It starts at the Parks  Highway at 237 Mile and travels 92 miles through some of the thickest wildlife  and greatest scenery Alaska has to offer. While the first 15 miles of the road  is open to private traffic, the only way to see what lies beyond is usually on  one of the park’s shuttle buses, which transport thousands of tourists into the  park each summer.

Unless you happen to be one of the lucky winners in the  annual Denali Park Road lottery. And now is your chance to enter!

The 2011 road lottery is scheduled for Sept. 16-19. The application period is  June 1-30. Online application forms will be available at

http://www.recreation.gov/permits/Denali_National_Park/r/wildernessAreaDetails.do?page=detail&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72314&topTabIndex=Permits

from 12:01 a.m. June 1 until midnight on June 30. There is a  non-refundable entry fee of $10 for each application.

As part of the all  online application process, lottery winners also will be billed the $25 road  lottery fee when they are drawn instead of paying it when they show up at the  park. Lottery winners will pay the $25 fee whether or not they  show up to drive the road. There are always lottery winners who don’t show up andthey have never had 400 people on the road.

The $25 fee will only be  refunded if the road does not open by 2 p.m. because of weather or road  conditions on the day of the permit. And if itis passable just part way you’ll only go that far.

In addition to the $25 road lottery  fee, all permit winners must pay a $20 park entrance fee.

Everyone who  submits an entry will be notified by email. Lottery winners also will receive a  letter confirming the day of their permit, with additional information on how to  obtain the road permit and how to prepare for the drive into the  park.

Names of lottery winners will be posted on the park’s website by  July 15.

Permits will still be transferable in that the person awarded the permit can give it to someone else if they are not able to go. The person transferring the permit must provide the original notification and a short note  explaining the transfer to the new permit holder, who must bring that  documentation to the park when they check in to get their permit.

If you’ve never been in the middle of 1,000 or more howling huskies surrounded by at least twice as many pople, some of whom flagrantly disobey the rules about interfering you haven’t lived. That most of the teams get through this mad house relatively unscathed and untangled is a tribute to the mushers who trained them. – MotorHome Magazine, March 2009

How about spending March 7, in Willow, Alaska? Other than distance for most of us not too bad of an idea. The highways running north are all-weather so are kept open year round. You’d get a chance to use one of Alaska’s -40° outhouses and let’s face it  . . . not too many tourists this time of year.

The race starts in Anchorage for the city crowds and foo-foos then restarts in Willow where the snow is better and the crowds are fewer. Complete, up-to-date information can be found at the official web site, http://www.iditarod.com/.

The description of the northern-most tail gate party (is it?) sounds like the parties we used to have in the lower 48. Grills, lots of “snow-snake” medicine make for a crazy afternoon. That night, if clear, will bring the Northern Lights which by-themselves are reason enough to head north.

I think I will add this to our “bucket list” but will have to be content for awhile to follow this on TV and the Internet.

Need a good book about mushing and ”The Last Greatest Race on Earth?” Look for Sled Dog Trails by Mary Shields and Race Across Alaskaby Libby Riddles.

We had some regrets leaving the Denali Highway and the solitude, wonderful views . . . suddenly we are in traffic, paved roads, service stations, civilization.

We turned north on Highway 3 (Parks Highway) and wow, at 60 miles an hour you can cover some territory. Before we new it we were at Riley Creek Campground.

We had stopped before the park and tried to stock up on veggies and groceries but that is hard to do if you are not in Anchorage or Fairbanks.

The campground was pretty, lots of trees, showers you could buy (!), a visitor store and a much needed laundry. We had been boon-docking for 4 nights now and it was time for a rest.

Our campsite was across from bathrooms with running water and flush(!) toilets. Met some fellow travelers and a group of bicyclists that had ridden from Montana to Denali. You meet some crazy people!

This is continued from our Alaska trip in August. With so much to see and do and the distance to cover, I fell behind on the blog and skipped day 9 – 13.

This morning for breakfast we were joined by a bald eagle having a breakfast of road kill. Our breakfast was much better in my opinion!

We left the campsite located in the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District (for more than 10,000 years hunter gatherers have dug roots, picked berries, fished and hunted primarily caribou in the area) about 9am heading further west along the Denali Highway.

It rained off and on most of the day but I still had a couple of chances to fish for Grayling.

Today was opening day of hunting season for moose and in some areas caribou so we have seen lots of hunters, campers and ATV’s. We didn’t’t see many driving. Most were in camps along the road.

