Day 27--Tuesday, July 20--Denali

Here's the reindeer farm leaving Fairbanks--must be Santa's farm. Left Fairbanks driving to Grizzly Bear Resort in Denali stopping along the way to take pictures--hopefully of McKinley but with rain all night and morning, it's doubtful.

Beautiful vistas abound--we're happy that we expected and planned for rain every day--we're not disappointed. Everyone has said that the amount of rain has been extraordinary this year. This is the day we bought tickets on the Alaskan Railroad for a 12-hour trip from Fairbanks to Denali--something I wanted to do after seeing the dome-covered trains traveling through Denali. We didn't know at the time that the train parallels the highway and that the trip takes you to the visitor's center and back to Fairbanks and not through the park as I expected. So, a lesson learned at a cost of $440.

Stopped in Denali for some shopping before driving to our campground for the night. Stopped at the Harley store for more shirts! The burl (sp?) wood is interesting--there is a lot used for deck railings and supports.

This is the Nenana River cut coming into Denali. Lots of float trips and plane flights into Denali. This is a "learning" trip for us and we know what we want to do next time--float trips are one thing along with a flight over Denali.

Here's our campground at Grizzly bear--this campground has nice showers, cabins, firepits--not exactly Boy Scout approved--S has never built a campfire on the edge of a forrest before.

Before building our campfire, we went across the road to McKinley Village--a really nice place--loved it! Nice after a few nights nights wearing Deets where no one else was--they may not have appreciated our new "fragrance". We inquired about the price of a room and the clerk had no idea--maybe $2-300/night?  95% of their bookings are tours.

We visited with Judi from FL who had flown into Fairbanks and was spending 3 nights here then touring to Whittier to debark on a 90-person cruise through Prince William Sound before flying out of Anchorage. It was very nice!

Back to our world of campfires and Deets--here's our camper--can you imagine a firepit that close to the forrest? We were surrounded by Sitka spruse--the state tree. The state flower is the forget-me-not.

After a night about the fire, we went to bed--were we really the youngest people in the campground? Alaska has so much to offer but the general population of tourists are older than we are--by a bunch! We have done the "touristy" things this time and have plans of what we will do next time--it's going to be more time on the pennisula fishing!

Steve updating his blog--we may have to ship it home!