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Published: August 12th 2021
20210811_090409 (2)
Our view of Denali from afarDay 2
Mileage 265 miles
Oh man, the weather forecast was for rain. That wasn’t encouraging because typically there is only a 30% chance of seeing Denali on a good day (the highest peak in the Northern hemisphere at 20310ft ). We came out to a chilly morning, but no rain. Yea!!! We named our silver SUV Buck and took off for supplies then we headed south on Alaska 3. Buck bounced along the beautiful but wavey highway for a while, before we spotted an overlook and of course immediately pulled off. We got out to admire the scenery, and to our surprise in the distance, we could see Denali in all it’s glory. It was covered in snow with sunshine bearing down on it. This was a great sign. We were lucky enough to get more sneak peaks of Denali as we rode the Alaska roller coaster highway towards the park. The highway is really nice, but there are just a bunch of waves in the road that we assume are because of the freezing and thawing so much. It was so refreshing to be out in nature and to have the road to
ourselves.
At Denali National Park, we stopped at the gift shop to let Pam look for a raincoat to replace the one she accidentally left at the hotel. No luck. That was not a good sign with it beginning to rain. Our luck changed. As we drove further into the park, Buck met a buck. A moose grazing next to the road, walked right across the road in front of us. What a rack it had! As we drove further into the park we stopped at all the pull offs, but there was no Denali. What the heck??? Where was the mountain? When the sun left, apparently Denali went with it. We did find the most interesting rainbow we had ever seen, a rainbow cloud. We were hoping it was a sign of something good to come.
Remember there are many more pictures at the bottom. Especially enjoy the pictures of the crazy signs.
After checking in at the McKinley Chalet, we went searching for good takeout food. It turned out to be much harder than expected. Why do restaurants not open until Thursday? Finally, at the last attempt,
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around the area the Denali Grand Lodge, we scored. We found great food, a fabulous view and a bunch of great road signs on the hair pin road to the top where the restaurant was located. After eating we took another visit to the park to give Denali one last attempt to show herself, but no luck. We did love the peacefulness because we were practically the only people in the entire park. We also got to meet Disco a sled dog. There is one section of the Denali Road where they walk the sled dogs.
When we returned to the hotel, we walked out back to the Nenana River( Pam stuck her finger in the water) and then called it a night.
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Diane Usoff
non-member comment
Fantastic
I so missed your trips. So glad the 3 sisters are back. Alaska was great. I even drove a dog sled on the tundra. Can hardly wait to read more.