Coming up a hill we spotted two eagles in a tree next to the road. One flew immediately but the other poised for photos.

We also stopped for construction (bridge repair) and saw the Landmark Gap, a cut in the mountains used by Caribou during migrations.

We crossed the MacClaren Summit (4,086 feet and the second highest pass in Alaska) with spectacular views of mountains dusted with new snow and stopped at the MacClaren River Lodge to upload images (first connectivity in 4 days) for this blog. There to greet us was a beautiful Border Collie that had come from the Border Collie Rescue in Seattle. Note: this led to us getting a dog from the Northern California Border Collie Rescue when we returned home.

The MacClaren Glacier from which flows the MacClaren River was very interesting. The river is running low (most are high) as it is glacier fed and it has been very cold (we were told normally it is the 70’s) this summer (It was 38 degrees when we woke up this morning.).

The lodge offers boat trips to see the glacier. The inn keeper spoke of typical 75 temps but this day it was more like 42. A few moose hunters commented the berry season had been poor leaving the birds hungry. All lamented one of the coldest and wettest summers on record.

We thought about buying a shower here but the women’s shower was full of long black hair (maybe the Border Collie) and we thought better.

Continuing west there were panoramic views of the Susitna River area. The road was lined on both sides and the hills by berry bushes (berries still green because of the cold) and looked perfect for bears.

Crew repairing bridges or roads stay here on a 1 week on, 1 week off schedule since it is too far home. Bad areas on the road or highway are marked with flags. Slow down! Especially on pavement where they often mark frost heaves.

The area is covered with lichen which is one reason the caribou migrate through here.

We climbed again and pitched camp near the road at an “informal camping site” (so called by the BLM) at N63.19986°, W147.63416°, at 2929 feet with current temperature 49° and settled in to watch the view from our picture window.

We could see glacial lakes, snow capped mountains. It rained on and off and the wind howled.

After waking up in 38° F., Debbie grabbing a shower and me grabbing breakfast at the Roadhouse we are enroute to Paxson (population 37) in search of laundry, Internet and a post office. As we left we doubled back to the nearby Sourdough Creek Campground (BLM) to dump trash. The Sourdough Creek Campground would be a great place to camp and fish. We went down to the boat launch area and watched a couple of red salmon (5-7 pounds) be brought in by a lucky fisherman. I tired my luck with no joy. Next time I need to build more time into the schedule for fishing.

Near Paxson we checked out the BLM’s Paxson Lake Campground. It is a great facility with a large lake to fish and boat on. It also has a dump station. Rafting groups leave from here for 4 day trips down the Paxson River to the Sourdough Creek Campground.

We stopped at Paxson which basically consisted of the Paxson Roadhouse. We fueled with diesel ($5.599 per gallon – mileage for this fill-up 18mpg) and went inside for lunch.

No post office here – the mailman only comes on Tuesdays and Thursday, no Internet, and no laundry. Lunch however, was great and you can buy a shower here. People from a tour bus were eating and another bus came in while we were there. A very busy place. Once a year Paxson is the 3rd largest city in Alaska when the snow machine riders convene for their annual gathering.

Here we turned west onto the Denali Highway. We have 135 miles ahead of us of mostly gravel road. (a warm-up for the Dalton).

Great views of the Gulkana Glacier and in the distance the Wrangell-St.Elias peaks.

We drove to the Tangle Inn BLM Campground but there were too many people about (learned later tomorrow  was opening day for Caribou hunting  :^( so we backtracked a bit and just pulled off the road into an open area with a 180° view of the mountains and tundra.

This entire area was once covered in ice and the glaciers carved out the hills and lakes. Gravel is everywhere as is lichen, the main food for the caribou. Herds that took days to cross came through here and still do but in much smaller numbers.

We had a great camp, veggie stir fry and spent lots of time waiting to see a caribou.

We departed Porcupine Creek Campground in the rain after some Starbucks coffee. We were en route to Valdez, instead of Girdwood as originally planned. We were heading south, along the Tok cut-off, in search of the sun.

We stopped at the Slana post office (a community post office, not a town post office) located at the northern access to the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park on Nabesna Road to mail some postcards. Apparently the mail only goes out once per week so we hope they make it sometime!

Along the way we looked for the Wrangell Mountains but they were still hiding in clouds of rain. Also took a side road wanting to fish but gave it up.

