Back home again.....

may have to go sleep in the MH, can’t get used to the king size bed.  Can’t believe that weeds can grow so tall in just 2 months.  Spent about three hours pulling huge weeds out of the garden….had to do it to see if any tomatoes were left.  Plenty left, guess people didn’t want to have to pull the weeds to get to them.  Gosh, they are so good!

Ryan (our temporary grass cutter) hadn’t gotten around to a recent cut, so I fired up the Kubota.  Got about half done before the rain…..looks like we’ve had plenty rain while we were gone.

We last left you in Missoula Montana where we were at the local Freightliner dealer.  Got in early, and they assigned a Russian immigrant mechanic to check the alternator.  Didn’t take him long to find out that it was fried.  Poor guy had to climb down on top of the engine(from under the bed) to remove it.  He grunted and groaned, couldn’t get one of the bolts out.  Finally, he got a metal cutting wheel and cut it off.  It took him over two hours to get the old one out, and the new one in.  $90.00 an hour to work on a MH, $75.00 for a truck, after watching that exercise, guess I won’t complain..

Rest of the trip home was pretty unevental, boring…..just mostly sitting behind the wheel, guiding the Bus. I-90 across to I-29 south is a great highway.  Not many grades, even thru the Rockies.  We headed South on I-29 at Sioux Falls, then onto I-80 for awhile, then took I-74 down to I-70.  At Indianapolis we decided to take IN-32 (parallels I-70 around Indy), and that was a neat little 115 mile diversion.  We took a lunch break in one of the little towns on the route, and the waitress couldn’t understand why we were travelling thru there on the way to Maryland. 

At Columbus Ohio, I decided to follow the big trucks, and they went directly thru the city, just breezed right on thru, with us right behind them.  Good move!

Got off I-70 at Washington PA, down I-79 to I-68.  Stopped at a Cracker Barrell to fortify ourselves for the rest of the trip home.  I stopped at the top of the mountain just before Hancock, took about an hour’s break, napped.  Rest of the trip home was a snap.

Now I have to face the chore of trying to get rid of the dust that covers everything in the storage areas (and a lot of it inside the MH). 

Going to close down the BLOG until such time as we travel again.  It’s probably going to be awhile, we just shot our year’s fuel budget in Canada and Alaska.  Don’t ever expect to see diesel fuel under $2.00 again, more like $2.50. Gotta get used to it!

Campground on the Cassier Highway. 

Harold and friends In Anchorage. 

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Today is Friday August 18, and we are in Billings Montana at the KOA (the original KOA in the U.S.), and to celebrate, they charged me $38.00 a night….most that I’ve paid on this whole trip.  To make it worse, they advertise free cable TV, but it just happens that our site is excepted!  I’ve heard that KOA stands for “keep on adding”.  This place, and the place next door are packed….don’t know whether it’s because they’re located adjacent to Yellowstone, or people travelling to Sturgis SDak for the annual biking event.  Hope we can get past Sturgis before that happens….supposed to be thousands of motorcycles.

To bring you up to date on our “travails”, we spent all day Thursday at the Freightliner dealer in Missoula….found out the alternator on the MH was bad.  I expected the worst, and I got it.  I also knew that a FL dealer was about the most expensive place to have it replaced, but, it was the only game in town.  While I was at it, I also had them replace the air filter, which was due, and I thought maybe it had affected the overheating.  Got away with only $508.00!Guess that’s not too bad, just turned over 50,000 miles, and that is the most major expense in 5–1/2 years.  Also, the poor mechanic, had to climb on top of the motor (accessed by opening the hatch under the bed), and spent over two hours trying to get the old alternator out, and the new one in.  He had to cut one of the bolts out to get it loose.  Now I know why they charge $75.00 hour to work on trucks, and $90.00 hour to work on MH’s.

We said goodbye to  Sharron and Don in Missoula this morning.  They were going to Deer Lodge MT for a couple of days to attend the TriState Fair.  Deer Lodge is about 90 miles east of Missoula, very pretty farming/ranching area.  We decided to head on East and try to get home before Labor Day.  We’ll see….

We had to buy groceries tonight, so we unhooked the car and headed down I-90 to a Super Walmart.  Now, remember that we have been travelling in Alaska (where the whole state population is not worth writing home about), and also isolated areas of Canada where you don’t see a whole lot of traffic, or people, and then throw us into Metro Billings Montana in the middle of rush hour, and welcome to reality! To make it worse, there were at least ten thousand people shopping at Wally World…couldn’t wait to get out of there.

