Here is the first in a series of photos from our Alaska trip. These were all taken on our first full day in Alaska. We arrived late on Sunday evening, and after spending the night inside our RV sitting in the company’s lot, we were on our way north the following morning. We first stopped for groceries for the week, and then drove up to Wasilla. Wasilla is famous for two things, Sarah Palin and the Iditarod Headquarters. Having always been a huge fan of sled dogs and the Iditarod race, we stopped by the headquarters for a quick visit. It wasn’t terribly exciting, but I just love those dogs.

From there we continued north on the George Parks Highway, eventually taking a small detour to the town of Talkeetna. This tiny place is famous for their flightseeing plane trips up to Denali and also for dropping off many of the climbers up Mt. McKinely. We didn’t take one of these trips, as neither one of us are too found of those small planes. However we did stop for some lunch at a great little restaurant called Mountain High Pizza Pie.

From there we continued up the highway toward Denali National Park. Once we arrived, and after our first shockingly high gas fill-up, we quickly checked in and picked up all of our tickets from the headquarters. From there we were allowed to drive about thirty miles into the park in our RV to the Teklanika campground. Normally you can only drive private vehicles the first fifteen miles, but we had a special pass to get into the campground we reserved. Once at the campsite, we would have to rely on the parks shuttle system to get around, just as every other visitor has to.

Before we could even make it the first fifteen miles, we spotted a group of moose just off the side of the road. The group consisted of one male bull moose and five females. We stopped the RV and walked down the road toward them to get many great shots of these surprisingly large animals. We’ve seen a couple of moose in Rocky Mountain National Park before, but never this close. It was a great start to wildlife sightseeing that would occur over the next couple of days.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. We eventually made it to the campground an hour after entering the park, as the speed limit is 35 mph. Once we setup our camp, we quickly got some rest as we had reservations on the first shuttle bus further into the park for the next morning.

Talkeetna on Dwellable