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Touring in Denali National Park with Bruce & Marl Campbell

Stopped for the Day:

Mt. McKinley, the heart of Denali National Park, rises 20,320 feet above sea level and, yet, at times, it is invisible. It is surrounded by a circle of mountains that are 10,000-13,000 feet tall and, much of the time, they are what you see. But occasionally, on special days like today, when the sky is clear and blue, the clouds move aside and McKinley reaches for the sky with its rugged snow-capped peaks.

Bruce and Marl Campbell have come with other friends to Denali and the day passed without so much as a glimpse of "the Mountain." So they had warned us that we might not get a second look after yesterday's view. But today, it put on a show and we were thrilled. We spent the day at the park, driving in a private car thanks to Bruce's involvement with the development of the Park road since the 50's.

Montana Majestic Mountain T Tour

On The Road Again

Yellowstone then Home

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Runs great...

....Drive it home.

Runs great...

....Drive it home.

Day 14 - Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Getting to Anchorage

Denali does not normally allow private cars to tour the park so, if you come here, plan ahead and book a bus tour. We didn't know that in 2001 and missed the park completely as they were fully booked. You don't have to go all the way to the back of the park road, but expect to spend the day as the buses stop often for photo opportunities and wildlife viewing.

Speaking of wildlife, we saw some bears today although it took Ben's telephoto lens to realize that they were probably finishing off a caribou dinner. We also saw a wolf just trotting down the road. A second, younger wolf came running up from the brush to play. They wrestled around for a few minutes, biting and chewing and licking each other like my dogs do, pretending to be ferocious but just playing. Finally, the older wolf broke it off and trotted on his way and the younger came back toward us. Both wolves were rather scrawny but neither seemed afraid or even interested in us. We saw a couple of caribou and lots of eagles. And one Dall sheep, too far away to get a good photo. That left us only a moose on the list of park animals we were most likely to see.

We are staying here an extra day to catch up on some work and get some rest. If we can't get all the good pictures in today, we'll include them tomorrow.