Settlement of Cantwell

Still windy and the temperature was down in the 30’s last night! Summer solstice is getting closer and there is about 20 hours of light. If the sun sets, its about midnight and its up again at 3AM. We haven’t had trouble sleeping, but some folks have put black plastic bags over their windows.

Leaving Denali we only travel a short distance to Cantwell, AK about 30 miles down the road. We’ll stay in Cantwell and then take another side trip with the jeep tomorrow. As we left the park we met Libby and Bill Hill from Louisville in the parking lot. We first met them when we were in Fairbanks. We exchanged addresses and then hit the road.

Down the road we found the Creekside Café, well we passed it so we decided to make a U turn (very close….) in the road, oops then we pulled into the wrong drive and just made the turn there. Finally we pulled into the café. Cute place and I had eggs and reindeer sausage! Very good.

Cantwell wasn’t far away and the Cantwell RV Park was our destination. Nice folks run the place. It isn’t fancy, just a big field really with not a lot of fancy amenities, but just fine for a few nights. We sat outside for a while until it got too cold when the wind came up and the sun went in.

Later we went for a drive to check out the area. Cantwell is very simply a 4 way intersection of the Parks Highway and Denali Highway. It was named after Jim Cantwell, a worker on The Alaska Railroad. Before Cantwell was settled, the only inhabitants were nomadic Athabascan Native Alaskans who hunted and fished. In their language they named Cantwell Yede'teni'na. The town began as a flag stop on the Alaskan Railroad. After fur prices fell Oley Nicklie, a Native Alaskan, sought work with the railroad. He and his two brothers then founded the settlement of Cantwell.

Cantwell also served as a location for the 2007 movie Into The Wild. Down the road from the RV park was the Cantwell Lodge. This is really the local bar but they had a TV so we watched the Celtics play off game. We also found out there’s big doin’s in town. The Blue Grass Festival is all weekend and the campground is filling up fast.

It was a relaxing day and now we’re ready for our next adventure.

(No pictures today)