We stopped at the Headquarters of the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park. What a great national park! It is the largest national park and is equal to 6 Yellowstones. It is 7 times the size of Switzerland with taller peaks. Unfortunately, we could not see the peaks because of the weather.

We met a ranger, who had built his own cabin in the woods (seems that many do this) who surprised us, revealing that many Alaskans (who live outside the towns) buy showers as they do not have running water because of the -40° winters . What a concept for the Class B traveler – a Eureka moment and one that was to change our trip! You can buy a shower!!

Hearing we were planning to visit Denali via Anchorage, he suggested by-passing Anchorage and traversing the Denali Highway, a much more scenic, mostly unpaved, route to Denali.

We headed back north on Highway 4, the Richardson Highway. We went a couple of miles west on Highway 1 to stock up on food and drink in Glenallen. We were also looking to buy a shower and for a place to dump holding tanks and fill with water. Groceries were no problem. Everything else was a slight challenge. We went the Northern Lights Campground, which had no water the day before, and found the office closed until 5pm. No problem – we would leave $5 each for the showers and for dumping. The showers as it turned out, operated only with tokens that could be purchased at the office – so much for showers. We did dump and fill and left $5 under the door of the office. Now, the drink . . . liquor being illegal in Glenallen, the liquor store was located 5 miles from town back on Hwy 4 (the liquor stores have to be 5 miles from the center of the community, the post office, 5 miles from schools and 5 miles from each other).

The liquor store had a great supply of wine as long as you wanted at best, the Sterling Vitner’s Collection. This was the best wine we had found so far but left a bit to be desired. The store was for sale with the owner planning to move back to Tracy, California. Small world.

Still heading north towards the Denali Highway and in search of showers we passed through miles of boreal forest before landing at the Sourdough Creek Roadhouse for showers ($3). We decided to stay here instead of the Sourdough Creek Campground (BLM). The campground is a good choice with nice sites and next to the Gulkana River. All the campgrounds have out-houses, almost none have water.

We camped near next to Sourdough Creek and Debbie headed for the shower. She went first and came back with her report. The shower (yes, just one) was moldy but by Alaskan standards was fine. Showers often include towels as this one did. We were glad to get a shower! Keith did a little fishing, again with no joy, but made up for it with breakfast at the Roadhouse the next morning. The next morning, Debbie went into the dining room to buy a second shower, wearing her parka. She was greeted with, “You must be the lady in the Mercedes.”

It is sometimes hard to be from California!

Footnote: The most common thing in Alaska is the out-house. Since water is mostly hauled in and with the freezing temperatures this just makes more sense. One thing one in our party can testify to is to make sure the door is well fastened. If a wind comes up and blows the door open a 180°’s and you are sitting there it is very difficult to get up in a refined manner and shut the door.

After a great breakfast and coffee we broke camp and headed out from the Sourdough Campground. It was about 9am, about 42° and we were en route to somewhere. We didn’t know where we were going to stay, we were just heading southwest down the Tok Cutoff. If person had asked me, “where you headed?” and for the first time in my life I could say, “I don’t know and frankly, I don’t care. ”

Just outside of Tok we stopped at a likely fishing spot. I was lucky enough to land a Grayling, the first one I have ever caught. I was using a small silver spinner.

It started raining right after we left here.

We didn’t travel far today. Only about 60 miles before we decided to camp at Porcupine Creek Campground, an Alaska State Campground with 15 sites.

We checked the campground out and then drove further southwest hoping to see part of the Wrangell Mountains. No luck there. With the low clouds and rain we lost out on seeing Mt. Sanford from this direction.

We went as far as the Nabesna Road, the north entry into Wrangell-St.Eias National Park. After driving a couple of miles we decided to turn back to Porcupine Creek. Nabesna Road would be ok in drier weather but I was worried as it basically runs next to several water ways. Most likely some great fishing here.

It rained all night and the birds made it sound like a tropical rain forest. We had a great dinner. We were surrounded by Aspen and Spruce and we played Scrabble. The Alaskan State campgrounds are quite nice – no graffiti, adequate toilet facilities and mostly level sites.

We saw this guy just outside the door in the morning while having coffee.

Our Sportsmobile Sprinter has been doing great. We have had it campsites and down roads that were quite rough. The solar has been challenged by all the clouds so I have used the ADR (idle control for the Sprinter engine) as a generator. The “back porch” is working great. I am very happy that we can actually camp without putting anything outside – a nice feature in bear country.