Alpine Creek Lodge

This weekend was our third anniversary.  We spent it at Alpine Creek Lodge, off the Denali Highway.  Thursday, we hopped in the car right after work and started driving.  We made it to Cantwell around 11pm and crashed for the night in a little motel.  Then it was up bright and early for the remaining three hour drive.

Alpine Creek Lodge is about 70 miles from Nowhere, with Nowhere being Cantwell, AK on one end (population 222) and Paxson, AK (population 43).  It is on the Denali Highway, which would not merit the name in any other state, being a 130 mile dirt road with about five little hotel/B&B's spread out along it.  We wanted to get away from it all!

The road is teeming with wildlife - this beaver was one of the first things we saw, along with moose, caribou, and porcupines.  There are bear out there, but we didn't see any.  The caribou was a bit concerned by us, but not overly so.

We had the fortunate timing to be driving by just as the F22s from Elmendorf were flying an exercise right over our heads.  We watched for 10 minutes or so as they circled and dropped flares and such.  Pretty awesome!

We got to the lodge at 11am, got situated, packed some lunch, shouldered our packs, and headed off.  We hiked about 7-8 miles down an ATV path that terminated in this gorgeous lake where we got to watch caribou grazing, terns and ducks and swans flying about, and beaver building.  Absolutely fantastic!

On the walk back, we found a fresh grizzly track that hadn't been there before.  I measured it with my hand - 6 inches across!  Since we were ostensibly bear hunting, we took a look around, but didn't see anything and it was getting late, so we headed back to the lodge.  A 14 mile or so day, done in 7 hours with full packs - we were done in!  But Jennifer, the owner, had dinner ready for us and we spent the evening recovering. 

This is the view from the lodge.  Isn't it amazing?  The lodge is quite rustic, as you can see from the first picture.  It's not 100% finished yet - the bottom floor is all done, as is half of the second floor.  Inside, it's decked out with rooms on both sides, plus a large common area in the middle, for eating, sitting about, watching TV, and playing games.  Wi-fi is also available, and there are two full bathrooms.

We didn't stay in one of those rooms, though.  We had the Trapper's Cabin, which is the little cabin in front of the lodge.  For an extra few bucks a night, we got a sitting room with a wood stove, a bedroom, and a kitchen.  It's not entirely functional yet - no water, limited electricity, but the privacy and space were great to have.  Very cozy, with a fire going!

The next day we used the information we'd collected already and set up on a ledge overlooking a creek, a likely spot for bear as we'd seen some sign.  It was about an hour in, 2-3 miles or so.  We arranged it so that one of us would be watching from our "blind" while the other got to wander about some.  The Husband went back to where we'd seen the fresh print the previous day and scouted around a bit.  He started tracking an even larger bear - 7-8 inches across on the print - until he found cub tracks alongside and backed off quickly.  I mostly wandered about in the tundra, looking for sheds - but I did go into the spruce forest long enough to find a porcupine which turned out to be my first kill.  We'll be having porky stew next week!

Apart from another porcupine The Husband bagged, we didn't come back with anything else.  Never saw a bear, but it was great to be surrounded by such beauty and silence the whole weekend.  If anything, the drive back was even more gorgeous than the drive out!

On our way out, we found this beaver on the side of the road miles away from any pond.  He was quite distraught, hissing at us when we stopped, and trying to dive into the dirt when we drove past.  I felt bad for him.

Scouting out a little dirt road that led into the next valley (we'd heard there were bunnies out there), we found a moose on the edge of a lake.  I watched him for a while, and sure enough he obliged us by swimming across.

This caribou was quite curious about us on the drive back home.  He was very energetic, too!

Altogether, an amazing weekend.  I highly recommend stopping by Alpine Creek Lodge if you're in the area, even just for coffee and tea and a chat.  Everyone is amazingly nice, and the surroundings can't be beaten!

Just watch out for that grizzly with cubs!