AirBnB Adventures in Denali

Today was a mostly a driving day, taking my time traversing the four or so hours north from Anchorage to Denali National Park. I was amazed by the drive. The last time I'd been on the road was in 1997 with my friend Ila, and back then the road was way more primative. Now it looks more like a freeway in California rather than a trip through the outback of Alaska.

One of the suprising things to me was the little Eklutna church and cemetary are no longer on the main highway. I will visit Eklutna on the way back.

I picked out a place to stay in Denali before I left California - a nice sounding Air BnB in the boondocks. I drove the road and stopped to admire a nice cow moose who was trimming the hedges.

Then I stopped at 'my cabin' and had a minor hissy fit when I couldn't unlock the front door of the cabin. Turned out I'd stopped one cabin too soon. The host sent someone to escort me to 'my' cabin. Oopsy. Oh well. My cabin is below.

Looking down to the AirBnB cabin from the parking area

View of the front door and looking
through to the extravagent rear porch

The back porch. The view is the photo at the bottom of this post

I looked around inside and was impressed - particulary considering how out in the boondocks it was. It was located slightly down a gentle hill, and was fully furnished and had a tiny kitchenette. When you turned on the water in the sink, there was a LOUD pumping noise as the water has to be pumped in - I guess.

In the photo below is the entirety of the cabin. The ladder goes up to a loft, and ou can kind of see the mattress up there on the floor. I didn't even climb up there for the halibut. My bed was the one you see on the bottom left. It was SO high up that I had to develop the 'Claire Method' of getting myself up there at night.  I kind of flung myself up so my butt lodged up there, then I'd roll onto the bed like a fat harbor seal getting onto an ice flow. There was a TV too - but it was on Roku and it was high up on the wall, level with the loft. So if you sat on the couch to watch TV, you'd have gotten a crick in your neck.

But hey, what is visiting Alaska but the adventure of spending a couple of days in a cabin in the middle of nowhere?

Then it dawned on me.

They said there was a bathroom... where's the bathroom?

I left the cabin and looked around. Oh dear... turns out the 'cabin with kitchen, bedroom and bath' was actually a 'cabin with kitchen, bedroom and outhouse(s)'.

Yes. Outhouses. Two of them. One downhill and one uphill where my car was parked. Nice outhouses, particularly the lower one, but still - outhouses.

And there was a shower too... in a tent a little ways from the cabin. The tent had a bucket in it. I guess you would fill the bucket with water in the cabin, carry it to the tent, then bathe in the tent. Yes, I know!

I will shower later in the week...

Wow, you really need to do your homework when decifering AirBnB descriptions! I was surprised but not stunned by the no indoor toilet thing. For one thing, it is summer so doesn't get dark at night. Using the outhouses in the winter would be another story entirely. But in the summer it is so light at night there isn't a need to even carry a flashlight, so an outhouse didn't even bother me, and as I'm an 'usually gotta pee twice a night' lady that's saying something.

And wildlife? Honestly, I'd be thrilled to run into any kind of wildlife in the Alaskan twilight say except perhaps a Bigfoot or whatever. When I write up my review I will mention that there is no indoor bathroom, to save some old bat like me from having to put on mucklucs and snow shoes on at 3AM when they have to go for a pee.

Enough whinging. I was in Denali so I put my stuff away in 'my' cabin and headed to the park.

I wanted to take one of the  many Denali busses that carry visitors into the park, because it is largely closed to private cars. It is not closed to hiking but even if I were an avid hiker, I wouldn't be dumb enough to enter a park with grizzlies, wolves and what not, by myself. I found it was too late for catching any buses today so I just did a little sight seeing and I visited onthe main Denali Visitor Center.

Looking down from the second storey of the Visitor Center

I rather like this moose puzzle, which gives the native names for the different moosey bits.

A replica of one of the old Alaskan homesteader cabins
You know... pre-AirBnB

After my trapsing around the visitor center, I did a little shopping at a local store in the tiny town of Healy, then I headed back to my cabin for the night - if you can call that half twilight night at all that is. Tomorrow I explore the Denali interior via bus.

Dark and Beautiful sky from the cabin back porch