We had time until 9:30 pm, so we went for a walk in the Parks Highway area.
“There are a lot of small hotels to stay here.”
“Yeah, we saw these when we searched. We could have picked one of these – would have had to pick 2 rooms since they didn’t have a large facility for 4. But location would have been convenient.”
Tip: If you visit Denali and plan to spend 2 or 3 days near Denali National Park, this is definitely a better place to stay. There are shops nearby, and within 10 minutes, you can reach the park, helping you cut down on travel time.
Our ATV site was in a town called Healy, which was about a 15-minute drive. Around 8:15 pm, we headed out; our start time was 9:30, but we figured we could check out Healy, since the shops in Denali were closing at 8. Healy is further north from Denali (so it’s Cantwell and then Denali and then Healy). It was a short scenic highway ride.
The lady staff at the venue confirmed our booking.
“You have some time before we start. You can check out the lake behind. It’s a lovely lake.”
“We go down this path?”
“Yeah, just go down and stick to the path on the left and you’ll reach the lake.” And then she casually added, “There may be moose around.”
“Oh.”
We strolled down the muddy path and landed on the backside of some property. Since the lady asked us to keep to the left, we followed her advice – that led us down a path covered by trees and shrubs.
“This is like a mini trail! Stepping into the wild.”
“We’ve already seen a moose – if we see a bear, then we are set.”
“Rakesh is in a bear-like costume with black and black!”
He was in a black jacket.
Barely 2 minutes down that stretch, and we were welcomed by an amazing sight. For those of you into large jigsaw puzzles of 1000+ pieces, it’s common to see puzzles of a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, with greenery, a perfect reflection of the surroundings in the water. This was exactly the same – still, calm waters, and we were the only ones here. And for those of you into philosophy, this reminded me of a common analogy about the world being like an illusion – the ‘reflection in the lake’ example. Even the reflection was scenic and looked real.
(click images below to zoom in)
There was a boardwalk that stretched a little into the lake (most likely for boats; we did see a canoe nearby). We spent about 30 minutes out here – taking snaps from different angles to catch our reflection on the water while pulling Rakesh’s leg throughout.
“Maybe we are on someone’s private property?”
“Maybe. But she told us to stick to the left and we’d be fine.”
If we were on private property, we were in for trouble – in this part of the world, trespassing can even get you shot.
We sat on the beach sand near the shore, absorbing the sights and sounds of nature. No one else around, except some bird or animal chirping nearby.
“That looks like a hotel, though. Not like a house.”
Seemed like a property with a bunch of rooms – couldn’t see any name board though. And didn’t seem like people were around inside. We talked in a low voice and stayed on. Later, I did find that this was a small hotel – an inn- and it is a place from where you could see the Northern lights above this lake (the Otto Lake)! Would make for quite a view.
ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) ride
Back in the Denali ATV Adventures site, they let us inside since it was time. The 9:30 pm group gathered together to hear the rules and safety guidelines after picking up our helmets. They had different types of ATVs – single seaters, 2-seaters and 4-seaters. We were on a 4-seater. If you want to enjoy the whole ride driving, then do go for the single-seaters (but for larger groups, availability may be a problem). They said you shouldn’t stop or gun the ATV.
“What’s gunning?”
“Revving the engine without moving and making the whirring noise.”
The fines for damaging the ATV were hefty (went up to $12000) – totalled was another term I hadn’t heard of. Totalled meant that the vehicle was a total loss.
“Don’t drive slowly. Keep up with the pace of the vehicle in front of you.”
Once we got our helmets, they showed us how to operate the vehicle. There were gears and a reverse option, but the lady said we won’t need to use it.
“You may want to roll up your pants a bit so that your clothes don’t get wet.”
We weren’t expecting to go through water.
And off we whirred away – there was a staff leading the way up front in an ATV, and then came all the customer-driven ATVs in which we were the last vehicle, and then another staff ATV behind us.
The engines were powerful – we started on the road but soon found ourselves on a narrower, muddy pathway weaving through the trees, seemingly designed just for ATVs. As we went over gravel, I was surprised how the vehicles weren’t tipping over – and we did go over large ones too. I could see the ATV in front of us going at a 30-degree angle.
We had stops along the way; so even on non-single-seater buggies, other folks in the group can switch over to the driver seat. In each stop, the staff explained something about the locality – it added to the experience.
In the first stop, he talked about Dora – this was really the original Dora and not the cartoon character. She was a woman who hiked all peaks somewhere in the 1910s.
“This is the unofficial state bird of Alaska bothering me,” he said as he tried brushing off a mosquito.
Back in India too we have these ATV rides, but I haven’t seen such elaborate paths where you could drive on for long distances. Over here it seemed like these ATV pathways had been created in many parts of the state. It’s like in certain parts of the US you will find dedicated snowmobiling routes – routes that even go from US to Canada. This seemed almost like that.
To our surprise, we drove over a small stream, and water passed through the ATV too—it was a fun ride over road, gravel, mud, and flowing water.
Rakesh drove us through the water, and at one point, with the vehicle in front slowing down, he almost bumped into them from behind, but at the last moment, he veered to the right. Somehow, Moorthy managed to hold his camera steady amidst the rocky ride to take videos.
In the next stop, we were at the base of a large sand dune formation – it seems a few years earlier, a part of the sand dune had fallen and cut off access to this area. They pointed to some trees at the edge of the dunes on top.
“You can see the roots of the trees all meshed together. And there’s one tree being held from falling because of the roots of the other trees.”
Trees helping one another.
The lady guide mentioned about gemstones and picked some rocks to show us which ones were limestone.
“You can write with these on stones like this,” and she used it like a piece of chalk. “You can take some rocks home too. And maybe if you are lucky, you’ll find some gems inside.”
I didn’t take the driver’s seat on this trip – just loved sitting in the rocking vehicle and absorbing the scenery that we were whizzing by. Raghav was the one trying to get to the highest speeds possible on the machine, but was constrained by the pack in front.
It was 11:30 pm when we were done. By now, everything around had closed, and on our return on the Parks Highway, where we had the row of stores in Denali, just one restaurant was open – Subway. They were open 24 hours. Outside the restaurant was a Subway painted car as well.
We picked up subs to eat in our lodge; a couple of the staff seemed like trainees, with one person supervising and telling them what to put and what to do next.
“No bears yet. But there are 2 squirrels there.”
They were running around the wooden boardwalk connecting the shops.
While having our sandwiches, Moorthy caught up on the cricket World Cup matches – England had a convincing win, finally after struggling in their earlier games; and South Africa came on the right side of the Duckworth-Lewis system in a rain-truncated match.
I looked up videos of using bear spray.
“No use of the bear spray,” Rakesh said.
“I’m definitely trying it out even if there is no bear.” And having now bought it, there’s no way I was letting it go to waste.