Denali

With our late start we had to alter our plans to travel together with the Wills down to Denali National Park. They left at our scheduled departure time of ten, so we were seven hours behind them. Since we only had a little over two hours to drive we weren’t that concerned.

Our first stop was at Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn about 30 miles outside to Fairbanks. It’s an adult-oriented bar:

After a quick perusal of the place we headed to dinner at the 49th State Brewing where Jeff, Molli, and Sheree were awaiting our arrival. The food was real good (for a brewery); Katrina and I tried the yak burgers. Excellent!

Katrina and I then made it to our campground, Denali RV Park & Motel – soon to be a full fledged KOA.

Good thing it was still light out!

Next day we took the park bus into Denali National Park 43 miles to see the mountain Denali. It was a very clear day so we got to see Denali which was about 75 miles way.

You can only go 43 miles today because a landslide took out a portion of the road. We were happy that we were able to do the other side (48 more miles) in 2018 when we were here. At the end of the line we dismounted the bus and took a hike.

Katrina and I decided to head back because we wanted to let Bear out and take him for a hike since he had been coach-bound for a couple of days. Jeff, Molli, and Sheree continued on with the hike.

On the return bus ride, Katrina and I got to see Dall Sheep

a bear (so the driver said but it was too far away for us to recognize it) and a caribou up close:

When we got back to the Busse Bus I was able to take Bear for a hike on the Antler Ridge Trail. Here’s the view of our campground from the ridge:

And here’s a view of Bear and I from the coach:

We decided to eat in and relax for the rest of the day.

The following morning Katrina and I got caught up on life things while the other three went back out on a few hikes in the National Park. Katrina and I had done those hikes in 2018 so we didn’t feel that it was a must do for us.

We met up with them for a small hike at the Denali National Park Visitor’s Center to see the foot suspension bridge.

As a bonus we got to see a momma moose with her baby up close:

On the way out we got the picture of the five of us in front of the sign:

From there we decided to stop at the Alpenglow restaurant which sits atop a bluff overlooking the Denali NP entrance. Beautiful views!

Fun signs along the switchbacks heading up to the restaurant:

We headed back to the Busse Bus to watch the first presidential debate.