June 29--Riley Creek Campground, Denali

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Started our 11th week driving from Riley Creek Campground to Teklanika Campground, Denali National Park As usual was 51 degrees and very overcast. Starting mileage was 10739.

Stopped first at the Mercantile to check our wifi before heading up the road. Before we got to Savage River we saw a huge bull moose in plain view calmly eating the willow tree leaves. Valerie went to take his picture and the camera said it needed new batteries. By the time Valerie had the camera reloaded, the moose had moved. So, Valerie now has a “moose puzzle”. One shot of his head and antlers, one shot of his body, one shot of his rump, but no shots of the magnificent beast completely as we saw him. Sigh!!!!

When we got to the pull-off overlooking the Savage River, we spotted the small herd of caribou on the gravel banks with a bull that had huge antlers. He was lying down so he is hard to see in the photo. As we watched the caribou, a large grizzly bear made its way down the side of the hill toward the river. We got a great picture of him even though he was far away from us.

Showing the Park service employee our reservations, we were cleared through to drive up the road. After a slow approximately 20 miles of dirt road, watching for animals and pulling off to look and take pictures of the spectacular views of the mountains and valleys, we arrived with all the other RTs at Teklanika Campground.

Had lunch and then made carrot, cranberry, and raisin salad for the pot luck that evening. This time the rain held off and we all stayed dry. Had a great assortment of food; Wendell Nunes fried up some of the halibut he caught. Roger made a cornmeal/cornbread casserole. Others cooked all kinds of goodies.

Called it an early night as we wanted to be ready to catch the shuttle bus first thing in the morning for the drive up to the Eielson Visitor’s Center.

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