Byers Lake Campground

We said goodbye this morning to Ron & Cindi. They are going down to Palmer and then on to Valdez before they head back home to Florida. We really enjoyed spending last evening with them and had a fun time.

We didn’t take any photos yesterday of the campground, so Mike took some this morning.

From Denali State Park

From Denali State Park

This afternoon we took Tinker and drove over to the Alaska Veterans Memorial which is next to the entrance to the campground. There are 5 20-foot tall concrete panels for each of the services and they give the history of each service in Alaska.

From Denali State Park

From Denali State Park

There are also displays honoring Congressional Medal of Honor recipients with connections to Alaska.

From Denali State Park

There was an information display showing the history of helicopter rescues on Mt. McKinley.

From Denali State Park

After returning to the campground, we took Tinker for a “hike” on part of the Byers Lake Loop Trail. There are a lot of mosquitoes here and we put on mosquito repellent before setting out on our walk.

From Denali State Park

From Denali State Park

We rounded a corner on the trail and came across this woman who had found a quite place to read a book by the lake.

From Denali State Park

Then we saw a woman in a kayak who had gotten caught on some rocks by the trail and Mike helped her get loose.

From Denali State Park

We continued on the trail around the lake until we came across this old homesteader’s cabin.

From Denali State Park

Then we decided to go back to the RV and followed a trail up the hill from the lake and then connected with a trail that took us back to the campground.

From Denali State Park

Because this is the 4th of July weekend the campground is starting to fill up and I’m sure there will be more arrivals tomorrow. We are leaving here in the morning and heading down to Anchorage. We are planning on staying at Elmendorf Air Force Base FamCamp. They don’t take reservations, so we will have to see what is available when we get there.

We haven’t had cell phone service since we left Cantwell yesterday and are looking forward to being in Anchorage. We don’t know how long we’ll stay in Anchorage – at least a week maybe two.

Cantwell to Denali State Park

We left Cantwell RV Park this morning at 9:20 and stopped at the Tesora gas station near the campground to get gas in the RV. We got 41.839 gallons at $4.589 a gallon. Just as we were pulling out of the gas station we saw our friends, Ron & Cindi pull into the gas station.

We waited while Ron got gas in his truck and then we all drove down to Denali View North Campground in the Denali State Park. This is a large paved parking lot with spaces for RVs (no hook-ups) with fire pits and picnic tables. There is a camp host there and it costs $10 to camp there.

From Cantwell to Denali State Park

From Cantwell to Denali State Park

We were hoping to be able to see Mt. McKinley from there, but it was too cloudy. We did see this World War II memorial for the crew and passengers who died in a C-47 that crashed on Mt. Deception September 18, 1944.

From Cantwell to Denali State Park

Ron & Cindi had thought about camping there for tonight, but decided to come down to Byers Lake Campground where we are going to stay.

At 11:30 we passed the Alaska Veterans Memorial which was 15 miles south of Denali View North and began to look for the entrance to Byers Lake Campground. The sign was set so far back from the road and partially hidden by bushes, that we didn’t see the sign until we were even with the entrance. Ron & Cindi were ahead of us and they missed the sign, too. Mike called Ron on our CB and told him we had missed the road into the campground.

Ron & Cindi had to drive up the highway until they could find a place to turn around with their 5th wheel. We parked on the side of the road & unhitched the car. Then Mike was able to back up the motorhome down the road far enough so he could turn into the entrance road to the campground.

Byers Lake Campground is a self-registration campground. We drove down to D Loop and began to look for campsites. Ron got in the car with me and we drove around D & C Loops looking for campsites we both could fit in and decided that the 2 we were considering on D Loop were the best fit.

We are in site #6 (a pull-through site) and Ron & Cindi are across from us in site #5 (a back-in site). After getting our RVs set up, Mike & Ron went down to the registration kiosk in our car to pay for our stay here. Ron & Cindi are just staying here for tonight and we will be here for 2 nights. There are no hook-ups here in the campground and the fee is $10 a night. We had driven 63 miles today from Cantwell to Byers Lake.

After dinner Cindi & Ron came over and we spent the evening visiting and playing a game of Mexican Train Dominoes – the long game.

From Denali State Park

We had a great time and didn’t realize that it was after 11 p.m. Since Ron & Cindi are planning on leaving tomorrow morning around 8:30, we called it a night and said goodbye in case Mike & I aren't awake in the morning when they leave.