July 6th, 2024

Rain and more rain. Windy. Temps in 50’s

90 miles. 1.5 hours 

Staying in Tatlanika campground in Anderson.

We started the day off with a move. Kim “checked out” on all the inside and outdoor duties for breaking down camp. We started seeing more mountains the further south we traveled. Our new campground is under tall pines and along a river. A beautiful site. 




There has been a lot of fires in the area between Fairbanks and Denali which I’ve mentioned previously with the smoke they created. But it’s also creating closures throughout the area and unfortunately that includes Denali. Many campers have been relocated out of the Denali area and haven’t been able to go on their once in a lifetime trip through Denali National Park. That, very sadly, includes us. Of course we’ve seen it in 2010 but Kim and I had reservations for tomorrow. We drove to the gate tonight to inquire of the current conditions only to find the “road closed” sign and park rangers tell us the sad news that the park will remain closed until the 10th. This fire is known as the Riley Fire and we saw burnt areas behind Denali village and lots of helicopter activity. 


This is the closest we will get to Denali Park….


So what do you do with a rainy day and bad news?

We shopped through the touristy shops for a few hours before going back to camp and then buried our sorrows in s’mores made over the propane stove! A Kim creation!





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