7/11/13: Denali National Park - Day 3

We woke to gorgeous sunshine this morning, which was a treat for day one of our three day bus passes into the park.  If you have never been to Denali, then I should probably explain how it works.  There is one 92 mile long road that goes into the park -- this same 92 mile long road is the only way back out of the park.  In your personal vehicle you can only drive to mile 13 at Savage River, unless you are camping at Teklanika Campground (29 miles into the park).  We actually really wanted to stay out at Tek camp, but were unable to as we have a "tow behind" trailer - if you have a truck/camper or 5th wheel setup you are a-ok, but not with a towable RV.  This is due to the road out into the park changes to gravel at mile 13 (Savage River) and also becomes quite narrow in places.  Now, there a quite a few more camps out in the park, but you can only get there via the bus system the park has in place.  At mile 66 in the park is the Eielson Visitors Center.  This center was built right into the ground and is super cool.  When visiting Eielson, you are only 30 miles from the base of Mt. McKinley.  On a clear day, it is literally breath taking!!  The center also has educational movies and displays throughout all about the park.  It is a must see if you ever go to Denali.  

We decided since we have Bo, that we would divide our time out in the park.  Rick and Brady went out first at 6:00am and KK and I went out second at 11:00am.  Being that the road is so long and narrow, and you are riding in a school bus, it takes quite awhile to get out into the park -- it would take 4 hours one way to our destination today.  If all went as planned, Mr. Bo would be "manning the trailer" for just 3 hours.  

We both saw tons of animals and had a blast the whole trip!!  Brady and Rick got to Eielson and took a big hike to the top of the mountain that looks down at the center (just like they did last time we were here)... Kailey and I hike down the hillside to the river loop... It was awesome!!!  KK and I got into camp that evening around 7:00pm, but it was so worth it!!!!

Here are some photos from both our trips today:

KK at the Teklanita river lookout:

Tek river in background:

Mr. Fox led the bus for about a mile, his mouth was full of ground squirrels:

Polychrome Pass is coming into view in the distance:

Gives you an idea of what the shear drop offs look like:

Polychrome Pass again:

Kailey & I at the Polychrome viewpoint:

Fossilized dinosaur print at Toklat River rest area (can't tell, but it was HUGE)..

Caribou on the hillside at "top of the hill":

Grizzly:

Eielson visitors center with my girl:

Loading the bus to head back down:

Wolves took down a caribou on the East Fork River, then two grizzlies came down and took over the meat.  The bear on the right is standing on the carcass eating... The other bear is sleeping.

Caribou:

Brady at the very top of the mountain at Eielson:

Rick & Brady at Polychrome view point:

Brady playing with a moose shed at Toklat River rest area:

My girl:

7/10/13: Denali National Park - Day 2

Well, we woke to rain today and thought that it would be a great day to do laundry since we have been on the road for a week now.  Wow, that was a loooong job!

My chair and I at the laundry mat:

After laundry was washed, dried, folded and put away we decided to head into the town of Healy.  Healy is about 11 miles up the highway from Denali National Park entrance.  It is a cool little town.  We saw that they had the bus from the movie "Into the Wild" at a local pub, where you can go in and check it out.  It was honestly amazing to see how they made this bus look just like the original.  "Into the Wild" is a book (made into a movie) about a young man that decides to leave everything behind, burns his money and hitch hikes up to Alaska.  He then walks in on Stampede road (also in Healy) where he finds this bus and lives in it and off the land.  Unfortunately, Chris never walks back out of the wild, as he dies in the bus..  Anyway, as we are in the movie bus checking it out a man and his family stop by.  He starts telling them all about the work done on the bus...  turns out that this man is one of the painters/builders of the very movie bus we are standing in!!!  Odd!!!  So, since Rick loves that movie so much, he took the opportunity to ask the nice man questions about it all.  It was very interesting and he was such a nice man!

After stopping in Healy, we went back towards the park entrance.  About 1.5 miles north of there is a great little shopping area that is full of gifts shops, food and ice cream.  Across the street from that is the Denali Grand Lodge.  We put on our jackets and walked from shop to shop for the next hour or so.  We found lots of great deals and had fun.  Now, time to head back to camp.  It was a fun day to keep busy in the rain...  Tomorrow, we will be heading out into the park on the first of three days on the bus!  

Here are some photos of our day:

It's a rainy one outside:

7/9/13: Fairbanks,AK to Denali National Park - Day 1

We woke to brilliant sunshine this morning for our short travel day of only 125 miles from Fairbanks to Denali National Park.  After packing up and hitting the road nice and early we were in the park before we knew it.  

