blue skies and an awesome view of Denali.
We continued on Winter trail, driving in and out of the river and finally made it to the south border of Denali National Park. The 360 degree views were amazing!
We headed back the way we came and drove down random side trails, getting turned around by sketchy looking water crossings and snow. It was still fun to explore the area and see all the active mining going on. The road appeared to do a full loop back to the Forks Roadhouse so we continued on even when it turned into Black Creek Trail and got a little sketchy.
We continued up into the woods as the trail got tighter. We got to a muddy little section with a log that we just couldn’t bump over. We had to reconnect the winch a couple different times but we got ourselves out. The trail was still too tight to turn around so we had no option but to keep going. And thank goodness we did because we popped out of the woods and found an awesome campsite with Denali in view. We set up camp, happy to hang out for a couple days.
The only people we saw was a group of 4 on side-by-sides on Saturday, otherwise it was so quiet. We enjoyed the sunny day!
We tried to do a little research about what the rest of the trail looked like. There was not a lot of information and from what we could tell, full size vehicles don’t normally traverse it. I flew the drone and could see a large mud hole not too far from our camp but we weren’t sure how bad it was. When we left Sunday, we learned quickly that the mud hole was an icky muddy mess and we were not going to try it alone. We turned around and went back the way we came.
The weather was still so nice we decided to drive north on the Parks Highway to Healy. The drive was beautiful and we just kept commenting on how lucky we were to have so many days in a row to see Denali. We ended up at 49th State Brewing where it was packed! Everyone was out enjoying the great day!
We went to a boondock spot we had stayed at in 2018 in a dry river bed and settled in for the night. There is nothing special about it and worked for us since it was close to the brewery. We got up this morning, grabbed some supplies, did laundry and are ready to start heading east.
Off to the Denali Highway…