Two back country Alaska towns are enveloped in the Park.  Chitina marks the end of the paved road with a handful of business, mostly bed and breakfast, plus a fantastic shop filled with art and hand crafted items from around Alaska; Spirit Mountain Artworks.  I loved the pottery oil lamps and spirit animal jewelry.  Most interesting were scarves and shawls made by felting merino wool onto crushed silk.  They are light as air and covered in swirls of muted natural greens and blues or bright reds, orange and yellow.  It is in a 1910 restored tin shop that is the perfect setting for these works.  I browsed but didn’t buy but still thoroughly enjoyed the visit.  The Gilpatrick Hotel stands on a prominent corner downtown.  We wandered in to look at historic photos and just had to try coffee and a sweet. Kent’s bourbon pecan pie was sort of a cross between a gooey shoe-fly pie made with black strap molasses and pecan pie with a layer of crust between them rather than on top.  A bit odd but he cleaned his plate.  Oh yeah, we saw the town moose.  He was hanging out lakeside downtown.

McCarthy is more entwined in the mining history of the area.  It was actually the party town for the miners whenever they managed to get a little time off.  The Golden Saloon is still a central fixture on the main street and it’s a happening place.  There was a story telling contest set for the evening the day we passed through.  The locals run a pretty good museum with lots of mining town memorabilia.  It is interesting to see what survives and makes its way into these small town museums.

Maybe it’s a show for the tourists but it seems like everybody knows everybody and they all seem to have an interest in each other’s success.  What a comfortable thought.

Oddly somebody raises Yaks in Alaska.  Not sure why but we saw them on our drive out to Kennecott