The eighth posting of our Alaska RV trip talks about our time in Denali National Park.
Denali National Park
We get to Riley Creek Campground, in Denali National Park, on day 77. We have reserved five days here. We get a great campsite, right in the park itself. It is dry camping, but they have really nice dump and potable water stations. We may want to stay here longer. The first night we see three moose, a mamma and two calves.
The next day, we drive the car to Savage River. This is the farthest point you can drive private vehicles. To go farther, you must take a bus. We have two tickets to go to the Eielson visitors center tomorrow, $85.50 for both. The longer bus trip, to Wonder Lake, is not open yet.
The bus trip is eight hours there and back. The bus makes scheduled stops at rest areas and a scenic overlook. