Denali National Park

We spent 2 nights at Denali and could easily have spent a week there. I have read (but don’t know if it is true) that only 1 person in 3 sees Mt. McKinley because it is so frequently shrouded in clouds. One reason for this is that it Mt. McKinley is large enough to create its own localized weather.

The evening we arrived, it was clear, but you can see Mt. McKinley from only a very few spots. The next two days it was cloudy. Then after we left, it was clear again. That was disappointing. Maybe there will be other trips to Denali. Probably not.

I slept over the driving section, and Susan slept on the sofa.

Oops, better close the blinds.

The kitchen, dining room, and living room.

Got milk!

The film at the visitor center at the park headquarters was so beautiful that I bought a copy and also a CD of the music (so you, too, can watch the DVD with me). They had a fabulous exhibit that included the flora and fauna of the park. http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/the-denali-visitor-center.htm

We attended a sled dog demonstration. They actually use the sled dogs in the winter to patrol the park. It is easy to see that the dogs “love their jobs.” When they got ready to select the dogs for the demonstration, every dog went nuts, barking and jumping, seemingly saying, “Pick me, pick me.”

Charlotte and Aurora

Susan and Aurora

Relaxed sled dog

Tense sled dog

Going sledding

Mush!

As we left Denali, we felt sort of sad. Our next stop was Anchorage, and we would be turning in the motorhome. It had been our comfortable and cozy home for 10 nights.

Camping at Denali

Our home

 

 

 

It was a great place to camp. The store, showers, and laundry were about 50 yards away, and the shuttle bus stop only about 100 yards from us.

We are almost finished with the camping, but the trip is far from over.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte

The Official End of the Alaska Highway

 Delta Junction is the original and official end of the Alaska Highway, with Fairbanks sometimes being called the end. We were happy to reach this point. When the highway was completed in 1942, it was approximately 1,700 miles. As of 2012, it was 1,387 miles. The difference in distance is due to constant reconstruction of the highway, which has rerouted and straightened out numerous sections. I have heard it said that the only mile marker that is correct is the zero marker in Dawson Creek.

We were in Dawson Creek on the afternoon of May 16 and got to Delta Junction on May 19. It seemed a lot longer, partially because of the snow and the tire repair. Before the opportunity to rent the motor home from Great Alaskan Holidays at such a reduced rate, I never thought I would get to drive the highway, and I’m really pleased that I can mark that off my bucket list. The experience by far exceeded my expectations.

Whitehorse, Yukon

Happy Me

In Delta Junction, Alaska

The scenery was fabulous, but the trip was far from being over. More posts will follow, with Anchorage being next.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte

A Hard Job

I learned in a sociology class years ago that there are three things that made a job desirable – power, privilege (money), and prestige.  Let me tell you about a really hard job that has none of those: changing tires.  It is a difficult, dirty job.  I don’t think anyone says, “You know, when I grow up, I think I would like to change tires for a living.” The tire changing person is near the bottom or at the bottom of the list of powerful people in a garage.  I can’t imagine that they make much money.  As for prestige, when was the last time you heard of someone being named as the “Tire Changer of the Year”? But when you need a tire changed and/or repaired, they are at the top of your list of important people – and then they fall back into memory oblivion once you drive away from the garage. As Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” says, “People with dirty jobs make civilized life possible for the rest of us.” Thank you so much to the man who repaired my tire at Bee Jay’s Services in Watson Lake, YT.

A slow, weak, fat person could not do this job.

A Rule We All Can Live With

A sign at a fuel stop when there was snow on the ground. Yes, we removed our shoes. No, our socks did not get dirty. EVERYONE had removed their shoes. What a good idea.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

We saw lots of animals on this trip. One day we saw about 20 ewes and lambs with one big-horn ram. They were standing in the road, but we didn’t get a picture. I didn’t realize that whenever people saw an animal, they just stopped and took pictures. Some people even got out of their vehicles, but we never did that. Later we got several pix of bison, black bears, brown bears, moose, caribou, elk, deer,and horses. The horses were running wild, but I don’t know if they are considered wild. One of them had a cow bell around its neck. There are “Horse-Crossing” signs just like there are bison and moose signs. (Seeing the horse with the cow bell reminded me of the SNL skit with Christoper Walken and Will Ferrell, and Walken keeps asking Ferrell for more cow bell.)

In Denali NP, a female moose wandered by the train station and came up to where we were waiting for a shuttle bus. Everyone retreated, but the moose didn’t seem to notice us. She looked really old, had a lot of graying in her fur, and looked a little out of it. I could identify with her. My camera battery had died just before she came along.

In Tennessee we have dead opossums on the side of the road. In other areas, the dead animals were raccoons and porcupines.

We were doing laundry in a Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, campground store / laundromat / restaurant / gift shop and talking with the locals. They mentioned that the birds had arrived, but it was too cold for the bugs to be out – and the birds were starving. Nature is harsh.

The red spot is a baby bison.

Moose are frequently in water.

A black bear.

A brown (grizzly) bear.

Deer or elk (or something else -- I don't know).

The usual and a wooden animal crossing sign. Sometimes they had flashing lights outlining the wooden sign.

Elk in the road.

Love to all,

Charlotte