Denali Nat'l Park Pix

I don't know where to start, but here goes: first off, we spent five days in the park (at three different hotels with a room change at one of them, whew!) and never saw Denali (Mt. McKinley). It was completely shrouded in clouds the whole time. Disappointing. Secondly, they only allow private vehicles to drive 15 miles inside the park. To get in any further you have to take shuttle bus 'excursions' that range from 6 hours to 11 hours roundtrip. We opted for the "shorter" 6 hour version. They did make rest stops thank God. And the driver encouraged the passengers to be on the lookout for wildlife and call out and she would then stop the bus. We saw caribou (some pictures above), grizzlies (way too far away to photograph), 2 wolves (I blew it with that one, one of them acutally walked right beside the bus, but I wasn't quick enough), and a mother moose and twin calves (above). Rest of the pix are: a sled dog with newborn pups; Spur, a sled dog; a sled dog demonstration; mom moose & calves; photos taken from bus window; Ed spying out the bus window; couple of caribou; more scenery; and one of my favorites, a closeup of a ptarmigan, the state bird. That's all for now folks.

A really nice place we stayed at in Healy AK, about 20 minutes from Denali Nat'l Park

This place was really exceptional. The view fron our balcony was gorgeous, as you can see, and the room was decorated beautifully. Even friends for Mac (if you look closely). It was called The Denali Lakeview Inn and was actually a B&B, but not really personal like B&Bs usually are. The room had a kitchenette and they left us all kinds of breakfast foods in it so we could comfortably eat in our room. None of this mingling with strangers first thing in the morning. And reasonably priced too. The only weird thing was that you had to take your shoes off upon entering (off-white carpeting throughout the place) which was really hard to get used to. Other than that it was great.

Ms. Moose is ready for her close up

I took these pictures either between Tok and Fairbanks or between Fairbanks and Denali. Not sure which. Had another accommodating animal though. We are now in Anchorage and I have to go because we have to check out of our room. Will be back asap with stories and pix about Denali.

We arrived in Alaska on 7/11

When we first arrived we stayed in a tiny little town called Tok (pronounced 'toke' .....hmmm....). Stayed there a couple of days without communication, then moved on to Fairbanks, where we are now. Kind of a disappointment, actually. We somehow expected it to be more scenic and old style, but it's just a plain old city with a downtown of a couple of blocks. We will be moving on to Denali soon. Having some problems getting reservations for places just outside the park. Today is Monday 7/16, we'll have to figure out what we do next. Might try to do some of the (mostly gravel) Dalton Road up to the Artic Circle, but, then again, we might not. We encountered a lot of gravel on the Alaska Hwy and believe me, it was no fun. Dust everywhere. The truck is a filthy mess. But we look tough!

The pictures above are of some of the construction work that was going on on the Alaska Hwy. We got held up many times. They were actually blasting out the side of the mountain.

By the way, we are now on Alaska time, which is 4 hours earlier than NY.

We made it to the Yukon and the Alaska Hwy

This will be my last post for the evening. It is now !!:40 pm (PST) and the sun has not completely set. Staying for the night in the capital city, Whitehorse. Not a big deal at all, but they have a wireless connection. Heading out into the wilderness again tomorrow. Will post again when we next get the chance.

Mosquito, Anyone?

So, we stayed at a really nice lodge in a really remote part of BC and the day after we arrived the place became infested with mosquitos. REALLY infested. To walk outside was to be completely surrounded by hordes of them. Our lovely cabin was infested also. This is a picture of the window sill and a tiny sample of the less fortunate ones. I became quite proficient at smashing them with my bare hands, which I would NEVER consider doing before, but this was war.

Mac whoops it up with friends on Canada Day

We got in trouble with Mac for forgetting to post these pictures that were taken in Banff during celebrations for Canada Day on July 1. Sorry Mac, here they are.

Hammy Bear!!

This bear was munching on grass at the side of the road somewhere in northern British Columbia (I forget where exactly) and he was most cooperative about having his picture taken.

Along the Icefields Parkway, between Banff & Jasper Parks

These photos were taken a few days back:

Bear Pix (and one of us)!

Hi! Right now we are in Smithers, in northern British Columbia, we should probably be in Alaska by the beginnning of next week. Obviously, we have an Internet connection and this place is fairly remote. Connecting might not turn out to be such a problem after all.
Big news is that I got some photos of a bear and her cubs! Click on them to enlarge cause I couldn't get that close. Ed spotted them as we were driving west along Route 16 about 2 hours out of Jasper. Also included pic of us in case anyone forgot what we looked like.