One of the good features of this KOA is that they have free WIFI, and even though we are at the far extreme of the Park, I am getting an excellent signal.  I’ve been leaving my WIFI card plugged in as we travel, and it’s amazing how many times it will pick up a signal from unknown sources.  I haven’t tried, but I imagine I could just log on and use their signal to access the internet…..would feel kind of guilty doing that, though.

Heading over to South Dakota tomorrow…hope to click off about 300 miles and spend the night in the well known town of Wall, South Dakota.  Never heard of it, well you must have heard of the Wall Drug Store?  Seems back in the 30’s, the owner of Wall Drugs was trying to come up with ideas to attract more business from the U.S. highway a few miles away.  He erected signs saying “free ice water at Wall Drugs”, and his business boomed.  Anyway, now the signs advertising Wall Drugs are scattered across the state, kind of like “South of the Border” in S.C., and the town is just one big Wall Drug, selling all kinds of Kitsch…It’s a place you only need to visit once!

 

 

Back in the U.S.A......

Have to admit it, feels good to be back in the States.  No more counting loonies and toonies, figuring the exchange rate, etc.  In Canada, practically everything you look at, you automatically compute the cost in U.S. funds. However, the price U.S. doesn’t allow for the fact that the Canadian is inflated anyway.  No doubt that we are spoiled here, the Canadians have to live with that cost of living everyday.  The only upside is that they are surrounded by some of the most beautiful country in the world.  We passed lakes and mountains that just take your breath away, and, they are practically deserted.  No crowded together vacation houses surround them.  At home, you would see 10,000 boats racing around, running in to each other.

Before we left Quesnel BC, we went to the farmer’s market downtown on Saturday.  Lots of farmers from the Octaganon Valley bring their produce there, and the fruits and vegetables are really superior to the supermarket variety.  We bought tomatoes (these have to be grown in greenhouses), bing cherries, corn, cukes, lettuce, peaches.  They had a country band playing, then a young lady, Irish dancer (with two drummers) performed.   Enjoyable break from travelling.

We headed South again on Monday, down route 97 toward Merritt where we spent the night in a City owned RV park.  Nice place, well kept, the manager was friendly.  On the way, I forgot to turn off the engine AC, and the engine overheated on one of the long pulls.  We had to stop along the road to let it cool down.  We took it easy the rest of the way to Merritt, and when we got there, I  flushed out the radiator with a hose, and an accumulation of dirt from the Alaska roads came out.  Checked the air filter, and it is in need of changing.  It can’t be taken out and cleaned (like on automobiles), but has to be replaced.  Next morning, called around, could not find the filter. Not surprised, they run about $75.00, and auto parts stoes won’t stock them.

Tuesday night we spent at the Colville Fairgrounds CG….nothing fancy, lots of dust from the horse arena across from us.  The engine seemed to running ok on the way down, no overheating.  The radiator flush seemed to help.

We decided to aim for Missoula MT on Wednesday.  This is about a 260 mile drive in good weather, but we woke up to heavy rain.  We passed thru Spokane about 10:00 in the morning, and just after we got onto I-90, a light on the dash of the MH came on, indicating that there was a problem with the battery charging system.  Pulled off the road, checked the fan belts, they were o.k.  Light was off when we started out again, then came back on.  Pulled off again, tried to call Tiffin, couldn’t get thru, called Freightliner, held for awhile, finally got one of their Techs.  He advised us to have a Freightliner dealer check it, and in the meatime, run the generator to keep the batteries charged. We drove on to Missoula without a problem, checked in to RV park just down the street from Missoula Freightliner.  Shelby and I both are fighting off colds (allergies?), so decided to get a good night’s sleep, and go to FL in the morning.

So, it’s Thursday, and that’s where we stand.  I’m going to take the car up to FL  this morning, get in line, then come back and get the MH when they can work us in.  We’re probably going to have to stay here for a couple of days, depending on the severity of the problem.  If we need a new alternator, that could be a problem finding one around here, we’ll see.

They have WIFI here, but we’re too far away (apparently), to access it.  So will take the laptop down to the rec room and hope it works there. Just learned that all of the rest areas on I-80 in Nebraska are wired for free WIFI.  Looks like a lot of areas of the country are going that way.

