Day 24 (July 14)--Denali National Park, AK

We had bus tickets again today at 830am to go to the end of the road/off-trail area again. While the boys wanted to go, I reminded them how there was nowhere there to hike that held any interest for me and we also needed to see more of the park--not just do the exact same thing again. For once, Jeff agreed with me about seeing more and I was relieved!! Yes, we lost our $66 for the bus tickets but in the grand scheme of this trip it's only the 3rd money loss of the trip (#1--car rentals x 2; #2--Alyeska Tram ride on July 5th). So we decided it wasn't worth it to go.

After Jeff cooked us our "big breakfast"--bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes--we packed up for a short hike to a lake. In case you have t heard, times for a hike mean nothing to us. We stop for flowers, animals, rocks, water, etc. It's just what we do---ever enjoy (for the most part!!)

We walked to the trailhead from our campground (2 miles round trip) and did the Horseshoe Lake Trail -- only a little over a mile loop. The catch? It had a 25% grade to get down/back up! It wasn't bad though!

We'd never seen knots/bumps like this on a tree before. 

We got to see several beaver dams along the way but no beavers. This lake was interesting because only part of it had that gorgeous turquoise blue color while the rest was regular lake color. 

See the different colors???

(I told Jeff this wasn't a good angle for the water color....oh well!!)

Part of the trail met up with a river and we found a spot where the 2 waters met and loved the reaction of swirling together. Bennett even got an underwater pic. Background of 1st pic shows area where to stay in Denali if you're not camping and want to be right at the park entrance.

This is the underwater pic.

And then.... even though Bennett had already gotten his shoes wet, Jeff decided to take it a step further. Story of my life! 🤦😂

Jeff found a "substance" on a rock, so of course he and B had to taste it. 🤦 Found out it was volcanic ash from MANY years ago from a ranger who walked by later. Jeff did say it tasted like baking soda...

Riley and I found some sap--that's ALWAYS fun to mess with! 

These are my people! ❤️

This was a perfect trail for us to end our Denali National Park journey. We were supposed to stay tonight as well, but our truck is ready in Anchorage AND we have a 730am appointment for the motorcoach to look at a faulty sensor, so we need to get on our way down to Anchorage --a 4 hour drive we don't want to start at 3am! 

Where did we end up you ask??? Why Walmart of course! We've become wary of Walmart on this trip because several we've found don't allow overnight parking. But this one was a winner! Yeah Wasilla, Alaska Walmart! We joined about 20 other trailers/vans/motorcoaches for the night. Plus, Jeff and I got a hot date for grocery shopping--gotta keep the romance alive somehow! (Ignore how exhausted I look...it was 1030pm!)

I almost forgot! The icing on the cake tonight was Mexican food. We tried a place in Soldotna a few days ago that was NOT a winner, but Jeff saw tonight's while driving in and it did not disappoint! If You're ever in the Wasilla area, go to Chepo's! We all devoured our food and the salsa was good too!

Prayers for safe travels and good news on our motorcoach sensor (and maybe another good Mexican food location in the next few weeks 😁😁).