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Continuing the story I started here, here, and here:

We had to get some gas by the time we left the park, but with prices like these we decided not to fill the tank just yet. After Denali we took a brief side-trip to Talkeetna. If you’re not going to summit the mountain or hire a plane for a fly-over, you can skip this town in my opinion.

We traveled back down the Mat-Su valley then north of Palmer to Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine. Hatcher Pass actually cuts through the Talkeetna Mountains and would have been a shorter distance to drive except that it’s closed to traffic most of the year and even then is not suitable for driving an RV.

The area around Independence Mine is gorgeous with several hiking trails and a couple campgrounds. It was a lot less crowded than Denali. The park includes historical displays, a museum/gift shop, a few maintained buildings, and several ramshackle buildings.

We had another midnight hike this time on the Gold Mint Trail that parallels the Little Susitna River. The whole trail is nine miles one way up to the glacier that feeds the river so we hiked a small fraction of it. Near the trailhead it’s well-maintained and easy hiking. We saw several beaver lodges along the way and watched one beaver patrolling his domain.

The next day we spent some time in the park opting for a self-guided tour. Then with pans (loaned for free from the gift shop) we spent a couple hours panning for gold. The chances of finding any real gold are pretty remote, but it was still fun (and you are allowed to keep the gold if you find any!). Our hearts beat faster a few times when we saw fools gold sparkling in the pan but our dreams of paying for the trip were in vein. [smirk]

We really enjoyed the Hatcher Pass area, but the coolest part of the trip was yet to come….