 

Mount McKinley.....from the South. 

Wolf in Denali.... 

Downtown Anchorage... 

More sled dog demonstration.... 

Sled dog demonstration... 

Another reflection lake... 

Reflection lake... 

Shelby at lake with no name.... 

Bicyclists on the road south B.C. 

On the road south thru B.C. 

Park Ranger at the kennels gives talk, imposter listens... 

Hello to Holly in Maryland!

A great big hello to Holly in Maryland from Harold and Shelby, Don and Sharron!  All that wander are not lost…….

Taking a break....

We’re still at Robert’s Roost CG, just taking it easy thru the weekend.  We had a caravan from Quebec come in on Friday, so we had to move sites until they left.  The sites we moved to only have 15 amp electric, so it was a hassle having to juggle usage.   On the other hand, the layout was much better….lots of shade, much more privacy. 

In the end we decided to move back to the sites with more electric.  Also, we have a grand view of the lake thru our front window.  The owner of the CG and his wife have a plane with pontoons tied up at the dock here.  Yesterday, they got into the plane, taxied out into open water, and took off for parts unknown.  I just noticed that they aren’t back yet….have to ask them where they went, when they get back.  They flew out somewhere on Friday, then when they came back, they landed, came over to the dock, the pilot hopped out on the pontoon, jumped to the dock, grabbed the wing, swung it around, grabbed a rope and tied it up.  I was impressed!

I was all set to take Route 2 across Montana, but after a lot of research, there is no easy way to get from Western Washington over to Glacier National Park without going back to Calgary.  I can’t get excited about doing that.  So….guess we’ll continue down into Washington, then link up with I-90 downstate.

We went downtown last night to the local casino, lost our standard $20.00 in a short time, and wrote it off to entertainment.

Sunday morning and the sun is up.  At least it gets dark here so the sun does appear.  It never gets really hot here, however, we did have to turn the AC on late yesterday since we’re back out in the sun, with no shade.

Tomorrow we’ll be back on the road again, travelling down Route 97 South toward Washington State.  Don’t know how long it will be before we have internet again.

 

Finally out of the dust.....

Today is Saturday August 13, and we are in Quisnel BC, on Fraser Lake, Robert’s Roost CG.  We arrived here on Thursday and decided to stay thru the weekend.

We stopped in Stewart/Hyder BC/U.S. for two days and viewed the bears chowing down on the salmon making their last run up the Salmon River.  We were there a little late in the season, and the salmon run was declining, and only a couple of bears showed up to entertain the crowd.  It was a bit of fun anyway, despite the dust from the road. 

The CG that we stayed in didn’t seem to have dependable electricity, and our power went out a couple of times.  Last time we lost it was early in the morning, the day we were leaving.

Hyder is kind of like Alaska’s orphan.  It is the last town in the State’s southern territory, which is a narrow strip of land  alongside the Pacific Ocean on one side and Canada on the other.   Since it is cut off from the rest of the state, it operates on Stewart BC’s economy, collect all their funds in Canadian cash.  The U.S. Customs Service doesn’t even bother to operate a facility on the border….after all, when you get to Hyder, you sure can’t go any further.

We drove the 30 miles past the creek where we watched the bears, up to the glacier, and the no longer operating gold mine which was most of the area’s total economy for a lot of years.  Price of gold is increasing, so there istalk of reopening the mine.  We saw signs of test drilling alongside the road.  You cross back and forth between the U.S. and Canada a number of times while travelling on the road.

On the road again, we stopped for the night of the 10th at the Glacier View CG near Smithers BC.  Nice view of a glacier just in front of us.  We made a deal with the owner to allow us to wash our RV’s while there.  Vehicle washing is strictly foridden in most CG’s because of the shortage of water.  Don and I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get the grey dirt off.  Almost impossible to do.  We still have the dust up in the storage compartments….have to stay there til we get home.

Two couples from Switzerland in a rented Class C MH parked next to us for the night.  They were curious about our MH, asked a lot of questions.  Only one of the men spoke English, and would repeat everything for the other three.  They said such a large RV would not be possible in Europe because the CG’s are so small.  They are spending a month travelling around the Northern part of BC, which, incidentally, is similar to the mountains of Switzerland.  In the evening one of the couples brought out two of the long horns familiar to the Swiss, and entertained the CG with some tunes.  We wondered how in the world they ever got those things on the airplane.

