June 23, 2014

Today is our day to explore Denali National Park.  We had a fantastic brekkie at our motel, geared up and headed back up the road to Denali National Park.  Of course, we stopped at the entrance for the requisite pictures!!

 We didn’t know what to expect so we first went to the visitor center.  Boy, is that a nice center!  First things first, we got our park passport stamp and talked to the Ranger about other stamps available in the pently there are six different stamps.  We could collect 3 at the park, 2 more if we took the 12 hour bus ride through the park and the final one at Talkeetna, a town about 50 miles up the road from Denali.

So, we collected our first stamp and then toured the visitor center.  It was really well done.  I think we took at least an hour going through the exhibits and reading all the details.  We then took a short hike over to the Science Center and collected our second National Park Passport Stamp.  We briefly spoke with the Ranger there and then looked over the exhibits.

Our next stop was the bookstore and café.  We scored some stickers, magnets and postcards at the bookstore and some ice cream at the café.  It was very pleasant to sit outside, eating our ice cream, watching the various tourists come and go.

We got back on the bikes and rode up the road to see what we could see.  You are allowed to ride (or drive) 15 miles into the park before a turn around point.  If you want to go further into the park, you must take a bus tour.  They had several bus tours to choose from the shortest being 6 ½ hours and the longest was 12 hours!!!!  Yikes, no thanks.  So we opted to ride up the 15 miles.  It was lovely, starting out in forest lined road which eventually gave way to sparse trees and more tundra like vegetation.  We did get some fun road construction thrown in just to keep us on our toes.

 

We took a few photos during our ride into and out of the park.  As were neared the exit we made a quick stop at the Wilderness Access Center, a/k/a bus ticketing office where we got a third National Park Stamp.  We probably spent about 5 hours at the park and then headed back to our cabin.  I had the opportunity to update my blog for the past two days and we just relaxed, ordering food from the restaurant and eating in our room.  It was a very enjoyable day.

Tomorrow, we head to Moose Pass, AK on our way to tour the Kenai Penninsula.

Cheers,

Cletha