Today, the plan was to visit the Sled Dogs in Denali, and then drive back to Anchorage. The sled dog kennels in Denali are a free attraction which you can visit anytime, and they have demonstrations a couple of times in the day. We went to the 10AM one. The demo lasted about 40 minutes, and showed us how the dogs were trained, and pulled the sleds. Baby V was losing patience, so we had to walk her around and entertain her. Before and after the demo, you could interact with the dogs, which she loved!
While most of the dogs were in cages, some of them were just chained outside, so you could play with them.
The dogs are used to visitors playing with them, so they are very friendly.
After playing at the kennels, we headed back on the road. We stopped at Talkeetna again, the only major town on the way back, for lunch at Denali Brewing Company. They had a good veggie burger, and the fries were pretty good as well. Since the day was better, we walked over to the river again, to see if we can catch a glimpse of the mountain. No such luck…
On the way back to Anchorage, we stopped by a place called Hatcher Pass. This, in my opinion, was the best place we saw in all of Alaska! It was a bit of a detour from the highway, and added an extra 2 hours to our drive back, but it was all worth it. It looks like nobody knows about this place, and it was empty, which meant, we could enjoy it all the more. The place has snow capped peaks, green and lush mountains, waterfalls, gushing streams…heaven on earth!
We started driving up some mountains first, and then descended into a valley via the pass.
Descending into the valley, we were greeted with misty mountains. I could not capture great pictures of this place since I was so busy just looking around.
Somewhere in the mountains, there was an alpine lake, with a small trail going around it.
When I come back to Alaska one day, I plan on spending a whole day here!
Descending from the mountains on the other side of the valley, we were greeting with gushing streams, rapids, and waterfalls.
We sat on these rocks for a bit of time, until V complained and wanted to run around. It was time to head back…
There is a historical mine here that we did not have to visit (it closes around 4pm). Hatcher Pass should be on top of anyone’s list visiting Alaska. It is an hour outside Anchorage, and can easily be done as a day trip. The best part is that it is off the beaten path, yet beautiful.
The rest of the drive back to Anchorage was uneventful. We checked into the Fairfield Inn and Suites, a bit outside downtown. The room was comfortable, and had a fridge and microwave. Since we were driving away from Anchorage tomorrow, I did not want to be in downtown and deal with traffic and parking.
