Flight over Mt. Denali, and glacier landing Talkeetna Alaska

Sept 10 Day 42
Well it was a great day and then not so great, we lost a hub cap.  We think on these rough roads, but if someone wanted a souvenir it did say Mercedes.
My flight over Denali was spectacular, I landed on a glacier and saw this Denali  from another viewpoint.  The weather on the glacier was 19 degrees and you will see how deep the snow was, they give you special shoes so you don't slid or fall. We are falling in love with this mountain, the beauty does put it's hold on you. I went crazy with the camera, wish I could show some of the movies but that will have to wait.
We are heading to the North Pole today after spending the night in a Denali parking lot.  A ranger was knocking on our door early this morning asking us why we aren't in the campground.  Dom thinks fast and told him our generator was on the blink and we know the rule no noise after 10PM in the campground.

little stores in this quaint little town of Talkeetna

Getting ready to take off 10 people on the flight, everyone gets a window

inside the airplane

through the window 

not roads, glaciers made by these mountains

Denali on the right near the aircraft

This is a canyon of ice 8000 ft above the ground, another view of Denali

These are not roads, these are glaciers that are so old we can't count.

Tallest mountain in north America is on the right Denali "the great one". Love that mountain.

This mountain gets taller every year by a few centimeters.  total Granite.

the glacier we landed on

on the glacier

this is new snow 19 degrees but warm in the sun

If you can see that little blue speck the gov. gives people land if they build on it,

it's theirs, but no water, electric or anything they depend on a train to come by and give them what they need.  The train comes once a week in winter.

This is the Talkeetna airport from the air, My little iPhone did a great job if I do say so myself.

Denali cont.

Sept 9 Day 41
As we wait for my flight the Denali (Dom doesn't think his stomach will handle this airplane).  We can catch up on day 40 in Denali.  We started the day with a hike through Savage Creek Loop, lucky we had a beautiful day and the hike was 2 miles total with no mountains.  Then we went to The Grand Denali hotel, wow that was awesome and had lunch overlooking the Park.
First lets cover prices:  Camping in this area with full hookup is expensive, $40 a night.  I can just imagine what the motels are.  Also a package of Thomas Bagel is $8 a package of 6.  One strange thing, and we have done it, to pull over at a lookout and stay the night, is free and no one bothers you.  We had no hookup for 3 days in Denali so we paid the fee and Dom loves the campground showers.  We had to drive south again to Talkeetna to get the flight, it was a distance of 115 miles.  The reason for this was that Talkeetna is only 40 miles to the summit Mt Denali, whereas a flight in or near Denali Park would have to fly 80 miles to get to the summit.  Strange but true.  Also gas is money so this is a cheaper flight and they may land on a glacier weather permitting. Had to have my senior park pass to land on the glacier or they would have charged another $10.   I also had a $25 coupon, every bit helps. The flight was total tax and all $295. 1 hour and a half flight.

The Grand Denali overlooking the park, you cannot see the big mountain from this hotel.

filling water bottles at the park, great mountain water free

People volunteer to walk the sled dogs, dog lovers everywhere

entrance to the Grand Denali

view from the Grand Denali

views from the Grand Denali

Our little RV with a big rock called "Savage rock"

Beautiful views on our hiking outing

Found this interesting, they hold the land with these rocks wrapped in wire, thought of you Paul with your shoreline in Springfield.

OK another great photo of Denali, hope to get more today, can you see the 2 peaks, they look like clouds in the background because they are always covered with snow.  Dom has 900 photo on his camera that you haven't even seen, all you see here is my little IPhone.

Denali Bus tour

Sept 7 Day 39
After staying the night at Riley Campground in Denali we went on a bus tour that covered 86 miles of  the park and preserve.  No rain and although no sun it was not too bad a day.  Temp in the low 40s so you can see us in our coats.  Will be spending another night at the park.

Joe the bus driver was a fount of info

the school bus we spent 10 hours on,  reminded me of going back to Conant

just some of the wildlife we saw  Moose

bear

Magpies

Caribou 

Beautiful scenery

Mt. Denali former Mt McKinley look below and see if you can recognize the 2 peaks

Hope to get a better view from the air.  This mountain is made of granite and is getting taller rather then like most mountains wearing down.  The reason being that 2 geo plates are pushing it up.

