A new location and new lodging. Carlo Creek House just south of the park entrance to Denali was one of the best. Especially since they paid the moose to show up (you’ll see in a minute!).

After settling in, the van headed to Denali NP as it was a beautiful, clear day and there were hopes of actually seeing the great mountain. Denali NP and Preserve is six million acres of wild land bisected by only one ribbon of road. Traveling this road one sees the relatively low elevation taiga forest, which gives way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America’s tallest peak – Denali, standing 20,310′ tall. Most of the park is viewed via park buses, but today the visitor center and Denali view spot are the objective – which is only about 11 miles into the park and a distance passenger cars are allowed. No more than out of the drive way did we come upon Moose’s 2 and 3 of our trip – –

Once finally pulling ourselves away from these magnificent animals, the destination was again the Visitor Center and viewing spot for Denali. And – what a view! There she was in all her glory. Pretty much the entire mountain was visible – a sight only seen by about 30% of the visitors to the park. Another mission accomplished for the “Grands”.

So much excitement can work up an appetite and a Black Diamond Chuck Wagon dinner might help with that. One of the “Grands” is particularly interested in horses (perhaps in some way a profession), so this was an amazing experience for her. After loading up the wagons, we were on our way to dinner.

A good night sleep in our happy home was needed before a VERY early wake-up call for the bus into the park. Morning called with Mama Moose and her two calves RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW. How perfect was that!?! According to the information on the park ride, females had just dropped their calves within the last two weeks – so these two must have been 10-14 days old.

It was finally time to head for the NP bus and venture the 43 miles into the park. The hope is to see the BIG 5 – moose, bear, wolves, caribou and dall sheep and of course Denali herself. Right off was another good view of Denali – even better this time with G’s long camera lens;-)

Caribou were soon to follow. Many were sighted, but often at quite a distance. The same was true of the Dall sheep. Saw several groups of the females with their little ones and then the rams on the other side of the road.

Moose were also sighted, but nothing could match the viewing outside the bedroom window. Unfortunately, there were no sightings of bear or wolves;-( But, the views of Denali and the moose made everything worth while in Denali.

Next stop was a brief stay in the enchanting town of Talkeetna, where we stayed at the Meandering Moose. Don’t stay here. It was a bed for a night and that’s all we were in town for.

We did have a lot of fun here visiting a dog sled training facility and riding in the ATV that is used to train the dogs for the Iditarod. The driver was from the lower 48 and had just moved up to Alaska with his dogs to train for the race – perhaps in a year or two. While preparing, he was working for a current racer and working with his dogs to understand all the training methods. After the dogs were hooked up, we boarded our ‘sled’ and were on our way.

Just like that, it was time to pack up the van again and head to Girdwood, which would be ‘home’ base for the next few days.

So happy to see Denali and the moose – E & G with more to come