Hello from rainy Madrid! I started this post almost 30 days ago so it’s high time I get back to it.

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From Fairbanks, we took the Alaska National Railroad to Denali. We got very lucky with beautiful, sunny weather in Denali, and it was just the best. The views from the train were breathtaking. Have you ever seen wilderness this expansive? I hadn’t. The photos don’t do it justice.

We stayed in a cabin at the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort and went on beautiful hikes, sat by the campfire at the neighboring resort at night, ate delicious Thai food from the on-site food truck, and didn’t get eaten alive by the famous Alaskan mosquitos.

Our first day in Denali took us to the famous dog sled center where we got to visit the dog sled dogs, learn a bit about mushing and then headed back to the Denali visitor center where we were sure we were going to sleep when the bus didn’t show up and there was no one left except us and some other people. You know where Uber doesn’t exist? Denali.

Once we got back, we stopped at the cabin and then headed over to the on-site Thai food truck. I LOVE thai food and I love thai food in the wilderness even more. And lucky for us, this Thai was generous and so good that we went back another 2 times.

From there, we “broke in” to the property across the street to see their digs. We may have sat by their nice campfires.

The daylight around 10pm in Denali!!

The next day was my favorite of the whole trip, starting with a quadruple shot latte from Starbucks. No uber in Denali, but there is Starbucks!

The breakfast views weren’t bad at all:

Thanks to that quadruple espresso latte, the rest of the day was spent hiking in some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen in my life:

The most breathtaking part of Denali (and Alaska in general) was how utterly immense it was. Pristine nature goes on and on, almost completely untouched by humans and it was wild to be in that sort of, well, wilderness (and wildness). Being in complete silence with fresh air, beautiful nature, my parents, and thai food was all I needed to recharge.

Still a lot to come, let’s see if I get to it soon!