Days 21-22: Denali

Sunday was a blur of driving once we left Valdez. We drove round-robin style with Mom actually going twice... I think it's safe to say we're getting tired. After her first round, she passed out in the back seat. After my drive, I did the same. Dad stoically marches on without naps for the most part (as he reminds me, "I sleep badly enough without a nap to make it even harder." OK Dad.

The whole day was overcast and murky with intermittent showers. We stopped for groceries, gas, and lunch in Palmer, a suburb of Anchorage at which point I realized that we could have taken a faster, equally scenic route via the Denali Hwy, but I was too zonked in the morning to evaluate our route before we left Valdez. I spent most of the afternoon in a funk about that (it would have also eliminated a big chunk of doubling our highway drive when we leave Denali tomorrow to head south to the Kenai Peninsula), but we had enough cell service to stream music so that helped.

Arrived at our B&B (Touch of Wilderness Lodge in Healy, a few miles north of the Denali Park entrance) and made sandwiches for dinner and then crashed. We had to be up early for a bus tour into the park yesterday.

Denali is a little bit weird in the National Parks landscape of the US because there is a road into the park (92 miles long), but access to private vehicles is extremely restricted after Mile 15. After that, if you're not a land-owner inside the park, you're pretty much relegated to the Park Service buses that run. You can pay for a full bus tour which includes play-by-play commentary from the driver, or you can hop on shuttle buses into the park that just get you from A to B.

We opted for the Tour Bus and had planned to take the 12 hour round trip to the end of the park road at Mile 92. Because of a kerfuffle with the reservation, we got bounced into a 7 hour trip that only went to Mile 60. I wasn't thrilled (spent an hour on the phone with customer service on Saturday because of it), but at least we were getting into the park.

The day was rainy, overcast, and chilly, but we saw 3 moose before we were 2 minutes down the road from our B&B. Great start!

Cow moose

Moose antlers are HEAVY

Our only Alaskan bull moose sighting

Another bull moose

The way the river re-routes itself over the stream bed and makes new channels is why they're called river braids

Besides the two moose, we also saw our first caribou, willow ptarmigan (and chicks!), and Dall Sheep while out and about. Because of the weather, we weren't lucky enough to actually see Denali mountain on the ride. Alas. Fortunately we've got today in the park and tomorrow's drive to Anchorage for more chances!

After the bus trip, we were exhausted. We got back to the bus depot at 2, headed back to the B&B for naps and rest, and then had dinner reservations for 5 at a place called Moose-AKAs (pronounced "moose-ahk-uh"), a Serbian restaurant that has one of the highest Yelp ratings in the country. So, so, so good! Deep-fried meat crepes plus stuffed peppers for dinner. Yum.

Today is the first true rest day that we've had in some time. It's 11:15 and I haven't properly gotten out of bed yet. M&D ventured downstairs for breakfast, but I opted to sleep in. Good chance to get some work emails done! Mom came back and laid down after breakfast but she just started to rally, so I think we'll try to get some pep into our steps and get back down to the park. Make hay while the sun shines!