Today started with an early breakfast for Drake, Logan and Dad. Sara and Janie took all chances to relax
. Everyone loaded up on the bus with Mt. McKinley (Denali) being behind clouds. The ride from Talkeetna to Denali is a little over 2.5 hours and we slept a little and got to see a lot of landscape and one bear!! Wildlife was sparse for the most part, but we did see a car crumbled on the side after hitting a moose.
Denali National Park is on the east side of the mountain range and we learned that Mt McKinley was for as far back as records show called Denali (The High or Great One). It was a naturalist from Ohio who wrote an article for the New York Times that mentioned Senator McKinley from Ohio in the article that made the name stick. Alaska is working year after year versus the Ohio leadership to get the name changed back to Mt. Denali.
We ate a nice lunch in the park restaurant and toured the park visitor center. Next step was to load up on a bus (school bus type--not our l
uxurious motorcoach) to start the 4.5 hour tour of the park. We didn’t get very far where we saw two moose alongside the road. Our tour guide gave us a ton of information on the mountain formation, history and how the park came to be. It is managed totally naturally versus many parks, so what we saw has not changed in a long, long time. At our turn around we had a native Indian give us a history of the Alaskan tribes. Drake had an encounter with a ground squirrel and got some great pictures. We toured a cabin from the early 1900’s when they built the only road in the park that we drove.
We had some rain during the day, but always stopped when we got to an area of the park. Very lucky and we saw 4 large Caribou along the river ban
ks. This was just another great excursion ending back at the McKinley lodge our sleepover point for tonight (got the newest building less than a year old!) After checking in and a little relaxation we loaded up on another bus to head for 
our white water excursion.
They fit us all with dry suits (water is 36 degrees) which was an experience in itself. The Clemow clan took the front of the boat and we headed down the river. A lot of great rapids and scenery for 1.5 hour trek. The highest rapid was a level 4. Towards the end of the trip, Drake, Logan, Sara and Janie took a dip in the river to see what 36 degree water feels like in a wet suit.
Thank goodness the suits work and they said it was awesome. We loaded back on the bus and headed to the lodge with some new t-shirts, sweatshirt for Drake and they took a pretty good picture of us on one of the rapids that we of course had to purchase. The was our fourth white water rafting adventure for Drake, Logan, Janie and me and Sara's first ever. Sara really enjoyed the trip and is ready to go again. We are talking about going to the Grand Canyon to camp, raft and hike next year. We will have to post the picture of rafting after we get home.
We headed straight to the restaurant for a 10 p.m. dinner (still light out of course) and we all agreed that the nachos we had were the best we have ever eaten! At midnight it was still as bright out as we would see around 8 p.m. during the summer. We will post a picture Janie took at midnight vs. the one she took at 10:00 am the next morning. Thank goodness for heavy curtains.
Everyone crashed fairly quickly after a very long day. Tomorrow we get to sleep in. Last day tomorrow with a bus ride to Talkeetna and then boarding the Alaskan train to Anchorage. We end up at the Marriott where Sara will head out for her red eye flight home. The rest of us head out Monday morning bright and early.
. Everyone loaded up on the bus with Mt. McKinley (Denali) being behind clouds. The ride from Talkeetna to Denali is a little over 2.5 hours and we slept a little and got to see a lot of landscape and one bear!! Wildlife was sparse for the most part, but we did see a car crumbled on the side after hitting a moose.Denali National Park is on the east side of the mountain range and we learned that Mt McKinley was for as far back as records show called Denali (The High or Great One). It was a naturalist from Ohio who wrote an article for the New York Times that mentioned Senator McKinley from Ohio in the article that made the name stick. Alaska is working year after year versus the Ohio leadership to get the name changed back to Mt. Denali.
We ate a nice lunch in the park restaurant and toured the park visitor center. Next step was to load up on a bus (school bus type--not our l
uxurious motorcoach) to start the 4.5 hour tour of the park. We didn’t get very far where we saw two moose alongside the road. Our tour guide gave us a ton of information on the mountain formation, history and how the park came to be. It is managed totally naturally versus many parks, so what we saw has not changed in a long, long time. At our turn around we had a native Indian give us a history of the Alaskan tribes. Drake had an encounter with a ground squirrel and got some great pictures. We toured a cabin from the early 1900’s when they built the only road in the park that we drove.We had some rain during the day, but always stopped when we got to an area of the park. Very lucky and we saw 4 large Caribou along the river ban
ks. This was just another great excursion ending back at the McKinley lodge our sleepover point for tonight (got the newest building less than a year old!) After checking in and a little relaxation we loaded up on another bus to head for 
our white water excursion.They fit us all with dry suits (water is 36 degrees) which was an experience in itself. The Clemow clan took the front of the boat and we headed down the river. A lot of great rapids and scenery for 1.5 hour trek. The highest rapid was a level 4. Towards the end of the trip, Drake, Logan, Sara and Janie took a dip in the river to see what 36 degree water feels like in a wet suit.
Thank goodness the suits work and they said it was awesome. We loaded back on the bus and headed to the lodge with some new t-shirts, sweatshirt for Drake and they took a pretty good picture of us on one of the rapids that we of course had to purchase. The was our fourth white water rafting adventure for Drake, Logan, Janie and me and Sara's first ever. Sara really enjoyed the trip and is ready to go again. We are talking about going to the Grand Canyon to camp, raft and hike next year. We will have to post the picture of rafting after we get home.We headed straight to the restaurant for a 10 p.m. dinner (still light out of course) and we all agreed that the nachos we had were the best we have ever eaten! At midnight it was still as bright out as we would see around 8 p.m. during the summer. We will post a picture Janie took at midnight vs. the one she took at 10:00 am the next morning. Thank goodness for heavy curtains.
Everyone crashed fairly quickly after a very long day. Tomorrow we get to sleep in. Last day tomorrow with a bus ride to Talkeetna and then boarding the Alaskan train to Anchorage. We end up at the Marriott where Sara will head out for her red eye flight home. The rest of us head out Monday morning bright and early.
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