 

 

Grizzly Bea CG outside DNP July 2005 

Moose on DNP road July 2005 

Linda and Chase DNP July 2005 

Park Ranger speaking to crowd, as imposter looks on. 

Harold & Shelby at the DNP kennels July 2005 

Wayne & Lisa walk in the rain DNP July 2005 

Park Ranger demos the huskies DNP . 

Wayne, Lisa, Shelby, Harold, Chase & Linda at DNP July 27, 2005 

Heading South, then East....

I was sure that I had posted to the Internet when we were in Anchorage, but can’t verify that since I’ve had no internet access for over a week.

At any rate, we left Denali on August 1st, and drove down Route 3 to Anchorage, stopped at the Golden Nugget CG where we met Don and Sharron.  On the way down, though, we had a great view of Mount McKinley from around the Denali State Park area.   It’s almost impossible to see from the North side, so we were really pleased that we finally got to see it.  It is quite impressive, just towering over the surrounding mountains who are no shorties themselves. We got some nice pictures, and will try to post some of them if and when  we find a internet access.

After listening to the long term weather reports (rain and more rain) for the Kenai Peninsula, we gave up on our trip there, and decided to move on East and concentrate on the Southeast part of Alaska, and British Columbia.  So…we took off for Tok, made it in one day, and spent the night there.  Lots of nice scenery on the way, and, I kind of hate to admit this, but there is so much outstanding beauty, it almost becomes commonplace, and I don’t think we appreciate a lot of it.

We made it down to Haines Junction by Thursday, stayed at Kulane RV Park, a kind of nondescript, parking lot operation.  It was just as well, we had hit so much bad road that day that we were pretty well exhausted, and went to bed early.  One good feature, though, was the view out the front window of the MH…..magnificant, snow covered mountains.

On Friday the 5th, we detoured down Route 37 toward Scagway, stopped at the Corcross (British Columbia) CG, left the MH and 5th Wheel, then drove on in the truck.  We had heard that things were really tight in Scagway, and that turned out to be true.  Nice drive down thru the mountains.  Had to clear customs going back in to Alaska, then Canadian going the other way.  Sure helps to have the passports….Walked around town for awhile, wooden sidewalks, old West type of buildings, mostly tourist oriented shops.  Two cruise ships at the dock, and passengers walking around town just itching to be seperated from their cash….. We had dinner at  a local sports bar type of restaurant, fish and chips, pretty good!  Got back late to Corcross, tired.

The Corcross RV Park included a free RV wash with their daily rate, so we washed ours next morning….high pressure just knocks the worst mud off, doesn’t really do a great job.  Didn’t matter….about an hour down the road, ran into construction again, and everything was covered back up with mud anyway.

Seems four different caravans (groups of 20 RV’s travelling together) had followed us down the Alaska Highway, and when we started looking for places to spend the night, we found the CG’s were already booked up.  So….we stopped at Jade City (on the Cassier Highway), spent the night in their free CG (no amenities at all).  For the first time since we began the trip, I failed to fill our water tank and had it only about 1/2 full.  So, we went into conservation mode to stretch it out.  Folks at Jade City invited us up that evening to watch videos about Jade mining, the Cassier Canyon area, and how Cassier BC became a ghost town..  Even though we knew that their hospitality was aimed at our falling in love with some of their products, they never put forth any pressure to buy (what I had expected).  Videos were very informative.

Cassier was a company town involved in the mining of asbestos for a long number of years, and because it was so isolated, the Company built houses for their workers, schools, libraries, rec centers, etc.  The video was presented by a number of the former employees, residents of the town, and they told about what a good life they had.  Unfortunately, when the asbestos problems began, sales of the product declined to the point that the Company went bankrupt, leaving a large group of people without jobs.  Everyone moved away, and the whole town was sold at auction.  All of the buildings were torn down, the lumber salvaged, and the only thing left today is the foundations.

A side interest that was not pointed out in the video is that Jade is almost always found in conjunction with asbestos.  In fact, a lot of jade contains strips of asbestos.  The old  site of Cassier has been leased (by the BC government) to a mining company who plans to do test drillings in the area to locate seams of jade.  All of the uninhabited land in BC is owned by the government, and leased for mining operations.  No one can own a mine in that Province.

