Kantishna Roadhouse Denali National Park and Preserve

... to catch my Fly Denali Glacier tour. Landing on the glacier was really cool. After the weather mess yesterday, it was nice to have the weather cooperate perfectly for us. We were able to make our landing and spend about 15 minutes on the glacier. by the time we were back in the air, the weather cleared around Mt. McKinley and we were able to fly close by. Tomorrow is the tour into the park.

I hope you enjoy some pictures of the local scenery...

... hopes very much that this meeting pans out.

We are back to work on 09-10 for our last seven days as campground hosts. We are both happy and sad. I’m sad because I’m not looking forward to 8 or 9 days on the road when we leave. I hope Val and Dave don’t stop at any of those parking lot campgrounds on the way home. I have bathroom issues…

Your sensitive friend,

Remington Beagle

Last trip out into the park…

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.

They saw everything on the park road except...A BEAGLE!

Your rare breed,

Remington Beagle

Today we were going to be heading into Denali on one of the shuttle buses that take you out to Eielson Visitor Center. On the trip you have chances to see grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, caribou, foxes, Dall sheep, moose and a variety of birds.

We caught the 09:00 bus and Anne-Cecile thought she saw a Lynx but the bus was going too fast so she didn't get a chance to yell stop. The bus stops off at several locations as you can see ...

... haven. Denali has one section (before the Park Road) that is lined with lodges and gift shops on both sides of the street. We visited almost all of the gift shops. Some had beautiful items, while others had the usual Alaska junk like shot glasses and artificial moose poop.

We had to be ready to carpool into town at 4:45 to go to the Alaska Cabin Night Dinner Theater. We enjoyed a ...

... hours in and back.

So the first stop is the Wilderness Access Center to get tickets. Then on to the bus.

Along the way there was a lot of wildlife and great scenery. The Alaskan Range runs across the Alaskan interior in a roughly southwesterly to northwesterly direction. The airflow from the Pacific Ocean comes from the south. The mountains are so high that the ...

... s Lament" to the tune of “This Land is Your Land.” Then the dreaded walk back up.

June 11
Drove to Savage River since we would have had to wait 45 minutes for the bus. There were six Caribou lying right by the bridge where you park. We walked across the road, sat along the hillside, watched them with the binoculars, and took lots of pictures. As we were walking down the trail ...

... the birch trees outside their home in Ruby, while the other mushers used synthetics. They use 14 dogs to start the race, and must finish the race with at least five dogs. The race covers approximately 1,149 miles of tundra, ice, snow, blizzards, (you get the picture). We then went outside and saw a demonstration of how they harness up the dogs to the sled. They use the female dogs as the leads, because they are the "smart" dogs of course. We really ...

... more and more wildlife, Benn and I are joking about how perfect of a day this is turning out to be. Every time we get a better view of the mountain, we have to take more pictures as *it can't get any better*...yet it does. Pictures are unable to show how amazing this mountain is. So, we make it Wonder Lake, Benn and I are sick of sitting on a bus (this has been over 4 hours.) We start walking, and find a trail. We then decide that we can cut up from the trail across the tundra ...

... guys who were talking about cars. One of them was named Scott; I recognized him as the cashier who had sold me my ticket for the bus. His friend was a lifelong Alaskan named John who told stories about his father and the gold he had buried but never found again. Stories of hidden treasure still seem viable in Alaska. "You know my old man had that Gold Wing," the car was the Mona Lisa to John. "So are you going to inherit that thing when he dies?" John asked "No way, Dad sold ...