Day 5: Denali National Park.

I'm a day behind my posts, so even though the date on this entry is September 6, this is the entry for Wednesday September 5.  We started the day with a 7:00 5 hours bus tour of Denali national park.  It was a little early for some of us, especially those who went for "one last drink" after the show the night before

Denali is the native Athabaskan name for the mountain that westerners call Mt McKinley.  Denali means "the great one" or "the tell one" and is the tallest peak in North America at over 20,000 feet.  But the mountain was clouded in today so we didn't get to see it

What we did get to see were a lot of beautiful fall colored mountains.  The colors are different from the North East due to the lack of hardwoods.  The colors are provided by the low-lying willows and birches, the lichen and the color of the mountains themselves 

Some of the longer tours saw bull Moose and Grizzlies.  We got the see the butt end of a cow moose.  But at least we got to see something

The town of Denali that built up around the tour lodges are only really open for another 2 or 3 weeks.  By mid September it starts snowing and gets much colder through May.  Most of the people working the lodges and restaurants are from the lower 48 and come up here to work the summer.  We met a lot of people from Texas, for some reason.  We saw the approaching winter with the snow on the peaks that seemed to get lower every night. 

The tour stopped at one of the original ranger cabins, which were left over from the road crews that built the Park Road starting in the 1920s

Sled-dog house

Colorful ground cover

The tour was a very touristy bus trip that afforded only a few opportunities to get out of the bus.  They only allow school buses back in the park (no large tour buses) so it was quite cramped.  But the views were still worth the trip



Kevin and Sherry

Aspens and White Fir

Obligatory table pictures

We had lunch at a pizza pub across the street.  The tour driver said it had the best pizza in Alaska.  Since Alaska is 1/4 of the entire lower 48, I'm not sure how he knew that, being from Colorado and all.



The highlight of our day was the 4 wheel drive jeep tour.  It started out auspiciously when Micky Murphy (driving "Red Dog") needed 2 quarts of oil before we even pulled out of the lot (tour guide Hank: "Dang, I thought I just filled that up!")

Harry drove "Grey Goose" for the first leg.  Can you guess who named the Jeeps?

Paul, Linda and Sue, Grey Goose passengers

 

Hank the tour guide was in front of Grey Goose

Adrien was driving "Kettle One" and was the first one to get stuck in the mud.  Hank says the road was pretty dry and when it's raining it's pretty slippery.  You can tell from the hand prints on the ceiling of the jeeps that the trip was already very exciting!

Grey Goose has to come back to rescue Kettle One's ass

Lots of mud

Halfway point was a camp where we had some coffee and stew.  Hanna lives out here for the whole summer in a tent and prepares for the tours.  They usually have 3 tours a day.  She gets back to town once a week or so.  Hanna and her husband are sculptors and spend the winter traveling to do installations, visit family and this winter are going to Costa Rica 

Kettle One, Grey Goose, Red Dog and the tour car at the halfway point

Paul drove the way back

Hank (hu-huh!) from Texas.  Sold his limo business and came north to work as a guide for the summer.  (I'm sure there's a story about a woman in there somewhere)

Going through "Bobble Head"

And Devil's Ditch

So, Paul stalled out Grey Goose in Devil's ditch.  After a while he got it started again and got out under his own power (unlike Kettle One) but the Jeep kept stalling out.  The rest of the way he had to keep one foot on the throttle and throw it into neutral every time they we slowed down to keep from stalling.  An exciting trip home!

Grey Goose check engine light and making really funny sounds

The Jeep trip was out along Stampede Road.  If that sounds familiar, that's where Chris McCandliss went in and died at the "Magic School Bus".  You know the story if you read "Into the Wild" or saw the movie.  The bus is still back there and intact, but we only got maybe 1/4 of the way back

Grey Goose made it back home!

The was a great day, and we couldn't stop laughing the whole trip.  Tomorrow, we're on a train and off to our next stop.  Thanks for reading!