Day 22

Wow, what a day we had today. We got up, or at least I did, at 4:45. It was the usual struggle to get the women and children up and going. We got there slightly late, and had to take the last seats at the rear of the bus. Luckily, the bus people had car seats we could borrow so we did not have to take the ones out of the truck. The day started of a bit cloudy and the guide prefaced the drive by saying it may not be the best day for seeing wildlife and Mt. McKinley. You basically ride an old green converted school bus along a narrow dirt road. At some times the ride was harrowing as there was no shoulder, dirt road with no guardrails and hundreds of feet of sheer cliff. The driver assured us he knew the roads like the back of his hand. Just after we crossed a pass past the point where you are not allowed to drive by yourself, the view opened up to the most magnificent vista I have seen. There was lush green subalpine tundra with a backdrop of the Alaska Range as far as the eye could see. It looked like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. I expected to see a Giant lumbering across the plain at any movement. We saw a large male grizzly down below. As we moved further a female grizzly and her cub popped up not 50 feet from the bus. The casually ambled across the street in front of the bus and frolicked in the field next to us. We were able to see moose, Dall sheep, Harriers, and Golden Eagles all in this area. Further along you are supposed to be able to see Mt McKinley, which is the tallest mountain in North America. In reality, it is covered in clouds 70-80 percent of the time as it is so large, it creates its own clouds and weather. As we crossed the bend, the road opened up to a magnificent view of the mountain. It was one of the most awe inspiring things I have ever seen. The pictures here are truly worthless and no picture I could post could convey the enormity of it. We arrived at the far visitor’s center and hiked a bit with Grant. Unfortunately it was very windy and cold and they could not tolerate much of a hike. Soon after the mountain was engulfed by clouds again. We boarded the bus and headed back. Some British hiker boarded the bus from the road and gave us his leftover apple and muffins. We rode back and absorbed more of the view on the way back. It was an awesome trip. We came back to the trailer and Grant did some activities from his junior ranger bag while I performed some maintenance on the trailer. Many of the hitches bolts needed tightening. I do not have the tools to check the torque on the ball so I will see if there is an RV store in anchorage that will check it for me tomorrow. We went back out to the visitor center, and Grant turned in his junior ranger activities. He got to wear a ranger hat and the Ranger made him swear an oath to protect Denali. He got a little badge for this. We then went to get ice cream, Amy was very sad to see that the flavor she wanted “birthday cake” was gone. We came back t o do laundry. We reheated leftovers over a fire. Today we did laundry. Some fool was making a stink about how the washer wasn’t fast enough and how he needed to use the dryer first because he was with boy scouts. The kids are tired and we will try to get them to bed early. Tomorrow we head to Anchorage. We booked our fishing charter for salmon today. Hopefully we will catch a mess of fish.