Denali Backcountry Lodge Denali National Park and Preserve

... you say. Yes, but very nice ones.<br><br>Val met another lady at the archives who wants to introduce her to Jack Coghill. Mr. Coghill was one of the signers of the original Alaska state constitution, a state senator, and there is a bridge named for him &#8211; the Jack Coghill Bridge to the Interior! In addition to all of that his father was a contractor for entertainment at Savage Camp in the 30's. Val is excited ...

Last trip out into the park&#8230;<br><br>Val has wanted to go to Wonder Lake for two summers, and Dave does not want to ride the bus. As the season comes to a close, Val has decided to take the bus to Wonder Lake by herself. It turns out to be a good choice. Val says there is not a lot of narrative to go with the story of her day; the pictures tell the story.<br><br>They saw everything on the park road except...A BEAGLE!<br><br>Your rare breed,<br><br>Remington Beagle<br>

... with a high-powered telescopic camera. When we saw an animal, he would take out the camera and zoom in on the wildlife. On drop-down TV monitors throughout the bus, we could then see the animals "up close." Our driver said we hit a &#8220;game grand slam&#8221; during our tour, as we saw all the big animals, and some added bonuses, including the moose, a pack of wolves, dozens of mountain Dall Sheep, grizzly bears, caribou, and fox. The numbers of smaller rodents and ...

... once a<br>huge grizzly crossed infront of the bus and stayed along the road<br>growling at the bus. It was awesome!!! The bus stops numerous times<br>along the way for views and photo opportunities. The next day, the<br>weather being the coldes at 40F we took a Husky kennel tour. This is<br>home to the huskies of iditarod racer Jeff King. These dogs are so<br>excited and have so much energy for what they do, it was interesting to<br>see how they live and get trained for their sled races.

... we began to see some of the mountain.  As we got to the center, which was located for its view, we realized that we had gotten very lucky. The pictures speak for themselves.  The peak in the last picture is the North Peak (19,470), about 900 feet lower than the South Peak.  Clouds obscured our view of the South Peak.   So, we did not see it all, but we definitely saw about 95% of it. You can see from the flag in one of the pictures how windy it was.<br ...

... especially in numbers and the noise we made as we hiked. Matt taught us about the blueberries and random plants as we hiked. We had a blast playing on the beach in the river bend. Needless to say, we did not get in the 32 degree water of Nenana. <br>

... you see it. The shuttle bus driver was quite knowledgeable and told us various facts along the way. The best part was stopping for animals so everyone could get a view. Along the way, a Timber Wolf walked right down the road and weaved its way among the five or so buses that were stopped to watch. Saw several Caribou, Ptarmigan, Golden Eagles, and Dall Sheep high up in the mountains. Having good ...

... won't be long before it falls away, but I think that's a crucial element sustaining the intrigue. All of us were in awe, the bus tour went 12 hours, 3 hours spent walking around. Neither Haley or I had taken the tour into the park yet so it was a new experience for everyone. We had a few crystal clear views of Denali, saw 5 different grizzlies, one of which I spotted through the trees, 4 fox, 5 Moose, a wolf, a hawk-owl...

... more about the park. The highest mountain in the Rockies (Mt McKinley ) at 20,000 ft was not to be seen, it had chosen today to cloak itself behind cloud, as Earnie commented ; "it is an upside down Land iceberg, IE; 2/3rd of it hidden in the sky behind clouds and 1/3rd showing on the ground" a fair comment. The Americans around Earnie and Rick didn't really understand our sense of humour when we commented that the mountain is a myth and doesn't exist it is just ...

... back to camp to retrieve the valuable piece of gear. A few hours later, filter in hand, they couldn't find the packs. Discovering them again took two more hours. They also spoke of a game of tundra game king-of-the-hill and a few joints to follow. Ten minutes later everyone was back on the bus and we were trailing a veil of dust for half a mile. Rhino, ****** and Adam slept while the Germans and others ogled the Caribou grazing on the plain. The Caribou were out in force ...