Last day in Denali and homeward bound

I'm writing this entry as we fly back to Seattle. Penelope is asleep in Katie's lap, so it is a good time to write. Yesterday was too busy.

We ended our time in Denali National Park with a 2.3 mile hike up Mt. Healy, an elevation gain of 1700ft to a final height of 3500ft. The hike was listed as strenuous, but that was an understatement. More likely, it would be strenuous without a toddler strapped to your back. By the top, I was exhausted, but it was a great hike. The weather was once again sunny, warm, perfect. We had amazing views of the park all the way up the trail, but looking away from Mt. McKinley, not toward it. Still, the mountain vistas were great. At the rocky top of the trail (a little shy of the top of the mountain), we stopped for lunch and photos. It was windy and cold at the top, but still sunny. Penelope played peek-a-boo with a ground squirrel that came to investigate us. Sadly, we left our phones in the RV, so no video of the Penelope-squirrel encounter. In addition to the squirrel, we saw a rabbit on our way up and down the trail. When it went away, Penelope said it was going to its "bunny house." Despite the exhausting steepness (or perhaps because of it), it was a really fun, great hike and the perfect end to our time in Denali. As expected, Penelope slept on the way back down the trail.

Back at the RV, we headed out of the park, back toward Anchorage. Our plan was to drive to ~1 hour outside of Anchorage so that we would have an easy drive back to return the RV and catch our flight. To help break up the drive, we stopped at the North and South Viewpoints in Denali State Park, which we had also done on our drive up. At the north viewpoint, Denali flirted with us a bit, but was mostly cloud covered. We didn't mind too much, though, because we already saw it.

At the South Viewpoint, we planned to have dinner (reheated BBQ chicken), but when we got there, Denali was in full view, so we put off dinner and soaked in the view. The south viewpoint had already given us the best views of the mountain, but this was even better. No clouds covering either peak and very nice evening light, too. Maybe I had been to harsh on Denali when I said I liked its neighbors better. With a full view, Denali was very impressive. We were so lucky to have stopped a second time.

After getting our fill of Denali, we went back to the RV and had our leftovers dinner. We had estimated our food needs well, and were mostly just finishing up the last of everything. After dinner, we went back for one last look at Denali. Amazingly, it was still in full view, and the air was nice and clear with only a few clouds around. Wonderful. We all said "Bye Mountain," then got Penelope ready for bed so that she could fall asleep in the car seat. Then we drove.

Originally we were going to stop in Houston for the night, since they had a nice campground with a playground for Penelope. However, we hit empty on the RV gas just before Houston, and then we couldn't find the Houston gas station (if there was one). So we drove past Houston to look for gas, but hit some really bad road construction. After getting gas, we didn't want to drive back through the construction, so we kept heading toward Anchorage in search of a place to stay. We ended up stopping at an RV park on the outskirts of Wasilla that was listed in one of our guidebooks. It turned out to be a bit of a dump, but for one night, we just needed a place to park.

Unfortunately, when we got to the RV park, Penelope woke up. We tried to get her back to sleep, but to no avail. She was up, so we let her roam around the RV while we started packing up. Then we all went to bed. Penelope had a lot of trouble falling back to sleep, so it wasn't the most restful night for us.

In the morning, we finished all our breakfast foods (and Oreos), then we finished packing while Penelope sat up front and "drove us to the airport." On the way back to the RV rental place, we stopped at a park on the outskirts of Anchorage so that Penelope could run around and play a little. Then we returned the RV. I usually never get the collision damage waiver on a car rental, but I'm glad I did for the RV. My little back-up incident would have cost us at least $500 (seems excessive, but whatever). The CDW cost $200 and reduced our deductible to $250, so overall, I saved at least $50. Well, that's my positive spin on it, anyways. RV returned, we headed to the airport. As I write, we will land in Seattle in about an hour, and Penelope will be well rested (she's still asleep on Katie's lap).

We had a great time. We are so glad we ended with Denali, because that was the best part of our trip. Kenai Fjords and Seward were great, too. And 9 days was the perfect length. A great trip, but we are ready to be home.