North to Denali- destination Healy

  Healy, Alaska, United States
Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Alaska Range

After lunch in Talkeetna, our beautiful drive continued. We approached the Alaska Range, and stopped at several pullouts to enjoy the scenery. Sunny skies turned cloudy, but the drizzle did not dampen the beautiful fall color. Eventually we arrived in Healy to our cabin. Healy is located 15 minutes north of the entrance to Denali National Park. I'm glad we stayed away from the entrance; that area is crowed and busy. All of the people from the cruise ships load up on buses and they are dumped off at the hotels at the entrance. They all mill around, and wander aimlessly; not my kind of thing (but good for spotting fanny packs.) Our cabin was far away from the crowds, up on a ridge and surrounded by trees. We arrived and unloaded, and not having many choices for dining in Healy, realized that we would have to go back to the entrance area to eat. We ended up eating at The Salmon Bake, which was a bit touristy but the food was better than I expected. Day 2 stats: dead stuffed bears-5, fanny packs- 10

Our cabin in Healy

That night we returned to the cabin and I was super excited at the prospect of seeing the Aurora Borealis (the northern lights). Before our trip, I had looked up the forecast for the aurora, and Saturday and Sunday night were forecasted to be high activity nights. Yes! Unfortunately, the aurora doesn't usually appear until 10:00 pm to 2:00 am. The sky was pretty clear, and I was determined to stay up to see it. First of all, the stupid sun doesn't even set until about 9:00,and it doesn't even get completely dark until about 10:45! Then the wind started to blow and it got cold as all get-out. But I kept popping outside, hoping that it would appear. Rick had fallen asleep early on, but I only managed to stay up until 12:00 (3:00 am Texas time) but it never appeared. I kept waking up all night and looking out the window to see if it was happening. No dice. What does a girl have to do to get some charged particles to slam into the Earth's magnetic field and make pretty colors? Damn.