Rick & Carol's Journey (DL)

[Be sure to click on the photos for larger versions.]

This installment covers Friday (July 18) through Monday (July 21).

Friday was a free day; unfortunately, it rained all day which caused us to cancel plans to visit the Independence Gold Mine State Park. Instead we drove to Wascilla for shopping, lunch at a Mexican restaurant, a visit to the Friday open air (and rainy) market in Palmer, and a theater to see the new movie, Hancock.

Saturday was a driving day from Palmer to Denali. The sun was out for most of the trip – it was the prettiest day in over a week. Carol and I signed off the caravan today so that we could make a side trip into Talkeetna. On arrival, we signed up for a 75 minute flightseeing tour of Denali in an 10-passenger Cessna aircraft. The top of Denali was above the clouds, and we made a couple of circles around and between the North and South peaks. On the return flight, we flew over the top of the Ruth Glacier, following it from its source in the mountain ice fields until it melted and formed a small, braided river outside Talkeetna.





After the flight we had lunch at an Oriental restaurant in Talkeetna, then walked around the town and visited its small museum.



Our RV site in Denali overlooks the river and we periodically see rafters from the front of our coach.


Sunday was our bus tour of Denali National Park. Our bus left the campground at 6:40 this morning. We rode about 62 miles into the park and then returned. It was a chilly, overcast day, and we saw only a smattering of wildlife – two distant grizzly bears (or one bear twice), a couple of golden eagles, four Dall sheep, a family of ptarmigan, and one distant moose cow. All were too far from the bus for us to get decent photos. Our bus overheated about 15 miles from the park entrance on the return trip and we waited about half an hour for a rescue bus to come pick us up.


Monday morning we visited the Husky Homestead, home and dog raising site of Jeff King, four-time Iditarod champion. We started with a puppy holding session. This is designed to socialize the dogs and accustom them to noise crowds; it also appears designed to help sell souvenir photos. We heard two interesting presentations on raising, breeding and training sled dogs, and on running the Iditarod. The latter was given by Jeff’s 16-year old daughter, who finished 32nd in last year’s race with a team of young dogs who were being familiarized with the race. This was a very good tour, and is one that Carol and I would likely never have seen if we were travelling alone, rather than on a caravan.




This evening was a family-style dinner and after-dinner show. A kiss from Kitty went for $1.00, and several members of our group (including me) left with lipstick on their cheeks or heads. The show featured some singing, some storytelling, and the acting out of Robert Service’s The Ballad of Dan McGrew with some audience participation.