Slightly annoying though, as appart from the first 15 miles, the only way to access the park is on the park buses! Which take 8 hours to do 90 miles!! There was only one 5 mile bike track and other than that it was proper back country hiking (which we don't have the kit for). After sitting in a car for the last week getting to and around Alaska, the last thing we really fancied was sitting on the bus all day, so we checked that exchange rate and wandered off to find one of the 'flightseeing tours'. Wow! (again!)
We managed to get booked on easily as it was the end of the season (in fact the park closes next week) and took off on a 10 seater plane with Fly Denali. The flight was 75 minute long and I spent 72 of those minutes trying not to be sick! Still, despite the sickness, it was a pretty amazing flight. We flew right up to Mt McKinley, North America's tallest peak at over 20,000ft and around it looking at the Glaciers and the wind blowing the snow from the top of the mountains. Apparently they've 'lost' 5 people on the mountain already this year, a plane seems a much more sensible idea than a 3 week hike!
We landed safely and wandered off to find our campsite at Denali National Park, apparently they've had 3 bears in there recently, but we survived another night, despite AGAIN being next to a railway line much to Dan's delight! :-)
This morning was one of my favourite so far! We decided to take one of the ranger lead talks..to Denali's Dog Sled kennels! Wahoo! As the national park laws have designated a large proportion of Denali a Wilderness area no motorised vehicles are allowed so the Rangers rely on the dogs in the winter to help deliver supplies, break trails and service the park. The dogs are bread for this sole reason, their long legs help with the deep snow, they have amazingly thick coats and bushy tails so they can curl themselves up and breathe through it to help warm the cold air. They clearly loved their work and in the winter can run upto 100 miles a day... that'd keep you busy walking one of those guys!
I expected a good demonstration but what we got was very cool! We got to spend half an hour in the Kennels beforehand meeting the dogs (if they wanted to talk to us, it was run very well) and then we got a demonstration of them at work and a good explaination before meeting the dogs again, Dan got on very well:
Oh - and the 8 week old pups! I tried to steal this little girl, but didn't get away with it :-(
We spent the rest of the day heading east on highway 8 the Denali Road and heading to Tok. We're about 90 miles from the Canadian Border tonight and it was windy and rainy so we took the oportunity to try a Motel! Luckily it's very good, clean and had a fantastic resturant, I spent an hour in the bath and Dan's already snoring! I can't believe it's a novelty to walk around without my shoes on....
3 comments:
Jen, do not bring that little furry thing back with you, what would Moo cat do? Keeping track of you on Google Earth, you certainly are getting around, keepup the good work.
Simba says PLEEEEEEEEEEASE do bring her back because - a) she's very beautiful, and b) he'd finally have a dog to play with who can keep up with him! Mind you, I don't think he'd actually keep going long enough for her!!!
Ooooo!
Wooooow!
Ahhhhhh!
Awwwww!
xx
N
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