On to Denali NP

July 3, 2009
Sorry for the late posting. We’ll try to get caught up. With so much to see and do it is difficult to find time to sort pictures and write our journal. On Thursday we were on the road again to Denali National Park. We set-up at an RV park just a few miles from the park entrance and headed for the visitors center and the Wilderness Experience Center where you buy tickets for tours etc. Visitors are only allowed to drive 15 miles into the park, which includes one nice campground. After that you must take a shuttle bus or a tour bus the remaining 75 miles to the end of the road at Kantishna (an old mining area prior to the designation of a national park). We booked a shuttle for the next day at 6:30 AM to go as far as the Eielson Visitor’s Center at mile 59, thinking that we would stay a couple of weeks and do more tours later. We also wanted to book reservations in the Teklaneeka Campground about 30 miles into the park. You can drive into this campground and park and can’t drive your car again until you leave the park at least 3 days later. You then have a pass to ride the shuttle further into the park as often as you’d like. This is a great deal since even the shuttle will cost you over $30.00 to $60.00 daily (each). Now we are pumped and ready to see some grizzly, caribou and other wildlife, not to mention the magnificent Mt. McKinley (or Denali, as the Indians call it).