Day 21-22 (July 11-12)--Denali National Park, AK

Day 21(July 11) started off on a bad note. Less than 2 minutes after leaving our luxurious truck stop sleep spot, a "low oil pressure" light came on in the coach. Odd b/c remember we got the oil changed in Calgary? We pulled over, called the warranty, and waited for a call back from a service spot. Somehow by the grace of God, things corrected themselves and instead of being able to drive 5mph, Jeff was able to drive a normal speed. We still have an appointment at an Anchorage location for July 15 @ 8am (which means we have to leave Denali one night earlier than planned). We're used to driving a bit down the road though and finding a truck stop so we're okay with that. 

The drive to Denali was beautiful. Sadly, because I wasn't in the coach to point things out/places to stop, we flew right by some Mt. McKinley viewpoint locations. It was a sunny day so you could almost see the entire mountain....I tried my best as I was driving to get a shot. (Don't worry... I'm safe and took a million to get maybe one good one without looking.)

This guy ran out onto the road in front of Jeff and he was fortunate enough to be able to stop in time. 

We booked a spot in Riley Creek Campground which is at the entrance to the park. It's not far from the bus depot, visitor center, etc. What was interesting to us is they don't assign you a spot. You purchase a size spot and then they have 3 loops of sites. You drive around and find the best one for you. Weird but it worked! 

We got set up and then went to the visitor center. Momma needed a map! 

The visitor center had great information on the area and of course the boys were THRILLED I wanted to look around. After a few minutes though, they started looking/reading. Hah! My plan worked!!!

The only bear you should make contact with:

Day 22 (July 12)--East Fork Transit bus/off trail hiking day. Denali has a great bus system. It's a little confusing online when researching but when you get here and see it in action it does make more sense. 

I'm deathly afraid of running into a bear. I want to see them from a safe distance or at a zoo. I have not been looking forward to this day. We have bear spray if one gets too close and bear bells (jingle bells) to warn them we are nearby. But the fact that we can run into one scares the bejeezus out of me! Jeff however, is all about finding a great spot to hike to and seeing the beauty. I don't care about beauty. I want to be safely away from a bear. 

From our bus we saw willow ptarmigan --state bird of Alaska.

The best we could get of Mt McKinley (snowy later in the WAY back). 

The East Fork Transit bus takes 4.5 hours round trip and turns around at Mile 43 (the Pretty Rocks landslide area won't reopen until 2027--theyre building a bridge over it, so that's as far as you go. We got off the bus and hiked from there. Mind you, Jeff lovingly chose a spot where I could see the entire bus dropoff bridge area the entire time we hiked. Sweet guy. 

We started our hike on the gravel Riverbed and then found a spot to climb up. This was no normal hike. I once complained that I felt like I was hiking through the brush at my family's place in Nordheim and Jeff's response was that it was actually easier at Nordheim! 

This entire area is frozen feet underneath where we walked. What this means is that as it heats up stuff melts, which leaves space underground for you to sink into as you walk. This is what you stepped on:

Then we found "paths" we could follow--they may have been a water path or an animal path (or both).

I took the obligatory "we're on a hike" picture before really getting into the brush.

The area was beautiful. I personally had issues of climbing over bushes, stepping into a squishy rut, etc. The 3 boys had a blast while I was the only one who hated it. Story of my life! (Look at the bush by Jeff's legs. That's what we climbed through ALL the way to the brown area-ish somewhere back there.)

Lunch spot = rest, grub, metal detecting, and actually looking at where we are!

Sasquatch hiding from mosquitos!

My positive in this journey--the flowers!

And a ptarmigan on our path! We flushed out several of them today!

Hiked near a creek which was actually nice. Riley was always my guide on which rocks to use each time we criss-crossed it.

Once we got back down to the gravelbed we found stuff again to entertain us. Looking for good rocks, metal detecting, sitting and listening to the river, finding moose/caribou tracks, chunking rocks, etc. 

And then...the best surprise of all! A caribou walked down the riverbed and gave everyone a show. He seemed pretty anxious and walked quickly, so we got out of his way. He was beautiful and amazing to see up close! What a great ending to the hike!!