If you can make out the photo the south peak is taller then the North peak

When climbers go up the north peak they take this lighted area 

this is from a model they had in the ranger center.

caribou Dom

Wild blueberries, and cranberries in his hat

on the bus

Thought this was interesting, during mating season the Moose fight over dominance, these 2 moose got locked together and could not get apart. One of the horns was stuck into the other moose's eye.  Both animals died locked together.  What a way to go.

Alaskan Update

Sept 6 Day 38
A little update on our adventure, I do this not just for you but also so we can remember what the hell we did up here in this big Alaska.  It is such an adventure and we are learning so much.
Things we notice:
-Because the state has so many viewing areas to pull off and stay, the rangers manage who puts their money into these little envelopes they keep in a box and you have to put your 5 or 10 dollars into it so you can stay, the rangers check on all vehicles.
- people are educated, they seem to have a lot of engineers up here and they are very talkative, also they love their toys, ATVs and plains, boats, snowmobiles.  They have to be engineers to keep all this stuff running.
-eggs are white, the yolk and the white, all white.
-Our travel plan was as follows:
-Home through Wisc. and Minn. then N Dakota and Montana, we visited Glacier National Park
-Up into Canada and Lake Louise and Banff National park in Canada
-Boarded a ferry in Prince Rupert and moved up the inside passage to the Yukon
-Went through the Yukon Skagway and then Whitehorse and then to the Richardson HyWay to
-Valdez, this is where we saw the Columbia glacier, caving and wildlife,  this glacier is the second largest in the world, the front of it is as tall as a football field is long.
-Traveled down into the Kenai Peninsula along the Turnagain arm to visit Seward and Homer
-In Homer we traveled down the spit to view fishing and the deadliest catch ships
-then up through Anchorage and the Mat Su Valley, this is where the giant crops are grown
-As we travel north we head to Denali

This is a beautiful little flight tour signup station, I love the Hobbit house above.

Denali National Park

Sept 6 Day 38
Well guess what??  Rain rain rain for 3 days.  We did get some shopping and also some research for doing a flight sight over Mt. Denali.  Dom won't go so it's up to me to take the most awesome photos, of the summit of Denali with my iPhone.  We then traveled to Denali National Park and what greeted us but a beautiful rainbow, it was so nice to see this after all that rain. A visit to the Denali Dog sled compound and what than, more rain.  We are in our camper at the end of the day snug as a bug in the rug at the Riley Campground.  Because we are seniors, free admission to the park and half price camping, so 11 dollars a night.  Dry camping but the price is right and we are near all the action.  A bus will take us on the Wonder Lake tour of Denali because you cannot drive into the park.  This park is totally free of vehicles traveling around anywhere, only designated buses and they only go to certain areas.   6 million acres of untouched wilderness and the tallest mountain in North America, Mt Denali.  The reason the dog sleds are so important is to keep the park free of noise and commercial vehicles.  The dogs haul equipment and everything needed in different areas,  every day they put out an email asking what needs to be done by the dogs.

On the road to Denali this guy had a caribou in the back of his truck, Dom wanted to buy the antlers but it is against the law to sell them

On our way to Denali we pulled off the road and spent the night at a scenic view stop.  Was worried the rangers might tell us to leave but no rangers, this is almost the same view from our camper evening and morning, remember no sun.   RAIN

Dom putting cheese on his pasta, he loves cooking and cleaning, so the nice person that I am I let him do it all.

Fall is here in Denali and we are worried about it going done tonight, weather is saying 34degrees.

Heard it was 91 in Hoffman Est.  We did pick a good year to come here but the rain is a downer.

The rainbow and sign that greeted us

Harnesses and names of dogs.  These dogs are different from the Iditarod dogs because they haul stuff so they are bigger and stronger. ?The Iditarod dogs are fast and smaller, they run 100 miles a day, these dogs haul stuff about 20 miles a day, they need more weight.

Also the husky is not recognized by the AKC as a breed because they come in so many different sizes and colors so the club will not accept them.  They call these dogs husky but they do not all look like husky.  One more thing, they tried to mate them with a wolf but it didn't work because a wolf is an alpha animal and these dogs have to work as a team.

puppies