An early morning bakery stop for breakfast was followed by an over three hour van ride to Denali National Park. The drive wasn’t supposed to take that long but road closures due to recent fire activity added drive time. Once in the park, we hiked the Rock Creek Trail (about 2.75 miles) to the kennels where the resident park sled dogs live. These are actual working dogs that provide transportation access in the winter months, including moving supplies for park staff. We were scheduled to hike back, but we shuttled instead to make up for time lost on the morning drive. Our guide prepared a charcuterie lunch. After lunch, Alan and I took a 43 mile bus ride as deep into Denali Park as is allowed. We had hoped to catch a view of Mt. Denali, but the cloud cover was not in our favor. We did see a moose that ran across the road in front of the bus, several caribou and even a few dall sheep. The sheep were very far off into the distance, but still visible without binoculars. Although our hike was cut short today, we had an amazing taste of Denali National Park.
Our guide Drew and me on the Rock Creek Trail.
A sled dog at the kennels.
Char took a liking to Alan.
Some of the treats at our charcuterie style lunch.
The moose running away from the bus.
A caribou at mile 43 of the bus ride into Denali.
The two white spots in the middle of the picture, about 2/3rds of the way down, are the dall sheep.
Our cabin in the woods for the night.