Day 42: Wednesday, July 14th Leaving Denali

  • Jul 14, 2010
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Happy Anniversary to us.  Scott proposed ten years ago and we married nine years ago.  We will have to postpone our romantic dinner together.  Instead Scott cooked up some sweet and sour chicken in the visitor’s center parking lot and we ate inside the visitor’s center restaurant.

Today we woke up at 5:30 in an attempt to catch the 6:40 bus westbound towards Mt. McKinley.  We let the kids sleep until 6:10.  Despite already having the backpack packed and eaten breakfast we still didn’t make the 6:40 bus.  We think we caught the 7:40 bus.  I say “I think” because we hopped on a bus at 7:45.  The busses usually run late because if they see wildlife they stop.  They also have to stop for other busses in narrow parts of the road, pick up other passengers, and for the road grader which is out working everyday.  By staying at the Teklanika campground we did, we cut off an hour commute time from the visitor’s center.  Which is incredibly helpful when you consider the ride just to Eielson was already two and a half hours from our campground.  That makes the road trip five hours.  We did have several bathroom stops along the way, but they were each only a few minutes.  I had Brooke run and jump after our bathroom break to try and get out the wiggles.

Cody traveled amazingly well yet again.  Although he always has ladies oooing and ahhing over his long eyelashes.  Then he flashes them a smile and the ladies all want to just scoop him up and take him home.

After the two and a half hour trip to the Eielson visitor’s center today Scott finally said what I had been thinking ever since 5:30.  Maybe we should have just left Denali today.  Now the tricky thing about staying in the campground we did is that there are a few rules.  We had to stay three nights, no fewer. Once you pass Savage River checkpoint going west from the visitor’s center, you aren’t allowed to go back east until your three days are up, or you forfeit your right to be westbound again for three days.  The point is to keep the traffic flow low, but it is rather restrictive, especially when you have little ones in a tent and it is raining non-stop for two days.

However, I pushed myself and the kids to make one more attempt at the mountain because this is probably the last time we will see the park for quite a while.  We are so glad we stuck it out.  We saw a wolf just laying on the road, two bear cubs wrestling with mama bear right behind, several caribou, two moose, and a few Dahl sheep.  Had we been given the chance to see Mt. McKinley we could have called today a grand slam.

Oh!  I might also want to mention that Cody finally took multiple steps in a row.  He was at the main visitors center in Denali National Park.  Sadly, I missed it.  I was downstairs with Brooke while Scott was with Cody upstairs.  Go Cody!  Now I am eagerly awaiting a repeat performance.

We are headed down the gravel Denali Highway forty miles from the park in search of tonight’s campsite.

What a different viewing day.  We saw a lot of mud.  They made frequent stops so we could wash the mud off the windows.

This is Poly Chrome.  A little different view today…

The painting is what Mt. McKinley looked like behind all of the clouds.

Thank you to the wolf, bears, moose, and other animals that braved the rain to say hello.

This is Brooke getting her Junior Ranger badge.  She had to complete a booklet of tasks to do around the park and say a pledge.  She was a little shy about meeting the ranger, but she loved borrowing the Junior Ranger backpack full of fun activities and she loves her badge.

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