Denali

Hello everyone, here are some of our pics from Denali National Park. First I'll explain how it works and why it was a big deal to drive the road. The park road is open from mid May to mid September each year. The road is 92 miles long and normally you can drive the first 20 or so in your car, to go further you are required to take a bus. However each fall the park opens the entire road to 400 Alaska residents per day for 4 days. They use a lottery system to determine who gets to go in. Well, obviously we were selected so off we went. We drove up on Sunday and stayed in a lodge Sunday night. Our day to drive was Monday and it was beautiful!! Which is unusual especially for this time of year. We drove the entire length of the road which took almost 11hrs since you can only go 35 mph (its all dirt and single lane in many areas) and of course we made lots of stops. Even though it is a National Park once you are in the gate you are on your own, there is no food, gas etc... there are numerous bathrooms however. The scenery is spectacular and there is a lot of wildlife. It was a really great experience and a lot of fun. The only animals that we didn't see were wolves and moose, of course we see moose in our yard so that wasn't too heartbreaking. Now for the pictures. There are some caribou, some dall sheep, and a ptarmigan. You can see that the ptarmigan is already losing his summer colors and getting all white for the winter. Also there are pictures of Nick being sworn in as a Junior Ranger!! He completed the book they gave him and they swore him in and gave him a badge, it was pretty cool, and man was he thrilled. I also put in some pictures of the mountain which was nearly cloud free for a good part of the day and a picture of the road so that you could see the lack of guardrails and the 1000ft drop if you missed the turn. I'll write more with the next group of photos. Storm