Denali.

Denali National Park  (3,955 km)....

Fairbanks definitely wins the most populace mosquitos environment award. Although we really never got bit, they were everywhere. Quite the nuisance. 

10:00 a we are on the road to Denali. 

Landscape enroute was something to be desired. Many hills with swampy flatland between. It made the dullest parts of Saskatchewan look attractive. 

Denali however did not disappoint. Land of extremes. Extreme beauty; extreme remoteness, extreme remperatures ( with summers up to 30C. and winter down to -50C.); extreme tranquility; extreme expanse (covering an area of 6,000,000 acres--larger than out PEI) while at the same time hosting millions of national and international visitors. Extreme controversy as miners attempt to open up its untold wealth of minerals, and developers want to capitalize on development opportunities. ...and on and on. 

We felt blessed to be able to experience its vastness for the next 4 days. Inspite of being a land of extremes, it is home to 39 species of mammals and over 100 other species. 

Being fortunate to precede the crowded tourist season we took George for a quick drive to explore the small shops of touristy down town and checked out one of the enormous resorts perched up on a mountainside ledge that tested the nimbleness of George, and took our breath away  with the shear drops at each corner hairpin turn. 

Here is an  example of some of the road signs heading to this resort. 

The uniqueness of our location, of course pressured us to purchase far too many souvenirs from clothes to fridge magnates. 

Our campsite was at Rily Creek about 300 meters from one of the info centres where we purchased our bus tour pass of the 20,000+ foot mountain for Sunday--7 hours return for only $26!  

Next was the first ranger presentation of the year. It was on the life of the Lynx in the park. He was a very interesting, elderly, slow talking man from Pennsylvania, who like most Alaskans, originally came for a visit but never left. His slow demeaned, full moustache and short heavyset-somewhat overweight body resembled Yogi the bear and added to the effect!

We were lucky in the timing of our holiday as it enabled us to attend a number of first day events in the towns we passed through.  They were all getting ready for the beginning of the real tourist season commencing the long weekend  and in June. Another one week later might have enabled us to see a few more public buildings but we might have missed the good weather we have been experiencing. Leaving any earlier would have been a mistake as most places would not have been open. 

...back to our camp location and another skunking at crib by the women. 😟

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