"Sunset" in the parking lot.
The next day we went to the UAF Museum of the North which I have already posted pictures of... below... and then made our way to... Walmart! ha and then to Denali NP&P! Needless to say due to the fact that Mt. McKinley/Denali is the largest mountain on this continent, the park is a little over done to our liking. McKinley village is over run by Holland-America and Princess tour buses and hotels and about 10 odd gift shops. Luckily, gift shops that are owned and run by Alaska advertise it loud and proud and with the exception of 1 or 2 things we purchased most of our items were from AK residents.
So Friday we drove... and drove... and drove some more. We were not planning on staying in the National Park but possibly in the Denali State Park which has a Denali North View Campground- sounds nice right? PSYCH! They got you good on that one. It is a parking lot... with a view of Denali (yes we saw the mountain on Friday) but nonetheless a parking lot... for RV's and Campers... read my pasts posts to see why this is an issue for me. Luckily since sleeping on gravel/pavement wasn't Mom's idea of fun... and she is paying... we decided to head a bit north again to some random wayside we saw with a random camping sign. Low and behold we camped 3 nights... for free in some random state park wayside! I was baffled we didnt have to pay... I still am. So friday rolls by with the sun and like normal Alaska fashion, especially close to the mountains, it starts to rain. And literally never stopped! We slept in the rain, cooked in the rain and dressed in the rain.
Overlook in McKinley village
On Saturday we hung around the park and the town. Drove the 15 miles allowed to be driven by the public into the park and hiked at the Savage River Trail. Beautiful hike, so much geology, a bridge and animals! We saw Ptarmigan (AK state bird) with chicks which was too cool!! That night we went to a dinner theater. Apparently I did not know what I was getting myself into with this one. I was enticed by the mention of all you can eat... ribs. Well apparently there is a lot of singing, in your face-ness, participation and sharing. It was fun but I will never do that again because I am not a big fan of yelling "YOOOOHOOOO AMBERRRRR!" as a group with our napkins almost like in song to get more ribs.
Savage Creek!
Moms new best friend.
On Sunday we went on the bus tour about 50 miles or so into the park to Eilson Visitors center. That was interesting. Not exactly my cup of tea but whatever. It is a school bus packed with children, foreign people, old people and anything else you can imagine- except dogs (I would have preferred dogs). The kids didn't give a flying crap about what was going on, anywhere, and all the did was cry and scream and yell and be obnoxious, misbehaving, undisciplined children that I would have left for the bears if it was my choice. Personally by that point I didn't seem to care too much either about ground squirrels, Dall sheep (they are seriously white spots on the side of the mountain- AWESOME! not.) or moose for that matter. The occasional grizzly was cool but also very far away and I have a point and click camera from Target unlike the German tourists who I have decided are in cahoots with Japan when it comes to camera technology- I can see another axis of evil forming. Also some caribou here and there. The rocks were pretty awesome though and Mom and I found ourselves pointing out that kind of stuff and ignoring the constant screams to stop the bus for white dots.
Look at the two different color silts/waters meeting- how cool. Two different glaciers.
Polychrome dome.
Sadly we did not really see the mountain too much on the bus trip because it was overcast. At one point we saw the base and the top tip but the middle was clouded. We hiked at Eilson and did all that jazz then dragged ourselves back to the bus from hell where I fell asleep and ignored the world till we got back.
The next morning, Monday morning to be exact, on our way out of town we took a tour of Denali's Sled dogs. I. am. in. love! It was sooooo cool. We got to meet all their sled dogs and we got a demonstration and yeah it was just great... something I might dabble in soon- along with mountain climbing.
This is just one of the many dogs. I like this one though because she reminds me of our dog at home... why does she have a cone you ask? She eats rocks. And she ate a rock that was too big for her stomach and they had to do surgery to remove it. Cone of shame for the rock eater... take note Wes. Also her EYES!!! so blue!
A small team demonstration!
These are just some of the flowers we saw over the weekend! Looked purdy so I put 'em up.
AK Cotton Grass
Lupine
My favorite- Fireweed!
Well then I had to be a debby downer and go back to working for The Man on Tuesday so it was time to drive... and drive... and drive... and drive a lot more. Mom came with me to work on Tuesday and got to experience that bag full of excitement. Wednesday I presented my talk at the campground and she got a private showing since no one showed up to that and Thursday I worked then prepared... for WRANGELL ST. ELIAS...
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