Day 7, On the Road to Denali.....

(Sparky apologizes for dropping off the face of the earth briefly to start teaching and forgetting to finish the Alaska blog posts!) 

Sparky and Eldo....We thought you were headed to Anchorage to return the RV!!!! Not yet, we had a full day and a half left to go...we were going to just hang out in and around Anchorage, but ole Eldo is fabulous for spur of the moment ideas. All Sparky had to say was, wishfully thinking out loud, "Gee, wouldn't it be cool to go to Denali one last time?" Eldo says, "Well, we could." So we did! We headed BACK towards Denali, passing through Wasilla...nice size town, a Fred Meyer store there, plenty of places to get gas, easy in and out....On the way to Denali is South View Campground, in Denali State Park, about MM135. (MM is "mile marker", see the Milepost Directory for Alaska for indispensable information about where to stop, where to get gas, road conditions and where the pullouts are.)

We got to Denali National Park around 2:30 in the afternoon...We were milling around the village center, thinking "Should we take a tour or not?" It was too late to take the 8 hour tour, so we decided to get on a shorter bus tour. We had done the long one before last year and saw lots of wildlife, so we thought, let's do it again, only the shorter one! To cement the deal, a lady who got off from a previous trip out to Toklat said they saw EIGHT grizzlies! Done deal! We're going! We took the Toklat bus tour--53 miles one way, 6.5 hours round trip, with Brian as our bus driver. He was very knowledgable and environmentally thoughtful about wildlife, as all Denali drivers are! There are rest stops along the way...

This is one of the best trips you can take when visiting Denali, in our humble opinion. You almost always see wildlife, the scenery is 
spectacular, and the bus drive by a knowledgable guide gets you farther back into the park than you can get on your own. The road is NARROW and harrowing at times. If you are a little on the squeamish side as far as narrowing winding roadways and drop offs, this might not be for you. It was SCARY looking out at the window when another bus passed us on the road, and we had to scoot over. But look at what you might see!
                Caribou....


Ptarmigan...those grouse type of birds, smaller than a turkey, around the size of a chicken...in a bush, in a tree, wherever they may be.....Not in Sparky's camera range at the moment, but we saw three that day...And vista after vista...

And then....FOUR grizzlies within 5 minutes...A courting couple, too far away to get good photos, and THIS....all of sudden, the driver slows down and comes to a complete stop. The bus gets totally quiet, and he points directly ahead, to a mama grizzly and about a two year old cub. They were walking alongside the road and passed right to the side of the bus! We were all shocked and awed by the sight and closeness of the bears.

Here's another shot...

We were thrilled, to say the least....Happily, we headed back to Denali bus headquarters and returned by 9:15PM. We saw more moose, sort of a last hurrah, (our last night in Alaska) as we passed through some more of Denali State Park on our way back.

Of course, it's still as light as daylight out, so we decided to hit the road toward Anchorage and drive as far as we could, as we had to turn in our rental rig the next day. We would have no problem finding a pullout along the way to rest and get some sleep.....Around midnight, we were still driving, and the moose were still actively out and about, one running right alongside the highway! It's like deer in Indiana...only you have to watch out for BIG MOOSE who might decided to suddenly turn and cross the highway, for whatever reason!

We used our Mileposts directory to find a spot to pull over for the night, er, day, er...it was about 1:00 AM when we pulled over to sleep. We were so tired the light didn't bother us and promptly fell asleep. Up and at 'em at 6:00 AM....and back to the rental place...
Eldy had driven over 1,568 miles in our week in Alaska! He would have made a terrific trucker! We had a fantastic week renting an RV...no problems, the company was fantastic, Great Alaskan Holidays. We highly recommend them...up to date units, excellent customer service, and top notch experience all the way around. Thanks for stopping by to read our blog...we hope to be traveling again next summer, who knows where!? (Sparky votes for Alaska......) Until next time.....See ya....

