June 21, 2013 Denali

Friday, June 21.2013

Great night’s sleep. Temp this morning in low 50’s.  We headed into Denali National Park Visitor’s Center.  Very nice facilities!  We took the shuttle out to the dog kennels and listened to a 30 minute talk and exhibit about the dogs.  They are used frequently in the winter for transportation and hauling supplies, as snow machines (snow mobiles) are not allowed in the park.  These dogs are bred for strength rather than speed and they are bigger, stronger and more heavily furred than those we saw earlier that were bred for speed.

Next we decided to drive out to Savage River, which is the furtherest autos are allowed.  Walked a nice 2 mile loop trail with lots of wildflowers.  Nice wind made it cool and kept the bugs away.  Had a picnic lunch there before heading back toward the visitors center.    I know you've all been waiting for the flower pictures so here are a few.  This is tundra.

Saw a big cow moose on the ride out and this big bull moose on the way back.

Taking advantage of the wi-fi for a bit, Greg is catching up on phone calls. 

Watched a film on the park and took showers.  Did another drive to Savage.  On the return we picked up a hitchhiker who was a young man from California working here for the Summer building trails.  His group of 8 worked 4 days a week and lived in tents.