{"id":548,"date":"2025-08-28T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/?p=548"},"modified":"2025-08-30T14:31:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T14:31:53","slug":"usa-2024-part-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/usa-2024-part-16\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Part 16 – Cabin in the woods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By 5 pm, we started our drive up north towards Denali. If we could get to Denali by 6 pm, we\u2019d be able to make it to the Denali bus depot to enquire about the bus rides for tomorrow – unlikely to make it unless we drove super fast. Rakesh was more than happy to speed away, but Moorthy was more cautious and stayed within the limits. And since the primary driver, as per the rental company, was Moorthy, Rakesh also had to slow down.
On our way to Denali was our room booking for the night in a town called Cantwell; so we decided to check out the place, and then head to Denali, which was another 30-minute drive further north. We were on a straight road – the Parks Highway; trees on the side and the mountain range visible at a distance; skies fairly clear with few clouds. Mobile signal was patchy, and you\u2019ll have stretches where there is none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 7 pm, we reached Backwoods Lodge in Cantwell. To get to the office in the Lodge, it was a bumpy off-trail track from the main road for a few minutes.
\u201cMoose Cabin is the next right. Here is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To travel on these roads it seemed like the office staff had a couple of buggies – perfect for off-roading travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buggies in the office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our cabin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


There were several lodges clustered near the main office, but on the right, there was a single independent unit – labelled Moose Cabin, surrounded by trees; through the trees, we could see a glimpse of a couple of lodges on the office side – we were pretty isolated. The place reminded me of what you see in horror movies – a cabin in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The place was quite cosy; very compact but just about enough for 4 adults. There was only a single restroom with a wash basin. Next to the bathroom was the kitchen sink and a table. 
They had an old-style TV, which all of us tried to get working without much luck.
\u201cLet\u2019s check out the Denali bus depot just in case they are open.\u201d
\u201cUnlikely to be open. We\u2019re an hour past closing time.\u201d
\u201cYeah – but there\u2019s also a visitor\u2019s centre.\u201d
As we were about to start, Moorthy said, \u201cSome insects here. Is it a mosquito?\u201d
\u201cSeems big.\u201d
We couldn\u2019t catch a proper glimpse of it, but they did seem bigger than the Indian mosquitoes we were used to. \u201cIf they don\u2019t bite, then it\u2019s fine.\u201d 
So far, no bites on anyone, and Rakesh was back at the wheel.
\u201cCheck for the next gas station,\u201d Rakesh said. We were extremely low on fuel.
I said, \u201cThere\u2019s one behind us, on the way that we came here. Maybe can turn back. Don\u2019t see anything else on the way to Denali except just after Denali.\u201d
But Rakesh didn\u2019t want to turn and motored forward.
\u201cIn case that gas station is closed, we\u2019re definitely going to be out of fuel!\u201d
Rakesh was pushing our luck in an unknown territory – to be stranded on the highway with no mobile network connectivity at this hour of the night would be a perfect disaster – on the bright side, we still had daylight!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Store near the station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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At the junction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bear spray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Denali Visitor Centre was on the way, but Rakesh decided to fuel first. Thankfully, it was open – it was 8 pm; there was a little convenience store as well that we stepped into. 
\u201cDo you have bear spray?\u201d I asked.
\u201cYeah,\u201d he said, without showing any interest.
\u201cCan I see it?\u201d
He pulled a pack from behind him. \u201c50 dollars.\u201d
\u201cJust comes in one size?\u201d
\u201cYeah.\u201d
\u201cNothing smaller?\u201d
\u201cSmaller ones won\u2019t be effective.\u201d
It was a medium-sized can like the spray cans we have for cockroaches. It was packed inside a plastic casing. Since I didn\u2019t really know the prices of these or the brands, I thought of checking it out in the Visitor\u2019s Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little further down the road, there were a bunch of small shops in wooden-style cabins, stacked one beside the other – memento shops, some eateries, coffee shops, etc., with a wooden boardwalk connecting them all. It gave you the feeling of being in an older era – it was a refreshing change from what we are used to. And then a few meters away was another row of similar shops – this is a good place for buying small gifts and mementoes. You\u2019ll find some of the activity operators also here in their little booths – Raghav took snaps of a few of them for research. All were closed at this hour.
I enquired in one of the larger gift shops for bear spray, and surprisingly, they also had it. 
\u201c40,\u201d the staff said. I wasn\u2019t sure if this was the same size because it didn\u2019t have the plastic wrapping, and it was just the can alone.
Raghav, in the meantime, was collecting activity pamphlets and tourist guides from these shops. We are in a digital era, but we still found these pamphlets useful. We stopped at the Black Bear Coffee House (a small joint) for coffee and pastries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stores stacked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Boardwalk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s check out the visitors centre and find a place for dinner before everything closes.\u201d
The presence of daylight gives you the wrong perception of time! One thing we had seen was that even though the daylight goes into the night, most restaurants tend to close in regular hours – it\u2019s not as if shops and eateries stay open all through the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bus depot, as expected, was closed, but the visitors’ centre was open – they also had a small shop for supplies. The same bear spray can, enclosed in plastic wrap, cost $60 here! This was the exact same one that we saw in the first shop, and over there, I was thinking that the visitor\u2019s centre would have the lowest price!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can even drive in your vehicle into the Denali National Park,\u201d the staff told us.
It was something I had read about during my rushed research online as well – but only up to a particular distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first had to be dinner – we found a Thai place on Google \u2018Denali Thai food\u2019 restaurant, and we discovered it was a food truck, but the shutters were down when we arrived! They were also closed. Rakesh wasn\u2019t having any Thai luck today. Raghav and Rakesh walked around the area and noticed some staff behind the truck – on request, they agreed to serve us! Apparently, they closed at 10 pm; so they had just pulled down the shutters when we came in.
We ordered quickly, and the food was served quickly as well – rice, veggies, and chicken – ample quantity. While we were ordering, another small group also came in search of food and placed an order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In search of the restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Food truck opens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By 5 pm, we started our drive up north towards Denali. If we could get to Denali by 6 pm, we\u2019d be able to make it to the Denali bus depot to enquire about the bus rides for tomorrow – unlikely to make it unless we drove super fast. Rakesh was more than happy to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travelogue","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}