Alaska Continued...

We spent the weekend in Denali touring Denali National Park. Fun fact... Mt. McKinley (the highest peak in North America) is in Denali.
Mom, dad, Rob, Virginia, Madeline, Jon Mike, Rea, and myself piled in the rental van and headed north-ish. Good trip, good conversation, good snacks, but bad flat tire. Once that was resolved, we finished the 4 hour drive. We got to the hotel then went to a local joint for dinner....the Salmon Bake. The kitchen was outside of the restaurant...weird.

Side note...Denali is only opened a few months out of the year and is a tourist destination. Obviously, the weather is too poor the majority of the year to visit the park. A lot of people who work there...restaurants, shops, hotels, etc are either foreign (Russian, Ukrainian, etc), college students, or those that work snow resorts in the winter, etc. People "rough" it there...I mean their hair (lots of it!), clothes, skin, etc. Lots of hair...long hair, facial hair, dirty hair, etc. There are some nice resorts that are managed by cruise lines. So one might go on a 10-day Alaskan cruise then get bussed up to Denali. You would stay at their resort and tour Denali for a bit until they bus you or you take the train to the airport to conclude your trip.

The weather was very dreary...rainy, overcast, cold. (which I'm guessing that is normal to Alaskans) We took a bus tour (in an old school bus) through the park. It is just amazing to think they still use dogs to patrol such a huge park. It was cool to learn the proper moose and bear meeting protocol...moose run behind tree, bear freeze. (There had been a bear sighting in the area where we were walking.) Our pictures below do NOT do it justice....moving bus, some foggy windows, etc. don't help either. Everything is massive! The trees are tall...Christmas tree like, but the huge mountains dwarf them. We saw the Alaska state bird...the willow ptarmigan (in the chicken family). We saw a moose or two on a distant mountain and some beavers and a beaver dam. Side note....OMG. When I was finding the willow ptarmigan link above, I discovered that since our trip they replaced the state bird. It's now a puffin. Boo on that! Who changes their state bird?!?

Additional things to notice in the pics below...
*We visited a very nice restaurant with a great view...the Grande Denali Lodge. The waiter, of course, was foreign and horrible. It was so weird and awkward. It was taking so long that I got desperate and broke out the DVD player right at dinner! We also took family pictures to fill the time.
*Reagan likes to put her fingers in her ears, then talks or sings so she can hear herself.
*The family shot (I'm wearing red) was our view from our hotel.
*BLACK BEAR COFFEE HOUSE! Tiny little place, but just my favorite. Great cafe mocha and breakfast sandwiches. We made several visits there over the weekend. Wanted to bring the shop back as my souvenir.
*We went back to the park to visit the visitor center, watch a movie and for pictures by the entrance.
*On the way back to Eagle River, mom spotted a stinkin' moose just chilling on the side of the road. We quickly turned around and snapped pics like the HUGE (and one local) tourists that we were!

One last note....there are a couple random pictures of me amongst wildlife. I just can't help myself! I see a pretty area and I want a picture of it, but I also think its boring to just take pictures of random grass, rocks, etc. So I throw myself up there because no one else wants to. THEN I make a cheesy face because I'm probably getting made fun of while the picture is being taken.