From Denali

Our travels have taken us to Denali Park in Alaska; from there to Fairbanks, and then down the entire length of the Alaska Highway (AlCan), to Dawson Creek, BC, where we are ensconsed tonight. That's 1488 miles! We can only imagine the hardships experienced by the Army Corps of Engineers and the workers  who carved out the highway in 1942 - 1943. Many improvements have been made since then. But there are many segments that remain just as they were origninally made.

Denali Park was impressive. Even in the rain! Actually, the most memorable part involved the drive on the Denali National Highway going to the park. The highway was 123 miles of pot-holed dirt and gravel. But fortunately, the car withstood some bodacious chuckholes along the way, and we came out dirty but unscathed. The good part? Very few others chose that route so we felt we "owned" the road!

The night before we went to the park, we stayed in a quaint little cabin about 15 miles south of the entrance. We spent a half day and went to the sled dog training area for a demonstration. Then took a bus ride a short way into the park. Saw a moose cow and her calf cross the road, and later a bullmoose sauntering along in the brush. Earlier we saw a caribou dash across the road.

Later, we decided to start the journey back to the lower 48. And that's a whole 'nuther story!!




For "Flatlanders", especially in August, this kind

of scenery never gets tiresome.




Brown bears hunting for their supper.

  The best time to spot wildlife is early evening or early morning. We spotted these critters at twilight. They ignored us!



Our cabin at Creekside where we stayed the night
before we headed for Denali Park.



The car got a generous coating of Denali highway dirt.




See those "pointy" trees? Those are Black Spruce,
and they dominate the landscsape in the Northwest.