We quickly made a b-line to our favorite campsite from the last trip and were ecstatic to find out the couple that was occupying it was just about to pull out!!!  Yay!!  So, we waited a few minutes and then started setting up camp.  This site is the best ever in Riley Creek Camp.  It is an outer campsite, so it borders up to forest -- very nice indeed.  We got camp set up in record time, had some lunch and went into the main visitors center where we shopped and looked around.  We all enjoy learning about Denali and the visitor centers in the park are awesome!!  After the visitor center we made our way to the book store and then on to the Murie Science Center.  Brayden likes the dinosaur fossil that was on display and Kailey loved all the wolf stuff there as well.  It was a fun time... not to be cut short by not going to the Denali Sled Dog Kennels!!  Sooooooo much fun!  They currently have a litter of three husky pups that were adorable!  It is fun to see the kennels, those are some spoiled pups!  We also watched the sled dog demonstration that they do there.  It is cool.. they harness up 5 dogs and those pups pull on of the rangers around a loop --  that sled was flying!!!  After that it was time to visit and love on the puppies again (yes, we will be going back again and again).  

We were pooped, so back to camp we headed.  Time to get a nice fire going and make dinner as well!!  We were able to enjoy the fire for a bit and then the rain hit!  Ugh!!  It continued to rain all night long, so yet another evening in the camper for us :)

We took lots of pictures, so I will narrow it down to a few highlights from day one in the park:

Kennel Pup:

Its a rough life people:

Musher KK:

If you have read "Into the Wild" this is the road where Chris walked into the woods, never to walk back out...

Denali Campsite:

Another view from camp:

Kids sitting on a grizzly:

Wolves are cool:

Science is too:

KK's hand with a wolf paw in it:

Our cabin girl:

Des is officially in her "Happy Place":

7/8/13: Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska

Today we left Tok, AK and headed north to Fairbanks.  We drove a total of 205 miles today.  We were originally thinking of continuing on to Denali, but decided that Fairbanks would be a great place to stop and resupply on supplies like:  propane, fuel and a few grocery items as well.  

When we pulled into town, we were noticing that we were surrounded by black clouds and knew that rain was coming. Man did it ever!!  It poured so hard and so fast that the streets were flooding and you couldn't see in front of you.  Luckily, we were just pulling into our camp for the night!!  Needless to say, we got set up, went into town to resupply and then enjoyed a nice evening in our camper (with heat)!!  The rain lasted all night so my dog walk was a bit short tonight, but I don't think Bo minded to much :)

We woke to blue skies and brilliant sunshine!  Ya-hoo!  After a much needed pit stop at STARBUCKS for some nummy coffee we are on the road for Denali National Park.

Due to the weather, I don't have many pictures from our time in Fairbanks.. but here are a few:

The AK state park we stayed at:

Cute cabin in the park:

The beautiful scenery before the rain hit:

Our moose for the day:

7/7/13: Kluane Lake, YT to Tok, Alaska

Well, after five long travel days we have made it to Tok, AK today!!  We are very excited to officially be in ALASKA now, but are ever more excited to soon be settling down at one place for 6 days -- yep, Denali National Park we are on our way :) 

Today's drive was beautiful and horrible all at once!  Let's see... We only drove 298 miles today, but it was on the roughest 150 mile stretch of highway ever! The last bit of the Yukon, before reaching the Alaska border, is in really rough shape!  Due to the extreme temps in the winter, it creates "frost heaves" on the highway when the ground thaws in the Spring... Which then creates horrible dips, cracks and bumps all over the highway.  It was pretty normal to travel at 30 MPH rather then 50-55MPH today -- then they were doing construction and they wet the dirt down with water (to prevent extreme dust) and then the pilot car drove us 6 miles through mud and muck...  this all creates a VERY muddy truck and trailer!!  Lucky for us (and many others) you get a free "do-it-yourself" car wash with any fill up of gas at a station in at Tok, AK -- there really is a reason that Tok is the self proclaimed "car wash capital of the world" -- ha!!!

We are enjoying our stay in Tok tonight.  I was hoping to take some camp photos, but we had a thunder/lighting/rain storm blow through... So I only got one before the rain hit.  The wi-fi also not working at camp, so i will load more pictures from our day tomorrow as well.  Speaking of tomorrow... We are headed to Fairbanks tomorrow to re-supply before heading into Denali for a week!! :) :) :)

Hope all is well at home!  Here are a few pictures from today:

Playing Farkle in camp:

Brady helping Rick rinse off the mud:

All clean...

Mr. Bo living the rough life on his blanket in the couch:

When you are at the international border here, you can literally have one foot in the Yukon and one foot in USA: