Our last night in Denali, we braved the frigid waters of the Nenana river for my first ever white-water adventure.  We donned dry suits and life jackets and into the raft we went.  We opted for the tour where the guide steers and we just hang on – and fortunately, no one fell out!  Well, until we reached a calm spot near the end where our guide told us we could jump in if we wanted.  I declined that particular opportunity, but Theo and a couple of the other passengers hopped right in.  I pulled Theo back in the raft after he had had enough, although I was laughing so hard by that time I am surprised I did not drown him!

The Nenana is classified as a Class III/IV rapids – III for the current and IV because it is just so very cold.  After our first drenching, the guide asked how we enjoyed our ‘glacial facial’.  These pictures are in series from unsuspecting tourists to thoroughly drenched and laughing hard tourists.  Man, was that water cold!  So glad to have a dry suit.

Smile for the camera, everyone!

A few of Theo’s pictures as we floated along — well, pictures in-between the rapids, that is!

 

We had just so much fun, I think this may be the highlight of our entire Alaskan vacation!

Jean

We wanted to spend as much time taking in the beautiful Denali Park scenery as we could — so we signed up for all manner of tours.  The night we arrived, we quickly checked into our room and then took off on the Jet Boat Safari that included a presentation on the wilderness lifestyle (many citizens of Alaska still pretty much live off the land — and apparently they can bear meat to preserve for winter meals, who knew?) followed by the wildest boat ride ever.

Of course, what trip to Alaska is complete without a little panning for gold?  If you look closely, you will see a tiny fleck of gold at the top of the pan.

Feeding the reindeer (I guess if they are farm raised, they are reindeer — if they are wild, then they are caribou).  Could be Dasher and Dancer, or was it Prancer and Vixen?  No Rudolph, though.

A speedy ride down the Nenana River.  And I do mean speedy.  I was expecting a sedate little float, but thoroughly enjoyed the ride anyway.

Here you can see the division between glacial water (the murky-looking stuff) and snow melt.

A beaver working on a dam.

And, of course, the tour guide.

Early the next morning, we hoped in a side-by-side and went off-roading (in a nice orderly fashion with the rest of the tour, of course) through a local canyon and dry creek bed.  Theo let me drive so he could take pictures and I am pretty sure he might regret that decision.  My inner wild woman escaped that day and I just had to let the crazy run!  At least I passed the driving test…

Here’s the first actual moose sighting of our trip.  Thank goodness for zoom lenses!

Dry creek bed.

And last, but not least, our long-suffering guides.  I suspect our group may have driven them to consume large quantities of adult beverages by the time it was over.

After our ATV adventure, we crammed ourselves into a specially-outfitted school bus for the trek into Denali National Park.  But more on that in a later post.

The morning of our last full day in Denali, we dragged our tired selves out of bed for an early morning Jeep adventure.  After all the fun we had on the ATV ride, I was kinda hoping we would go off road, but alas, this tour stayed on the paved Denali Highway.  We made plenty of photo stops and like everywhere we went, the scenery is fabulous.

 

Up next — white-water rafting.

Jean

It is amazing, really, you head home after a truly spectacular vacation and just dive back into real life with jobs and home projects and…well…the next thing you know, an absurdly long time has gone by and you still haven’t posted all of the pictures!  So tonight, I begin the rest of the tale.

After disembarking the cruise ship in Seward, Alaska, we boarded a travel coach (Okay, it’s a bus.  But a really nice bus.) for the journey north to Denali.  We managed our first moose sighting before we ever left the parking lot!

Perhaps not so much moose as our highly-entertaining bus, er, ‘travel coach’ driver, Daniel.  It is quite a long drive to Denali — about 8 hours on the Parks Highway, pretty much the only major highway in the state.  We headed past the port at Seward, through Anchorage, on to Wasilla (yes, THAT Wasilla, although we were assured you could not see Russia from here) where we stopped for lunch – with a great view.

Fortunately, these buses make frequent stops for bio breaks (and a nice leg stretch).  One stop was at the Iditarod headquarters, where, of course, they were showing off some sled dogs.

These dogs just amazed me.  While they were waiting to go, they jumped, they yipped, they snipped at their partners…when the guy says to go, they are all business and move right on out pulling a sled full of people.  We had a brief stop at a place for great viewing of Mt. McKinley and the mountain peeked out of the clouds for just a minute, then went back into hiding.

Alaska, like some places in the lower 48, has had more than their share of forest fires this year.  We drove through Willow, a recently burned area.  Thankfully, the fire was out by the time we arrived, but at its worst, around 1700 homes in a 15-mile radius were evacuated and the highway was closed to traffic.  I think the fire burned about 8500 acres —  and this was just one of the many fires this past summer.

Beyond the fire-burned area, we just sat back and enjoyed the amazing beauty of the mountains.

We arrived at McKinley Chalet in the late afternoon — along with about a million of our closest friends.  The process here of moving tourists around, checking them into their rooms, and manhandling luggage rivals the most complicated military operation.  People who cruised first, now coming to Denali, people headed to Fairbanks and points north, people coming from Fairbanks, people headed back to Anchorage for the southbound cruise…not to mention the near constant departure/arrival of shuttles taking people to the various excursions.  It was controlled chaos everywhere we looked!  Unbelievably, whatever logistic system they are using to manage all of this movement seems to work without a hitch.  I am still amazed that our luggage always ended up where it was supposed to be – and on time!

Jean