Monday, October 10, 2022

Alaska Adventure: Denali National Park

Our big summer trip was heading up to Alaska. We rented the coolest Toyota Tacoma with a roof tent and set out on the road. Our first few days were up at Denali National Park. We camped at Teklanika Campground about 30 miles into the park. Once there we set up the roof tent (the kids loved it!) and then used the Park Bus to get around. We got to explore a lot ….. mountains, rivers, vast landscapes, skies and sunsets and stars. Big smiles, tired feet. We saw the big 5 and then some: grizzly bear, moose, caribou, wolves, Dall sheep, golden eagle, plus ground squirrels galore. It was sooooo fun watching the animals! The Park Road (there’s only the one road through the park), is closed at mike 43 due to a landslide- likely won’t reopen fully to mile 92 for years (there’s talk of a bridge to be built). We walked beyond the closure to the landslide at Polychrome overlook. It was such a stunning day.
We did a small hike after lunch along the Teklanika River and saw fresh grizzly tracks. Slightly disconcerting. Glad we just saw tracks and not the bear!
On our last day out, we stopped and saw the sled dog training camp and got to see a demonstration of what those work dogs can do (they patrol by dog sled in winter). Very interesting.






















































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