8/2/12 DENALI PARK, AK

When we arrived at this State Park just south of Denali yesterday it was cold and drizzly.  We woke up this morning to constant rain.  Norm was itching to move on since we don’t have any hook ups and we can’t get outside to do anything.  He’s thinking cable tv.  So even tho we paid for two nights we’ll move on toward Denali to an RV park with cable TV.  Something to keep us entertained through this rain.  We have been reading a lot but you can only read so much.  With only 100 miles or so we arrived at Denali Rainbow Village RV Park around 2:30.  This park is within 1 mile of the entrance to Denali National Park.  We drove out of the rain on the way here but it’s heavy overcast, windy and pretty cold.  Temps tonight are forecasted to be 36 degrees!  We have full hook ups and cable.  It’s funny, normally I’m the one who wants everything planned out, reservations made, etc.  Norm was wanting to make reservations for this park a few days ago when we were in Talkeetna.  I didn’t think it necessary.  I’m trying to be more like him and go with the flow.  I guess he’s trying to be more like me, haha J    Anyway, we didn’t have a problem getting a camp site.  Good deal.  We paid for 7 nights (they have a weekly rate).  The sun is supposed to come out Monday through Wednesday next week.  We’ll do Denali National Park then.  In the meantime we will check out this little community we’re in and drive out to the visitor’s center in the Park to see what there is to do and make plans so we can make good use of our time.  

8/5/12 DENALI, AK

The last few days have been overcast, cold and drizzly.  The high lately has been upper 40’s!  Geez, I’m tired of wearing long johns and coats, in August!  Yesterday we got out for a bit to check out the Denali Visitors Center and buy a bus ticket into the Park for Monday.  The visitor’s center has an excellent exhibit and film about the Park.  It’s supposed to be partly cloudy Monday so hopefully it will warm up to near 60 degrees.  You can drive 15 miles into Denali National Park.  Any further and you have to take a bus.  The ticket price depends on how far into the park you want to go.  We bought tickets to take us to the farthest point.  It is a 12 hour round trip bus ride.  You bring your own food and they stop for breaks every so often and stop when wildlife is spotted.  Yesterday we saw a bull moose grazing about 50 yards from the road.  What amazing creatures they are.  He didn’t seem to mind all the people stopping to watch him.  Because it was overcast Mt. McKinley was not visible.  The mountain stands at 20,000 in elevation and often is not visible.  Hopefully it will come out before we leave.   We went out to eat last night at Prospectors Pizza.  Within walking distance of our campsite, a real happening place, nice atmosphere and pretty good pizza.  We spoke to our kids today.  We miss Bonnie and Cole so much!  I get more homesick every day.  We’ve never been apart from them for this long.