Denali State Park

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We got up, packed the car, had breakfast, and headed to the sled dog presentation. It was a real treat. We had about 20 minutes to visit the dogs before the show. The girls had a blast petting the friendlier dogs and looking at the puppies that were sleeping in a mass in their dog house. The presentation was interesting, and then the rangers went to hook a team to the summer modified dogsled. The dogs at their kennels were going wild, barking excitedly. They all seemed to be shouting, “Pick Me, Pick Me!!” The rangers hooked up 5 dogs. They unhooked the sled from its tethers, gave the command, and took off. Wow, did they fly! The dogs obviously enjoy their “work”. After the show, we had a little more time with the dogs and Gabbi and Jacqui got to hold one of the puppies. They were pretty psyched about that. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera for this…no cute pictures of the girls and the dogs.

After the show, we tracked down Jacqui’s fleece that we had lost the day before (hooray!) and headed south. We stopped for a hike in Denali State Park at Ermine Hill. When we got near the top, we decided that they needed to rename the hike blueberry hill. We feasted. If only we had some pails, we could have filled any amount that we had! The girls laid in the blueberry patches and picked until their bellies were full of berries. On the way down, we considered taking the “game trail” which was a “root ladder” that went straight down instead of using the switchbacks. After very little thought, we decided not to risk our necks. Back at the car, we loaded up and finished our return trip to the metropolis that is Anchorage.

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