usbackroads destination--Dead Dog Hill Turnout, Nabesna Road, Wrangell_Elias National Park, Alaska

usbackroads destination--Dead Dog Hill Turnout, Nabesna Road, Alaska

travel date: August 16th, 2016

Bugaboo and Snowpatch are NOT fans of the National Park Service. So you can imagine their surprise when they were told they were headed for Dead Dog Hill Turnout inside Wrangell-Elias National Park. There was not a dead dog at the turnout so they were a little concerned about which one would become the namesake.

I believe there were three cars go past the turnout in the 16 hours that we stayed there. The pull out had plenty of room for the Ram and Casita.

 The plan was to head for Chicken, Alaska with a stop to dump the tanks in Tok. That meant just an overnight stop. Wrangell-Elias is the largest National Park in the system. On the road I had heard comments about the Nabesna Road so i stopped at the visitor center thinking we would spend the night at a commercial RV park. Instead the receptionist at visitor center convinced me to drive the Nabesna Road and spend the night at one of the pull-outs. A good decision.

Farther down the road there are other turnouts for camping overnight. This is Rock Lake.

The other attraction at Rock Lake is that it is the trailhead to the Viking Cabin. Click on photo to enlarge and read the text. If your not in an RV this seems like a great alternative. Of course, dogs are not allowed on NPS trails so it was not an option.

Here is the official Park Service guide to the road: https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/nabesna-road-guide.htm.

After the bad experience at Denali National Park this was like a breath of fresh air. Except for the choice of the Dead Dog Turn-out even Bugaboo and Snowpatch like the area. They did make comments about breaking all the rules and hiking on the trails!!

Here is the link to the rest of the Park. Worth a visit.https://www.nps.gov/wrst/index.htm

Bugaboo and Snowpatch were relieved when we left Dead Dog Pull-out.