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August 25, 2013 Sunday
Day 49
We set our alarm to get up at 2am this morning in hopes of seeing the northern lights and we were so excited because they really put on a show. The iPhone pictures don't do it justice, the colors were vibrant - greens, reds, pinks, purples, whites. The lights would suddenly appear very faint then grow and pulsate until they were on fire with color, dancing and swirling in the sky all around and above us. A few fellow campers were out watching and we all just marveled at the sight. INDESCRIBABLE! BEST EXPERIENCE on this trip, and we have had some fantastic ones.
We left Fairbanks about 11am-ish today, traveling on the Parks Highway, headed off to Denali National Park. It is cold, 47, but sunny, clear and beautiful. We are hoping to be able to see Mount McKinley or Denali as it was originally known and is known now. They say it is often not visible, due to cloud cover. Denali, in the Alaska Range is 20,320 feet high, the highest mountain in North America. We pulled off at a viewing point about 150 miles away from Denali and we actually could see it. Way far off but Thrilling!
Our drive continued (150 miles or so today) along low rolling hills, spruce and birch forests, across the Tanana River, then through some flat, soggy, marshy countryside, across the Nenana River, to Healy, a coal mining town. All the while we drove we were getting glimpses of snow covered Denali rising up, dominating the horizon line.
We arrived around 1:30pm at Denali RV Park, got a great site and at their off season rate, yay! It is hard to imagine that summer is over up here. I suspect we will have some hot weather at home in Emerald Isle for the next 2 months. But hey, it is great for us up here, better rates and less tourists. We plan to be in Alaska until late September, just hope we don't get snow- not fun pulling a camper in snow.
After unhooking our camper, we left our rv park and drove a few miles until we arrived in Denali National Park and Preserve. The park was created in 1917 to protect dall sheep. It is 6 million acres, one of the least disturbed wild lands in America. To protect the animals, traffic is limited in the park. There is one road and private cars can only drive the first 15 miles into the park. These first 15 miles are paved and they do offer spectacular scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities. The rest of the 92 mile road is primarily gravel and you can only travel this section on a guided park vehicle, primarily a bus.
We went to the Wilderness Access Center to book a bus ride for tomorrow. We were able to get on the 7:15am bus which goes 85 miles into the park -all the way to Wonder Lake. You can get off this bus at various stopping points, hike, then flag down any passing bus. It is an all day thing, 11 hours minimum.
Next we drove to the Sled Dog Demonstration in the park. Dogsleds are used to transport rangers on winter patrol through the park, up to 20 miles per day, depending on the project.
Dogs begin working at 8-9 months old, work till they are 9 years old, then they are adopted out for retirement. When the talk part of the demonstration was over and everyone applauded, all the dogs in the kennels started barking and going nuts, because this is the part of the demonstration where 6 dogs are selected to pull the ranger on her sled so that we could see how it's done. It was as if they were all saying, "pick me, pick me". So cute.
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