Denali National Park, WOW!

Short 110 mile pretty drive to Denali National Park.  We car-pooled to a resort for the Alaska Cabin Night dinner and show.  Great dinner of ribs and salmon served by singing waiters and a funny show about old time Alaska.  Very talented group and as usual, members of our group managed to be "chosen performers" which added to the fun!

Up at 5:30 am to board our tour bus at 6:15 for a 14 hour tour of Denali Park.  It was better than we could ever have imagined!   A partly sunny day and about 62 degrees!  We made many stops along the way to get out but many more stops on the road because with 42 people looking , we saw so many animals.  Grisly bears (19 mostly blond moms each with two cubs), caribou, an American eagle soaring, a lynx (rare to see),  Dall sheep (white with spiral horns and a red fox!  The fox was right on the single lane road walking ahead of us for about 5 minutes.  He would turn around, look at us and keep on walking.  He stopped to pee on the road and then 10 yards later he pooped!
Hope to fill in some good photos from our friends.   Our cell phones didn't have enough magnification to catch most of what we saw but it was FANTASTIC to see all these beautiful animals!  Blonde grisly mothers with black, brown and blonde cubs that could have three different fathers! Our friends took these pictures--so good!                                 

Lynx sitting 50 feet off the road.  Rare to see!

Our enlarged picture of Mom and baby bear!

Baby moose getting a drink right in parking lot!

Mr Fox ambling down the road!

The scenery is just too big and breath-taking to catch in photos.  It is 360 degrees around you!
We saw beautiful snow-covered mountains but Denali mountain (formerly Mt. McKinley) at about 20,300 feet was covered in clouds at the top.  We only caught a glimpse of the peak.

Denali (formerly Mt McKinley taken by a friend with a big lens!

There are very few roads into Denali park and cars are allowed only into the first 15 miles.  To get any further, you need to take one of the buses that takes you deeper into the park. We took the tour that goes deepest  into the park This really is a great system.  The park is not crowded.  It is truly a wilderness!  The whole area shuts down in about 3 to 4 weeks because the snows start!

They look lazy until they see that sled out, then go berserk!

The Visitors' Center has great free movies and nice displays.  There is a bus that takes you to Park Headquarters where the Alaskan Huskies are bred and trained to pull heavy transport sleds in the winter. These Huskies are not

Wild blueberries

an AKC recognized breed because they are not bred for appearance but for function -- strength, speed, endurance.

We walked the 1.5 mile trail back to the Visitor Center and ate wild blueberries on the trail.

Dogs are very important because no motor vehicles are allowed in the park.  Unlike the smaller race huskies, these are much bigger and stronger dogs that can pull 100 pounds each.  They were so excited to pull this sled around the track in front of us.  Each dog has a different job.

This type of sled would haul supplies deep into the park and maybe
transport scientists in and out during the winter.

Our last day here we hiked the Savage Loop trail which is a two mile rocky trail right along a raging stream.  This is as far as you can venture into the park with your own vehicle.  (At this point, a perky, cheerful ranger stops you and tells you that you've gone as far a you can go! ) Ken and Carol Kromme who live 40 minutes from us in Cincinnati hiked with us which made it more fun.

Hiking Savage River Loop Trail with Carol and Ken

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A beautiful hike in Denali!  We were armed with Bear Spray but no bears out today!

Our  Caravan staff made us quesadillas, root beer floats and frozen Kahlua and cream drinks for our evening party and followed that with a "brown bag auction".  Each RV received a large grocery bag and each couple bought a $5-$10 gift and brought it to the party.  Dan then conducted a "blind auction" for each bag.  It was so much fun and Dan was so clever getting us to bid--like asking someone their rig number--24--then saying SOLD for $24!  He had all kind of fun tricks and we raised $620 for St Jude's Hospital.


Tourism in Alaska and Denali is winding down and the fireweed blooms are almost to the top so we are heading south.   Here is a picture of our RV compared to most others in the caravan--in real life we look even smaller but it works great for us!