Blogs from Denali National Park, Alaska, United States, North America - page 9

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Fall has come to Denali Park in August. It’s been raining for two days straight and everyone I know is plumb tired of it. Poor Chris tried sleeping behind my dirt pile two nights ago and was rained out. He hung his tent up on the rafters in the depot overnight and slept in his car. He said he was cold, but dry at least. Good thing school was starting for him soon. He is only working part-time at the depot these last two weeks of work. Bill is getting overtime that whole time as well, which he both loves and hates. But you can stand anything when you know it only lasts five months. Gotta love working the summer in Denali. My irritation with the rain is the low cloud-cover. Came to see the Mt. ... read more
Christina and Leigh
Me and the Passenger Train
Hard Travels


The air is growing colder. In under ten days the trees have started to change their clothes. The mountainsides are changing from an even green, to mottled reds and yellows. Every morning I awake to the whispers of fall winds. The amount of passengers for the Alaska Railroad company is dwindling due to the end-of-season. In the morning, after I have finished dressing in my required attire of kaki pants, black shoes, and black jacket, I check the computer’s list of passengers. Every day Joe, Christina and I have less and less tickets to print, which equates to less and less stress for the rest of us. The daily schedule is always the same here at the depot. I work in a box, a box with giant windows on all three sides. The front opens towards ... read more
Blueberries and Rice
Savage River
Truck and Moose


Three and a half months later, working as a ticket agent for the Alaska Railroad in Denali Park, and I am finally burned out. Oddly enough, it is not from the tourists, as most people would think. It is from the monotony of completing redundant tasks day after day. An acquaintance of mine, while I was home in Fairbanks (or “The Banks” as some would call it), replied “Well, isn’t that what having a job is?” I looked him in his pre-med, white-picket fence, mortgage-wanting face and realized that our perception on life was very, very different. And I thanked God we were no longer dating, as admirable of his accomplishments as I was. Jobs should not be monotonous. They should be dynamic, or at least give the individual the fulfillment of knowing that this ... read more
Chris at Work
Trail Flower
Joe at Work


52 degrees and cloudy. Shelby T. got up this AM nauseated and really feeling bad. Started our drive south back through Wasilla, Anchorage, Sterling, and Soldotna to Kenai City on the Kenai Pensula. Beautiful drive along the water. Driving along Turnagain Arm and Portage Glacier at 65 degrees ---really pretty drive. We arrived at Beluga Lookout RV Park - $50.00 per night. Park was clean, but really cramped. We got an end site so not too bad except could not park LilTruk on the site. Parked very close though, just across the drive. The park is right on the bluff overlooking the water where many many people were salmon fishing. Some of those people were staying the the park and we got to see their catch.... read more
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Temp in high 40s to low 50s. Had to get up early today to catch the bus into Denali National Forest - Third largest national forest in the US. Oh, by the way #1 and #2 are also in Alaska. Denali has a population of 300 grizzly bear, we saw 5. It has a population of 50 wolves, we saw 1. We also saw caribou, moose, fox, ptarmigans, and dall sheep. Day was cold and windy. ... read more
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Temp - LOW 50s during day and mid 40s at night. Shelby T fixed omelets for all this morning. Just hanging out around Denali today. Rode over to the park and got tickets for the shuttle on Wednesday to go to the Eilson Visitors Center approximately 66 miles down the Park Highway. Rainy and cold again today, had to get out my pale orange coat :-). Came back to the rv and Aleta fixed fried chicken, mashed potatoes, lima beans, homemade biscuits, and had brownies with pecans for dessert. Then the whole gang gathered up in our motorhome to watch a movie. We had the brownies during intermission :-).... read more
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Dick Eveson’s Alaska Tour - Talkeetna and Denali National Park The two weeks are drawing close to the end. We have one more “biggie” event arranged for Dick, a tour of Alaska’s jewels, Denali National Park. Denali, the mountain, is sometimes called Mt. McKinley. The highest peak in the North American continent, it is located about the middle of the State of Alaska in the Alaska Mountain Range. Surrounding the mountain is the Denali National Park and Preserve and the adjoining Denali State Park. Accessible by road, railroad and light aircraft, Denali National Park hosts thousands of visitors every year. Our trip to Denali would be by road. It is a long drive from Chugiak to Denali. Our plans were for an early morning departure from home and drive to Denali and neighboring Healey, Alaska for ... read more
Moose - Denali Park Hotel 2
Entrance to Denali national Park
Bull Moose


Day 12 We came into Denali early afternoon only to find out that we could have gone into our site at 11a.m. We are camping in Teklanika, a campground about 30 miles into Denali National Park with about 60 sites. From here campers must stay for a 3 night minimum and may only hike or ride the Forest Service bus. We found a campsite at the back edge of the 1st loop so that we face the river bar with about 50' of trees separating us from the bar. The bar has about 4 separate small rivers running thru it, the deepest about 1' deep. Wolves and bears are known to frequent the bar hence kids must carry walkie talkies at all times and yell frequently. Yelling frequently does not seem to be a problem as ... read more
On the River bar
Campsite in Teklanika


Day 14 I wanted to go in just to Eielson Visitor Center about 40 miles away and after everyone complained about going on another long bus ride decided to go by myself. At the last minute all decided to join me. We hopped on a very early bus and on the way out to Eielson got a good view of the mountain, Denali. The mountain is so incredibly majestic and we were so lucky to see it, we have had just small views of it to now but here was a massive view. On the way back to the campground the bus driver stopped where she knew some wolves had a den. There on the river bar were 2 adult wolves and 4 pups. The pups nursed then played while we watched them. What a remarkable ... read more
The Wolf family


Day 13 “A Grand Slam”, that is what our driver called it; when one sees the mountain, a lynx, snowshoe hare, bear, Dall Sheep, caribou, moose and wolf. Because we are camped in Teklanika River Campground we were able to purchase a pass for each Dale and I to ride the bus; kids ride free. With this pass a person must reserve one ride but may ride on any other bus to any stop as long as there is room on that bus on any day while camping. Today we went as far back as the buses go, to Wonder Lake. We were so concerned that the kids get to see the animals and we saw it all!!! The wolf and Denali were not that clearly visible but peeked out at us. As for the other ... read more
Mama Bear and her Cub




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