On Sunday the 7th, we continued on down the Cassier (hitting long stretches of dusty gravel road).  These construction areas really tire me out…the concentration required to deal with the potholes and washboard sections, plus the fact that there are no guard rails, is just too exhausting.  When we get back on pavement, I am so relieved.  Then we hit another one of the same…..

We continue to be locked out of CG’s by the caravans.  Sunday night we went in to a Provincial Park with no hookups, the second night in a row without being able to dump our holding tanks, and low on water.  We just made the best of it, the lake was just spectactular, and we were right on the shore.  It had gotten cold, and we built up a fire, cooked outside, and just enjoyed the surroundings.  The park ranger came by about 7 p.m. to collect the fee, and told us about a truck carrying a load of salmon that had wrecked up the road.  We had seen it on the way down, but it was so torn up, didn’t even recognize it.  She encouraged us to go get some of the salmon  but we declined, since it had been there for so long.

Anchorage

Today is Tuesday July 11 and we are in Anchorage. 

We left the Grizzly CG around 8:00 yesterday morning heading the 250 m’iles down to Anchorage.  Good road…only hit a couple of places where they were doing construction.  When we got down around the Denali  State Park, we started looking for Mt. McKerinley over to our right.  We stopped at an overlook where a number of RV’s were parked, and were able to see the full mountain (almost).  Took some pictures, talked to a couple, originally from Columbia South America, for awhile.

Was getting low on fuel so we stopped at a little place, grocery and service station, one of those that just aparrpear in the middle of the wilderness.  Diesel was $2.69 gallon, and I expected that it would probably  be less in Anchorage…..it was, by almost .30 gallon.  Oh well, better than running out, calling road service, then having to tell them I had no idea where I was located!

I’m typing this on the Golden  Nugget CG WIFI, and must be losing the signal from time to time…keeps inserting letters where I haven’t typed them…so…I take no credit for the misstypes.

We’re doing laundry, will get together with Don and Sharron today to figure out where to go from here.  Bill and Barbara have already, heading over to catch the ferry back down to Seattle or somewhere.

Sign off for now, losing signal…..

On to Denali...

Woke up this mornin’, Denali on my mind……got moving about 8:00 a.m., heading down route 3 (George Parks Highway).  GPS says 118 miles to Denali.  Got about 10 miles down the road, and started hitting construction.  Large sections of torn up highway, gravelled and wetted down, construction equipment everywhere.  Alaska only has 3 months to repair all the winter damage, and they do it right!  Took us over an hour to cover 33 miles.

Grizzly Bear CG is about six or seven miles south of the little town of  Cantwell, alongside the Nenana River.  The kids are staying at Creekside Cabins which is another six miles down Parks Highway.  We arrived about 11:30 a.m., and called Lisa’s cell phone. They were North of Anchorage…didn’t hear anything by 1:30, called again.  They had taken a wrong turn on Glenn Highway and travelled quite a distance before realizing their mistake.

Called Lisa’s cell phone about 5:00, no answer.  Thought maybe they had gotten to Creekside, tired, turned off phone, took a nap.  About 15 minutes later they pulled up front of the MH.  Their cell phone is on Verizon, and they apparently have no coverage up this way. 

Everyone was tired and hungry, so we went out in search of some place to eat.  Not so easy!  We drove all the way up to Healy, bypassing all the “joints”,  and finally had to settle for quite a nondescript place along the highway.  The place was smoky, crowded, and loud, but we ordered anyway.  Big mistake…..food was not good at all, but we ate it anyway and complained amongst ourselves.  Spoiled Americanos!

Yesterday, we got out early, went up to the Denali visitor’s center.  Quite an impressive place, looks fairly new, and the employees all friendly and helpful.  Watched a movie about the Park, which gives an overview of what it’s all about.

Decided to take a 2–1/2 mile hike over to the Park dog kennels, where they breed all of the Huskies, that the Park Service use to patrol the Park in winter.  After hiking up hill and dale for quite some time, we came to a cross road.  No sign for Kennel, stopped a ranger in a pickup, asked how much farther….he said 12 miles.  Luckily, I knew he was kidding, but I started to get in the back of his truck anyway. 

We ended up spending almost the whole day around the kennels, petting the dogs, talking to the young lady rangers.  They take care of the dogs, give demonstrations with the sleds, and also patrol the Park during the wintertime.  On the patrols they can be gone for up to a week, staying in cabins that are placed around the Park.  They keep  trails open that are used by winter cross country skiers, and the concessenaires who use dog sleds to transport supplies for the Mount McKinley climbers.  Of course their primary purpose is to make sure that there is no illegal hunting or other trespassing in the Park.

