Sunday, July 8 was Day 17 on the tour. We headed to Denali RV Park in Denali Park, Alaska.
Our first night there we drove a few miles down the road to Denali Park Village for a dinner of salmon and ribs plus all the sides and an entertaining musical/comedy show of Gold Rush life.
The next morning we had to get up early to take a 6:00 am(!) narrated bus tour through Denali National Park. The tour lasted 8 hours and traveled 63 miles into the park. The park and preserve is centered around Denali, the highest mountain in North America. Seventeen of the 20 highest mountain peaks in North America are in Alaska. The park encompasses 6,045,153 acres which is larger than the state of New Hampshire.
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| Beautiful rainbow in the park. Is that a pot of gold that I see? |
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| This hillside is called Pretty Rock. See the road winding along the front? |
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| One of 9 bears we saw on the bus tour. |
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| A herd of caribou in the valley |
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| Very windy at the visitor center where we turned around... |
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| And cold! |
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| Denali is somewhere in the clouds |
On our free day we walked through part of the park and through Denali Rainbow Village which is a hotel/lodge and shopping area near the park.
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| Someone has a new hat! |
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| Who's going to move first? |
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| The rivers in Alaska are so fast! |
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| Another windy day |
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| This building is leaning towards the middle! |
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| They say mushing is the most popular sport in Alaska. |
We drove to a hotel high on a hill to eat lunch.
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| The view from the top |
Along the winding road there were several signs. Someone has a sense of humor...
On Day 20 we travelled to Talkeetna, a small town 154 miles south of Denali. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere so when we went on a sightseeing trip into town we were surprised at all the shops and restaurants in town. It was like an explosion of people and colors!
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| On the way to Talkeetna |
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| Still trying to get a glimpse of Denali |
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| Denali is in the clouds somewhere! |
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| Talkeetna Main Street |
The next morning as we were getting ready to drive to Anchorage, someone told us that Denali was visible. We caught a ride with some fellow trekkers and drove to the main road where we could see Denali. Beautiful! As we were snapping pictures, the clouds started to roll in. They say only 30% of visitors to the park get to see all of Denali and we were fortunate to be a part of the group.
Next stop--Anchorage...
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