McKinley Park

What a fun day, just a little bit of a number of different things to do in Denali! We caught the shuttle from our campground at 7:40 because we're had to get to the visitor center in enough time to catch the 9:15 shuttle to the sled dog kennel tour. (We had enough time to enjoy a little breakfast "snack" at the cafe!)

The sled dog kennel tour was great. You get to really see the dogs up close and personal, staff is available to answer questions and talk to you about the dogs. We were there for dogs morning breakfast. They ate all feed with "kongs", those toys that are designed to make the dog work to get his food out. We we're told it is to help stimulate their thinking as much as it is to slow down how they wolf their meal down. Really fun to watch them on the top of their house, nosing, and pawing the "kongs" around to get their kibble out. They let you pet a couple of the dogs and then they go through a demonstration of a sled training exercise! The sled dogs are used through out the winter to support various park projects, getting supplies out to remote staff, or building materials for projects. All part of the effort to maintain the practice that has been a part of the park history.

Instead of taking the bus from there we did our first Denali "hike" and hoofed it down to the visitor centre, all 1.8 miles! (Yes, down. We need to start easy and work up our endurance before making the final ascent to the "summit" at 20,000 ft. plus!) Felt good in the cool weather, with occasional light rain!

Caught another shuttle out to the main road and over to the Princess (Cruise) Lodge here to take a peak at the lobby, visit the shops and have lunch. Shuttled back to the Visitor center for a little afternoon hike out to a small river and suspension bridge, again with cool weather and light rain. But just glad we're arent dealing with the smoke they had last week. And final shuttle of the day took us back to our campground for a quiet evening!

PS. Auggie's new chew toy is history. Stuffing gone and is almost in two parts.Weiterlesen