June 28, 2018 and August 8, 2018 – Denali National Park

Denali National Park was the driving force behind our plans to visit Alaska. So much so that we woke up at midnight on January 1 to make reservations to stay in The Teklanika Campground 30 miles inside the park. That was supposed to be in August. Our plans didn’t go quite as we planned but one must be willing to improvise when RVing.

But first, we went to Denali in late June. Access to the interior of the park is limited. You must either ride a bus or hike. We took the 92.5 mile (one way) bus trip to the furthest point inside the park.

Here is our bus.

The scenery in the park is breath taking.

And lots of wildlife. A moose.

And a caribou.

Or two.

Here we are at the End of the Road. We are acting a bit silly. We are supposed to be moose. During our drive along this 92.5 mile stretch of road we saw 10 grizzly bears, a couple of Arctic foxes, as well as other interesting critters.

Unfortunately, our stay at Teklanika didn’t go so well. It rained several days before we were supposed to go into the campground. It also rained several days after we were supposed to go into the campground. It was also cold. Let’s just say that 39 degrees and constant rain do not make for a fun stay. Because we had made these plans so far in advance we thought we would give it a go.

Here is what the rig looked like after driving in on a muddy dirt road for 15 miles. (Yes, the rig is normally off white, not brown).

We decided to cut our Denali stay short and head to warmer weather. After one night we left. Onward to Fairbanks.