Lots to do

I think we have mentioned before how much there is to do in the area and we have been very busy the past few days.

Sunday morning we were washing clothes and relaxing around the RV when the RV park manager knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to go white-water rafting in 30 minutes (!!!). At first we weren't going to go since we were using 3 of the 4 washing machines. Then Tom insisted on staying to take care of the laundry and so Sally took off with 3 other workampers.

The Nenana River is a glacial river - very cold. We all had to wear dry suits. Even so, the cold of the water splashing on the suit can make you chilly. Fortunately the day was nice and sunny so were very comfortable. The trip involves several class II and III rapids. It was a lot of fun and very scenic. No pictures yet since I used a film camera and have to send it off for processing. Tom is hoping to get a chance to go soon - he will probably decide to take a swim in the 35 degree water - brr!

Monday, Tom sang at the open mic night at the Salmon Bake near Denali Park. It was a lot of fun and he sounded great. He sang several CCR favorites and two of his own compositions. As we left about 12:30 am, we noticed that the sky was very clear off to the southwest and thought we might be able to see Denali (Mt McKinley). Only about 20% of visitors actually see the mountain so we decided to take a chance, drive down the park road and see if we would be lucky - and we were! It was very quiet in the park; we only saw one other car. And the views were really neat. Note how light the picture of Denali is - that was taken without a flash at about 12:45 am. The mountain is in the center of the picture - it may be hard to see since the background was a little cloudy.

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The moon over Denali Park (1 am)............Denali Mountain at 1 am

Then Tuesday, we got the chance to go "flightseeing" to Denali (Mt McKinley). We rode in a 10 seater plane and it was the most exciting thing we have done so far on the trip. It was a bit cloudy on the way, but the views of the mountains and glaciers were spectacular. We even saw some climbers coming down off the summit. Words just are not adequate in situations like this..

Sally in the air

Denali above the clouds......and.... The Summit

A view of one of the glaciers and mountains

Thursday was the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. We stayed up past midnight again to celebrate. The sun set at 12:24 and rose again at 3:37. There has been 24 hours of daylight up here for several weeks - that will last till the end of July, I think.

Our next adventure will be a drive up past the Arctic Circle on our days off this weekend.

Stay tuned for more...