Denali

Caribou (aka Reindeer)
Ptarmigan
Along savage river

with the Park sled dogs
Taking the Junior Ranger pledge

It rained while we drove to Denali, so there was no chance we would see Mt. McKinley along the way. We later learned that it is visible only 20% of the time, so we weren't surprised that we didn't see it at all. However, it was still a beautiful park and we really enjoyed seeing all of the great vistas and wildlife. We were lucky that it didn't rain and the sun even came out during most of our hikes. The hard part about Denali is that you can only drive in about 15 miles, then you have to schedule a ride in a shuttle bus to go in farther. Our first evening there we took a hike near the visitor center. The next day we had scheduled a rafting trip on the Nenanna river -- it was great fun, we had to get dressed up in dry suits, and the boys got to experience some mild rapids. The only problem was that is was still cold, and my feet were numb by the time we finished, despite the fact that I wore my skiing socks.

That afternoon we went to see the park sled dogs, then we drove in as far as we could and took a hike along Savage river. It was sunny and beautiful and we saw some cool wildlife including moose, a weasel that took a liking to Mike, eagles, falcons, caribou, and a big group of ptarmigan, the state bird.

The next day we had scheduled an 8:30 bus to Eielson ranger station. The ride would take about 3 hours, and the drivers are good about stopping to look at wildlife along the way. The ride takes so long because they have to go about 25-30 miles per hour, and some parts of the road go along steep cliffs. Along the way we saw fox, snow hares, a grizzly bear mom with 2 cubs, and lots of birds. When we got to Eielson, I told them that Brandon wanted to get his junior ranger badge (you have to fill out a little booklet), so the ranger made a special announcement and everyone watched as Brandon took his junior ranger pledge. We took a hike with a ranger and learned all about the tundra and the plants that manage to live on it. Then we hiked up a rather steep hill -- Brandon practically ran up the hill and we had to slow him down to take a look at the sites along the way. We took the shuttle back to the park entrance after some lunch and saw lots more wildlife along the way, including a beaver that Mike spotted in his pond.

We ate at the local Salmon Bake restaurant -- Salmon was a recurring theme (and dinner) throughout the trip. We also had some fabulous berry pie -- blueberries and other berries grow very well in the tundra.

The next day we headed up to Fairbanks. We decided that if we were to come back to Denali we would camp inside of the park so that we could spend more time inside the park, and less time on shuttle buses.