Monday, August 6, 2012

Denali!!

They have t-shirts in the souvenir shops that say "I was one of the 30% who saw Denali." Well, today we were not only part of the 30% but we had a cloudless blue sky besides. I think my guardian angel was working overtime!




We have seen many snow covered mountains in the past few days and I was worried that I might not recognize which one was Denali. Not too worry! We came around a corner and "boom" there it was. You couldn't miss it!












When you get around to the south side you realize that it's part of a whole snow covered range of mountains. Wow!!




This isn't the only amazing thing we have seen since I last posted. We spent several days in Fairbanks. We took a riverboat cruise on the Chena River where we learned about the Athabascan Indians and saw a sled dog demonstration presented by Susan Butcher's husband. She was an Iditarod champion.
























Susan Butcher's home.








The next day we visited a gold dredge mine that was in operation until the 1980's. We panned for gold and made a whopping $48 between Bob and I! The Alaskan oil pipeline passed right by the entrance.












My poke of sand and gravel.




After that we moved on to Denali National Park. Of course it was rainy and cold the day we took the 12 hour bus tour but we saw lots of animals and beautiful scenery anyways.




























































We just didn't get to see Denali that day. We drove back into the park the next day for some more animal watching but still no Denali. However as you can see from above our luck changed today!
Now we are in Anchorage awaiting new adventures.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1 comment:

  1. Absolutely awesome! Cliff is now reading your blog and "traveling" with you and Bob. Exciting to see the pipeline, become rich panning for gold, but esp, to be able to visit Susan Butcher's home.

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