Photo of the day:
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| The enormous white thing in the middle is Denali! So happy we saw it. |
We got an early start this morning to move to another campground in Denali, closer to where Brit gets off the train. Plus, we wanted to have cell service before Brit's train departure to make sure her flight from Chicago and transfer to the train was successful. We found out it was, and she was on her way north to Denali on the Alaska Railroad.
As we drove from Savage River Campground, Lynda noticed the skies were clear to the southwest, so we stopped at the same viewing point as last night. Today we were able to see Denali! It is huge and a remarkable sight, even from this distance. We are lucky to get to see it. Hopefully we'll get another view of it tomorrow from the south as we head towards Anchorage.
Denali is the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet. It it was renamed from Mt. McKinley in 2016, on the park's 100 year anniversary. Denali means "Great One".
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| This is the same view without zoom. |
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| The arrow points to the peak of Denali. |
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| This sign helped us find Denali |
After eating some breakfast (oatmeal for Lynda, Cheerios for Dave), we headed out to hike the Rock Creek Trail.
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| Here is a view from the trail. |
While hiking the Rock Creek Trail, we came across a view of the Mt. Healy Overlook, which is the trail we hiked yesterday. Dang, it looks tall!
Rock Creek Trail does not currently go all the way through because of some "sensitive nesting" in the area, so we turned around and found another trail to complete our loop.
Here are a couple additional pictures of the hike.
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| Lynda is happy that the vegetation is not dense yet. Less places for wildlife to hide and sneak up on us! |
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| We love the various colors of green, plus it looks like it would be soft if you ran your hand over it! |
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| Yesterday on our tour, the host mentioned that some trees are leaning like this due to a heavy ice storm from a couple years ago that weighed them down. |
We know you think lunch everyday is peanut butter and jelly, but that's simply not true. Today it was PB&J on a hamburger bun for Dave (crazy, right?) and a quesadilla for Lynda. Hit the spot after the morning hike.
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| New sponsorship - "Pick up the pace" with Pace Picante sauce! |
Brit is joining us today, so we got her bed ready. This will be the first use, other than storage, for the area above the cab. It is a really long bed - longer than standard queen size sheets. Plus she has a large TV and DVD player at the foot of the bed!
Brit arrived on the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage. She flew overnight to Anchorage, had a few hour delay, made her way to the train depot (seeing a reindeer on the way), and then up to Denali. Quite the adventure just getting here!
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| Not Brit's exact train, but a train the previous day going over a bridge just south of Denali. |
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| Brit rode in the top where the panoramic windows are. She said the view is great. |
After Brit arrived, we hiked more on the Triple Lakes Trail (using the McKinley Station Trail to get there). We hike about 2.5 miles out and then back, for a total of a 5 mile hike.
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| Brit using Google Image Search to identify the scat. We later found out it was moose scat. |
Dinner time found the hamburgers very frozen. A knife and a rock solved that problem.
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| Three burgers now with Brit here. |
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Right behind Dave is a person walking a sled dog - getting the dog some exercise.
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Apparently, you can volunteer to be paired with a dog each summer. If it were not for the threat of bears and the distance from Illinois, Lynda would do it!
Tomorrow we are learning more about the sled dogs they have in Denali, but we these signs are posted in a couple spots on Park Road. We've seen about a dozen people walking a sled dog. We even saw one guy running the dog (and the guy was barefoot).
.heic) |
| Right at the tip of Dave's big nose is a volunteer walking a sled dog - getting the dog some exercise |
Tomorrow we'll head to Anchorage and then Girdwood, AK, to meet up with Dad and Carol. We are looking forward to exploring the Kenai Peninsula with the 5 of us.
Total miles today (all within Denali): 25
.heic)
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