Alaska -- Day 2 -- Driving North

We had tea this morning with Bryan's sister and then headed for Denali. Bryan's family had warned us that we might have a hard time finding food along the road. I have the Alaska Milepost book and it mentioned a little restaurant off the road in Willow. It was a little hole in the wall. There was a handwritten sign on the wall that said: "I'll take my guns, my money and my God. You can keep the change." I thought, "I'm not in Southern California anymore."

The trip took about 5 hours and was filled with lots of oohs and aahs. The scenery was so amazing. We have a rental car and so we stopped repeatedly to take pictures and try to see Mt. McKinley/Denali...which never peaked above the clouds.

We arrived at our hotel only to learn that the renovations they were making were not finished and we had been "upgraded" to the Grand Denali Lodge. I was skeptical but the room is nice and the view is breathtaking. Tomorrow we take the 8 hour Tundra Wilderness bus tour into Denali.