June 8-13

We left Fairbanks and headed for the Denali Highway which is about 27 miles south of the park entrance at Cantwell.  The Denali Highway is marginal as you can see from the pictures but Roger really wanted to fish along this stretch of road.

Denali Highway

This was a 10-15 mph venture.





When we got to Brushkana Campground we were greeted by a couple who were the camp hosts.  This was a parks campground so $6 per night.  It was right on the river and hosted about 4 trillion mosquitoes. The guys went fishing every day but Jane and I pretty much stayed in our campers.  I had purchased a headnet in Fairbanks and you had to wear it outside.  By the third day (4th night) there Jane and I had had it so we all headed back to Cantwell to a nice campground with electricity and no bugs.  While there the guys caught several grayling and we kept enough for one dinner.  They weren't bad eating but kind of tasteless like tilapia. 

Roger was outside once and a cow moose and her calf walked right in front of our truck.  Unfortuntely none of the rest of us saw it.  The funny thing was to watch people pull in, open their car doors and immediately look like they were doing St. Vidas dance warding off the mosquitoes.  Every day a couple of vans of ornathologists got out to look for birds.  I had just said to Gary that I'd seen almost no birds there but it seemed to be a big stop for the birding tours.  We did see swans on the ponds.

Two days we took a little drive sans rvs.  It really was a beautiful area.  Here are a few picks including a couple of glaciers.  You can see Lexie thought it was amazing.

We looked and looked for animals along the road. Finally on our way back to Cantwell I saw a cow moose and her calf running through the brush and we saw a porcupine along the road.  We also drove to where you are supposed to see Denali. With our spotting scope we could make out the very tip top but the rest of it remained in clouds.  As we go south farther we'll have better opportunities to see it.



As my internet friend who is also traveling Alaska said, "Alaska is miles and miles of miles and miles."



Today, the 13th, we are in the Cantwell RV Park - really a nice park and very nice people.  We've done our laundry and filled our propane tanks in preparation for going 29 miles into the park to the Teklanika Campground where we'll stay for 3 nights.  One of the days we'll take a 65 mile sightseeing bus farther into the park. Hope we see a grizzley. When we leave the park our destination will be Talkeetna and hopefully internet again, so until then . . .