Friday - August 7, 2009

Yesterday we got to go to Denali National Park. We weren't very smart though because we took the road to the end thinking it was a better value. Big Mistake!! We were in a school bus on most gravel roads sometimes only one lane around twisty, curvy, mountainess terrain. I thought of my friend Mary Carolyn who would have literally peed her pants. I wasn't very comfortable myself!!!

Actually the topography changed a lot through the park. We started out in a forest, then meadows, lakes and rivers, then mountains, etc. Bill was really surprised. I think he thought it would be all forests. Oh, did I mention that this trip took 12 hours!!! We were pretty tired by the time we were done at 8:00 p.m.

We were able to see caribou, red fox, beaver, and a golden eagle for the first time. I was so proud of myself, I'm the one who actually spotted the golden eagle. It was really neat to see all the caribou roaming around near the rivers and in the meadows. The red fox actually had something in his mouth he was eating so that was kind of neat too. It was much bigger than the fox we see in our yards all the time in King's Point We also saw several snowshoe hares and ptmarigans along the roadside. A great treat was a grizzly and her two cubs. One of them performed for us. He stood up and it was so cute. We also saw dall sheep which we had seen before in Whittier.

Today we got to see the dog sled team that patrols the park in the winter. There are 32 of them and they take turns. There were only 5 in one team. The park ranger actually hitched up 5 and took them around in a circle for us.

We also saw the train come and go two times today. This is a passenger train that brings people from the Princess and Holland America Cruises to take them on their land cruise of Denali. There are also Alaskan train passengers, but the majority is the Cruises, who have their own busses and train cars. It is quite a thing to see. It's thousand of people. It looks like it was the 1940's.

We also went to a dinner theatre last night that was all about the early days in Denaili. We're having a great time but haven't seen Mt. McKinley yet. Bill is getting me up very early tomorrow to try to see it. Yuk!