Denali

June 6: Riverside Camper Park, Houston, AK

There are some stunning views along the Parks Highway from Denali National Park to Anchorage. The Denali State Park is south of the National Park and offers some great views from its North and South Viewpoints.

The rarity of seeing Mt. Denali was not proven out by either of our trips to Alaska. I think I have a similar picture in my archives.

Mount Denali

Having visited the headquarters of the Yukon Quest, It only seems fair that we visit the headquarters of the better know Iditarod in Wasilla.

From here it is home. Tomorrow, we drop off the now well-used RV at Great Alaskan Holidays, catch their free shuttle to the airport and hop on a long series of flight across the country, and, eventually, to home.

This was a priceless vacation with memories to last a lifetime.

Is this the end of the blog? Of course not. There are a few appendices to post. Keep watching.

June 5: Denali National Park, AK

We arrived at Denali National Park early enough to do some exploring on day 18 and then hiking on day 19. It was still early in the season and the park was not opening down to Wonder Lake until the weekend. While it was open down to the Eielson Visitor Center, we only went as far a Savage River. Going to Eielson would have consumed a whole day and we had already had excellent views of Mt. Denali. Savage River is where you go for wildlife. Here we spotted a lone grizzly bear, a grizzly sow and her cub, and several caribou.

And then we saw a bear rarely seen in the wild: the elusive Gift Shop Bear. They are often sited in captivity, but rarely in their natural environment.

On our trip back to the campground on day two we saw pair of moose twins. Sorry about the composition and focus, we were on a shuttle bus when we spotted them.

On day two at Denali, we hiked the Savage Alpine Trail. This is one of Denali’s newest trails. The views were stunning; even though, the initial climb fairly strenuous.

We happened upon a couple of Artic Ground Squirrels on our hike and they were rather sassy. We stopped to talk to one squirrel and, after a few seconds, he came out of his rock covering and started to yell at us. This guy just came up to the trail to take a look and chitter away at us.