My Pal, Beu

I recently got a new dog named Beu. We adopted him during October, and he came into our household on my birthday week. He is a little sweetheart, and is best friends with my mom's Golden Retriever, Ali. But he is menace to anything left on the ground. He has now destroyed two chap sticks, a magazine, and Lincoln Logs. The picture above shows him in the act of destroying one of his Christmas presents!

Road Trip!

Although we were not drawn for a lottery pass to drive the 89 mile road into Denali National Park, we were fortunate enough to be given one by some friends to use (thanks Carney-Bravemans!). So, in the wee hours on September 15 (Josh got to miss school!) we left for the two hour drive to the park. It was extremely foggy in Fairbanks, so we were really doubtful how much the weather would cooperate. However, once we got to the park, the fog lifted, the clouds broke, and the sun came out! Here is one of the many antique cars we saw that were there to drive the road that day, although this one had to be the oldest!Then we saw our first mass of people, with tripods and telephoto lenses everywhere while folks were jockeying trying to get a picture of this bull moose. There was a park ranger there, trying to herd people back into their cars. (Ours was taken from inside the vehicle!)
Mt. McKinley was out in full glory for the first half of the day too!

For a total animal count, we saw 2 moose, 23 dall sheep, 15 caribou, 1 grizzly, 1 fox, 4 eagles, 9 ptarmigan, and lots of other little things running and flying around. Here are some of the sheep we saw:
At mile 62 we stopped at the new Eielson Visitor Center. It is in a fabulous spot, and is built into the hillside. This is a view from the front of the building:
Nearing the end of the road at mile 89 we passed through a brief rain shower by Wonder Lake, and then there literally was a rainbow at the end of the road!

It was a long day, and we saw many beautiful sights. The road is gravel, narrow, and a bit scary for those afraid of heights (no guardrails!), but I will certainly put in for the road lottery pass every year for now on. It was great to be able to have full access to this beautiful park!

Denali Visit - Day 2

On our second day we hiked the trails around the front part of the park. The trees have turned their fall colors.


There are some aspen trees in the park that do turn orange and somewhat red, a contrast to the yellow leaves we see in Fairbanks.

We hiked to Horseshoe Lake. This is a picture of a large beaver pond on one edge of the lake.

The low bush cranberries are ready to be picked. Josh really enjoyed eating them! This has been a great weekend, and we will be back in just over a week.

We were lucky to get a lottery pass to drive the road on September 15, thanks to some friends. I am really looking forward to driving in all the way in our own vehicle, something I have never done. (Usually you can only go beyond mile 17 if you are on one of the bus tours.)

Slide show from Day 1

A sampling of some of the pictures from our hike on Saturday along the Savage River.

Denali Park - Day 1

We drove to Denali National Park on Friday evening, staying at a campground just north of the park. On Saturday we drove to the Savage River, and walked the trail along the river. We were able to see a magnificent Dall sheep. We sat and watched him work his way from one side of the valley, across the river, and then up the mountain on the other side of the river. I did get a short video of the sheep, which I will attempt to load tomorrow, along with a slide show of some of the pictures from our Saturday hike.

The sheep was not the only one doing some climbing!

Greetings

It is my turn to join the bloggers out there, and to chronicle our adventures in the great state in which we live - Alaska!

So, here goes!