Preview of Denali National Park AK

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Today we move from North Pole, AK to Denali National Park area.  We are actually going to stay at Denali RV Park & Motel about 8 miles from the entrance to Denali National Park.

Not far south of Fairbanks we came to the Alaska Native Veterans Honor Bridge crossing the Tanana River. It was a pretty bridge.

 As we got closer to the RV park, we got closer to the mountains.  Gorgeous views!

Close to our RV park, the hillside had lots of color.

We arrived at the Denali RV Park & Motel about noon.

Sites are mostly level and we have full hookups including cable TV.  Sites are not spacious, but adequate. We do have wonderful views.

After we fixed lunch, we headed to Denali National Park to check things out and get bus tickets for tomorrow.  We've been told you need to get them ahead of time or else the bus might be full on the one you want to ride.  We bought tickets to leave the Wilderness Access Center at 6:30am tomorrow.

Next we took a bus to a presentation on dog sledding. The dogs in Denali actually work in the winter hauling all kinds of stuff all over the park.

Above and below are just 2 of the 30 dogs they have here in the park.

I hope you can zoom in on this picture describing what makes a good sled dog. It's very interesting. One of the most unusual traits they look for is how close together their toes are.  The closer together the better because that will keep the snow from balling up in their toes. Interesting!


The wheeled cart you see above is the training cart used in the fall when they start training and building their strength up.
After their summer break they start with running 2-3 miles a day.  By the end of winter they can go 30 miles a day.

They only put 5 dogs on this demo team because the usual 10 dog team would be too much to handle in this small area. The 5th dog is not attached yet.  See the 5th dog below.

The first pictures of the dogs show them resting.  When they realize they are going to get to work, the get excited. Look how high this dog was jumping.  And this dog was the oldest in the group at 10 years old. They were all barking asking to be picked for the demo.  The dogs seemed to be very happy.

 This is another training sled.  If I remember correctly the wheels are to help the sled over gravel before the snow is deep.

Our bus driver mentioned a suspension bridge over the Riley Creek.  We found the trail and hiked to it.

 The forest floor was covered with low ground cover.  It is overcast so the beauty of the various shades of green don't show well in this picture.

 Here's the suspension bridge crossing the Riley Creek.

 This is looking up stream. This "creek" would be a river in Texas.

 Another look at the suspension bridge. It was fun to make it bounce.

Here we are headed back to the car.

Tomorrow we plan to start our day early in Denali Park.  We are packing enough food for the day so we can hang around hoping for a look at "THE" mountain.  We've been told that only 5% of visitors get to view the top of Denali Mountain. Denali Mountain is over 20,000 ft high. They say it creates its own weather. We are praying for a blessing, to be included in that 5%.