Denali National Park (June 1-4)

We boondocked at a campground 29 miles from the entrance to Denali.  This is a view of our RV in the brush from the other side of the river.  We stayed 3 nights and had some awesome adventures.  One day we met some guys from Georgia who stayed up to watch the sunset at midnight.  We just couldn't manage to keep our eyes open.  And the sunrise is 4 hours later!

This is one of the new outhouses at the campground.  Rather fancy for camping, but it's nice to see our tax dollars spent wisely.

On Thursday and Friday we took the green bus deeper into the park.  You've already seen Bernardo's photos of our bear encounters from Thursday.  From this visitor center you can see Mt. McKinley about 30% of the year.  We saw lots of bears on Thursday and Mt. McKinley on Friday.  We consider ourselves very lucky.  Bernardo is standing by a memorial to two moose who lost their lives when their antlers got stuck in battle.  They died together that way, unable to free themselves.

                                                                      Our sentiments.

                                  Relaxing in our borrowed backyard at Teklanika Campground in Denali.

Friday, on our return trip inside the park, we were able to have some great views of Mt.McKinley.  I can really understand why several thousand people try to climb its summit every year.  The success rate is about 40%.  It's not the difficulty of the climb but the weather that prevents many from getting to the top.

The photog doing his thing.  When we returned to our campground on Friday we met a nice couple that were on their way out to this visitor center.  It was late in the afternoon, but he said he likes to go out late in the day to see more wildlife and there are fewer people on the buses.  He's been doing it for 30 years.  To make a very long story shorter, it turns out he's the author of our "bible/guidebook" that we have opened daily on this trip.  They were staying at our campground and invited us over to visit when they got back from their outing.  He was of course thrilled to hear how much we liked his book!  They have a very large RV and even have a piano inside!  His wife is a piano teacher and he plays the saxophone.  He loved Bernardo's pictures of the bears.

                               This is one of many Dall rams in the park.  Bernardo thinks he's smiling.......

The green bus that goes from the visitor center at  Mile 1 to the end of the line at Kantishna (about 89 miles).  Unfortunately, it was only open to mile 63, but still an incredible drive.  No private vehicles are allowed beyond our campground at mile 29.

                                                                      A herd of caribou.

A semi-cloudy view of Mt. McKinley.