At Denali

We are "home" for the next two months - at Denali RV Park and Motel. The park is right next to the George Parks Highway (mile 245.1) which runs between Fairbanks and Anchorage. We're only 8 miles north of the park entrance.

This picture shows the RV park from a ridge right above. Tom and I are trying to hike the trail up the ridge daily to get in better shape for hiking in the park. At the same time, we get to see some beautiful scenery and a lot of real tiny tundra wildflowers. It's amazing how much grows up here.


The past week we've been settling in, enjoying the area and learning our new job. We have already worked one day and start for real on Wednesday.
We are really glad we decided on the Denali for our longest stay in Alaska. I don't think we will run out of things to do on our off days!

So far, we've been into the park almost every day this week:
--We checked out the visitor center the first day
-- We hiked the Taiga Trail in the visitor center area and drove out 15 miles on the park road (as far as you can go in a private vehicle)
-- We attended the sled dog demo

--We went to a ranger discussion about day hiking in Denali.

• The ranger explained that there are very few formal trails. The idea is to reduce damage to the fragile tundra by spreading out the usage across the park instead of concentrating the usage via a trail system. That's a different concept than we are used to and we welcomed an explanation of how to enjoy hiking in the area.

--Then Saturday, we rode the park shuttle bus out to the Toklat River. While we haven't seen Mt McKinley (Denali) yet, we did see the "big four" or wildlife viewing on our trip:

Grizzly bear


Moose


Dall Sheep


And Caribou (no good pictures this time)

We got to make a short hike up the Toklat River valley and plan to go back for a longer hike later this summer. Locals and summer workers can get a deal called a "six pack" - six tickets for the shuttle bus for only a few dollars more than a single trip. So you'll definitely see more pictures of the park over the next couple of months, plus more about other local attractions. We even hope to go flight-seeing and land on a glacier before our stay is over.


Happy hiking and stay tuned for more...