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| September 7 and according to Denali ATV winter is just two days away! |
The changing leaves and dipping temperatures happen quickly up here. Just as quickly, the tourist season comes to an end. As we made our way through this area last Sunday most of the lodges and cabins displayed "No Vacancy" signs. Today the "No" has been removed from every one of them that we saw. It's Friday afternoon and if you need a room for the weekend around Denali there are plenty available.
Tuesday night we ate at the Creekside Café here on the property. Our friendly server not only went over the specials for the evening, but he also told us what they were out of for the season. I would imagine that list has grown considerably over the last two days since they will be closing Sunday. One of the great things on the menu at the Creekside Café are their cinnamon rolls. They come in two sizes. Texas size and Alaska size. Maybe not everything is bigger in Texas. The "Alaska size" cinnamon roll is twice as big. As they say, "it ain't bragging if it's true"!
Last night we went to the Cabin Nite Dinner Theater in Denali Village. It has been running for thirty years (of course we used a coupon from our Alaska Tour Savers booklet) Throughout the summer they do two shows a night and I'm sure most shows are sold out, or at least near capacity (it looks to seat around 150 people). We went to the 5:00 PM show last night and there were 15 of us in the theater. As we walked towards the door the hostess said "you must be the Tucker's". When I told her I was impressed with her skill of knowing our names before we arrived she confessed we were the last two guests to arrive so we had to be "the Tucker's". In spite of the audience almost outnumbering the cast, it was a great show with lots of energy. The good news for them, they were expecting around 75 for the second show. Their last performances will be Saturday night.
Cabin Nite Dinner Theater
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| The very talented cast from the Cabin Nite Dinner Theater! It was practically one cast member for very two audience members! |
We've been in the National Park Visitors Center three days in a row. The crowd today was about half as big as it was just two days ago. A small portion of the park and even one campground stays open year round, but I would imagine that it's pretty lonely in there after another week or two.
Today we went into the small town at the entrance of the park. This is where you can find all the Alaska themed t-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs, pens, pencils, coloring books, post cards, etc., etc., etc., that money can buy. Almost all the overpriced merchandise they have is now on sale for anywhere from 30 to 70% off. If you're a shopper, it's the most wonderful time of the year up here. We're not, although we did plunk down a few bucks for a sticker book of Alaska animals for Sweet Baby James (don't tell him).
As we drove around, we headed up a side road to the Grand Denali Lodge overlooking the town and the park. I guess there was a little extra money in the budget for road signs as well as some creativity. We were amused by these signs as we drove along.
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| The mosquitos are big up here! |
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| You have to watch out for those moose! |
Here at the McKinley Creek Cabins we're quite possibly the last guests that will be staying in cabin 14 this year. We check out tomorrow. Everyone will be checked out by Monday. They will start "winterizing" everything for what's quickly approaching...……..winter...………...not a Florida winter or a Texas winter, but a real bone chilling, rip roaring winter. 20 hours of darkness, winds howling, snow blowing, temperatures well below zero, winter.
I'm sure it's a winter wonderland to behold up here. I think I've said this before, as crazy as it sounds, I think it would be fun to see it ...….as long as I can get out quickly!
A few parting shots from Denali;
