Denali National Park

The rain from yesterday had disappeared. Left the campground at 10:00 and travelled the eight miles back to the park. Pumped out the bit of grey water (shower and sink) that we had and sent Marilyn off to scout the campsites. By the time I had finished she had our tag on a site. An even better site was available so we moved to that. Private and treed with some sun. A great site. We set up, had some lunch, chatted with some neighbours from Florida and prepared to explore the park. Just as we finished setting up a couple walked by with two black standard poodles so we had to introduce ourselves to them and the dogs. They were from Syracuse and had spent the winter in Texas. I had a quick nap sitting in the sun after lunch while Marilyn checked the place out. Hopped on the Riley Creek Loop Shuttle and headed for the Visitor center. Denali discourages driving your own car and they provide shuttle buses all over. In fact you cannot drive your car more than 15 miles in the park road. The park road is 100 miles long and is mostly gravel so I'm not sure why you would want to drive it. Wait till you see the pictures and you'll know why they don't want you to drive. You use their shuttle or tour buses and you must book those in advance and pay a small fee. Tomorrow we are taking the Eielson Visitor Center shuttle. It travels 66 miles into the park and takes 8 hours round trip. We leave at 8:30. The shuttle buses are old school buses with comfortable seats. They only travel about 30-35 mph (slow) and stop all the time for wildlife pictures. If you wish you can get off the bus to hike, etc and then flag down another bus and continue your trip. Not sure we'll do that. You must take everything you need with you as there is nothing to purchase on the trip. Looking forward to it. At the visitor center we watched a short movie about Denali toured the visitor center and had snacks. (Marilyn had ice cream) As we were sitting there in the sun the train arrived from the south so we had to walk down to see what was happening. We also had to go that way to catch our bus back to the campground. OMG! People everywhere. Some getting off, some getting on, some driving shuttles, some driving buses. Crazy! The train was huge. At least 12 two storey domed cars and many other regular domed and regular cars. All except about 20 people were with the cruise lines. They load them on buses, take them to the hotels they own and then load them on buses to bring them back to the park to do all the stuff here. What a racket. They are making lots of $$$$. Marilyn and I couldn't believe the size of the train and how many people there were. Cruise line staff everywhere. You should see the hotels. Very luxurious. Jumped on the shuttle to the campground and then just hung around and had dinner. Tomorrow the Denali adventure starts for real. Stay tuned.

Jun 21, 2011

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