                                       Eldo and Sparky

Renting a Motorhome in Alaska- Part 1--renting the RV

Well, by now you know that Sparky and Eldo love Alaska. We've been there four times, twice on a cruise, and three times renting motorhomes. As we no longer own our 40 foot Tiffin Phaeton, we have to rent an RV if we want to travel by RV. Eldy says that even if we did still have our Tiffin, he would not take it to Alaska. Why, you ask? Because of the possibilities of rough roads and windshield cracks and chips due to passing traffic throwing up rocks and stones or construction zones with loose gravel. The roads for the most part are good, at least the main highways are. But every year, there is frost heave and winter damage, and even on the main highways of Alaska, you will encounter roller coaster rides from the frost heaves, and summer construction where they try to repair the worst sections of road that got hit the hardest over the winter. 

We had to get out of the heat this summer for at least a little while. Eldy had been researching for weeks and weeks to get the best airfare. We are lucky in that we have FOUR airports to work incoming and outgoing flights from where we live in Bradenton. So for weeks and weeks, he went back and forth working on airfare and rental pricing of motorhomes. He would check to see if it was cheaper to leave from one airport but return to another one. (It was). Is it cheaper to have one stop instead of non-stop? (Sometimes it is and worth having a layover "break" from long flight hours). We have previously rented from a company called AK Motorhomes. We were very happy with them, but they are a much smaller company and don't have as many choices of rigs to go traveling in. They advertise their units as new, but are not always available once you get to their site. 

You have to compare RV rental companies very carefully when you decide to go to Alaska. Do they charge for linens? For cookware? For a coffee pot? For chairs? Do you get unlimited mileage? Do you want insurance? What time is check in and check out? Have you read the reviews for each company? You have to think about when your flight back home leaves and how many hours you will be sitting in the Anchorage airport waiting to go home as far as your checking in the motorhome when you are ready to return it. AK Motorhomes is just one company we worked with. We've rented from them twice and never had a problem with either rig. Last year we rented a Coachman, 27 footer, but it was actually longer than that when we picked it up and older than we thought it would be. There are many options for renting...here are a few:  

https://www.yelp.com/searchcflt=rvrental&find_loc=Anchorage%2C+AK

This year we rented from Great Alaskan Holidays. Wow, what a rig!  And WOW! What service and staff! this is a fairly big company. They have about 500 RV's in their fleet. We rented a 2019 Minnie Winnie--a Winnebago which was a 32 footer, but actually is closer to 33 feet in length--too long for Riley Creek Campground in Denali, in case you are wondering.  The campground only accepts up to 31 foot RV's. The cost was 159.00 per day and it completely furnished with bed linens, quality towels and plenty of blankets. (We used all four of them!) If you want chairs, that's extra. Coffee pot is extra. Everything was new and in terrific shape, even the queen mattress, nice and firm.

We arrived in Anchorage after closing hours, but they have the rig all ready for you. The key is in a special spot, you let yourself in, spend the night, and the next morning, you check out after watching a 45 minute video all about RVing--how to empty tanks, how to drive an RV, how to leave parking lots, etc. We actually learned some new tips that we had never realized in the three years that we full timed. What's surprising about this is, if you never have driven a motorhome before, they send you out the door with only having watched the video. Although the video was VERY thorough, that was it. No tour of the rig, no explanations or demonstrations on how things work, and that was a scary thought. WE were very comfortable of course, on just seeing the video, having been RV full timers for three years, but NOT very comfortable knowing everybody gets the same introductory video and that's it. We really think the company ought to assess each customer's experience and tailor a how-to session based on that. Maybe the video is so complete, they don't need to do that! 

They offer collision insurance, but you are not pressured into taking it. We did, and we are glad we did. It was peace of mind having it with all the road construction and loose gravel sections that we encountered on the main, supposedly GOOD roads/highways. The company has an incredibly high percentage of chipped and broken windshields and we didn't want to take any chances with a 2019 rig. 

We were extremely happy with the company. Their service was fantastic, their check in and checkout staff terrific. We had a minor problem with leaving a towel behind at a campground and Eldy dropping the glass carafe coffee pot, and we were envisioning ridiculous charges for replacement, but nope! Nada. No charge. Their staff was readily available to answer questions, the manuals in the rig were excellent as far as helping you figure out minor problems and they have a staff ready for emergencies. Great Alaskan Holidays is an excellent company to deal with, and we highly recommend them!

See you on the road in Alaska!