It sounds like a really tough job to me.  Each evening they need 15 gallons of water for the 30 dogs that they use on patrol, needing to melt snow for this purpose.  For each 5 gallons of snow, they only get 1/2 gallon of water, quite a time consuming chore.  In the morning they feed the dogs, then melt more snow to water them.

The dog sled demo was pretty impressive.  They use a sled that has 3 wheels mounted on the runners to help on the dry surface of the course.  The dogs can sense (they’re still in the kennel) that the ranger giving the talk is leading up to a run, and they begin to howl.  This builds up until the helpers lead them up to the traces, hook them up.  They lunge against the harness like they can’t wait to get started.  As they “Musher” releases the brake, they take off at top speed (15 mph), and race around the course.  Of course in heavy snow, their speed is more like 3–5 mph.

We had lunch at Morino’s Grill ,which is right next door to the Visitor Center.  We had sandwiches that were just great.  I was shocked and dismayed!

Today we are going back to the Park.  Lisa and Wayne are taking a 7 mile hike that gains 1700 feet of altitude.  Shelby and I, Linda and Chase are going to do about 2 miles, then turnaround.  This is necessary for we don’t want to wear out Chase’s little short legs…LOL.   I want to visit the bookstore, then drive up to Healy to check out Otto Lake for kayak possibilities.  Lisa wants to rent canoes if they have them.

Today is Sunday July 31st, about 4:00 p.m.  We had breakfast with the kids, and they left for Anchorage about 11:00.  Sure do hate to see them go, was getting used to having them around.  Chase was bummed out, he didn’t want to leave.  I gave him my gold panning vial which had my one precious little fleck of gold in it.  He thought that was pretty neat….

We got up at 4:00 a.m. yesterday to catch the bus (6:00 a.m.) that would take us on our tour of Denali National Park.  You can only drive about 15 miles in to the park, and if you want to go further, you must take one of the numerous busses that are allowed to go in.  The weather was not cooperating, rainy and cold.  Not a good day for taking pictures, our driver/naturalist Kevin passed out paper towels for keeping the windows clean, but it didn’t matter for the animals were hiding away, trying to keep warm and dry.  A couple of hours into the trip, the rain kind of slackened, and we began to see some bear and elk, at a distance, certainly not close enough for photographs.  Just before we reached the Lodge at Kantantista, (82 miles and six hours later) a large caribou appeared right alongside the bus, and everyone rushed to that side, opened windows, and clicked away, recording that animal forever.  The bou cooperated, even turning around on cue, showing his good side……

We were supposed to be able to go gold panning in the river, or attend a nature talk by one of the Athabascan Tribe members (the Tribe owns the Lodge and surrounding land).  The rain came down in earnest, so everyone went to the owl presentation.  The speaker and her helper were holding two owls that had been taken in after road injuries (automobiles), injuries so severe that they cannot be released back into their habitat.  Pretty interesting…learned how they hunt, nest, etc.  We were served lunch which consisted of soup and a turkey sandwich, then released to go visit the gift shop.  All businesses in Alaska have gift shops….even a pizzeria will have some t-shirts or hats for sale.  I bought a baseball hat in the Yukon for $15.95, then when we went to the Walmart in Fairbanks, saw the same hat for $4.99….woe is me!

I have to describe the Denali Park Road….after you leave the Park Headquarters area, the pavement ends, and it becomes a gravel road.  The upkeep for gravel has to be considerably less than asphalt in this climate.  The frost heaves can be repaired much easier, just run a grader over the heave, and it’s fixed.  In most places the road is pretty smooth..they have graders stationed along the way, and they constantly level the gravel.  Where they haven’t graded in awhile, it becomes a washboard, and provides a pretty rough ride.

About 50 miles into the trip, the road becomes (for all practical purposes), one lane.  This is because of the way it is built up and around the sides of the mountains, carved out of what looks like solid rock.  Of course you have the busses coming and going, and when they meet it becomes a pretty dicey situation, when they try to pass….especially since there are no guard rails, and the drop is at least a thousand feet over the side.  It is not good to be sitting next to the window on the return trip.  Denali has not had a fatal bus crash since 1981 when a driver got his rear wheel too close to the side and the bus turned over, throwing several passengers through the windows.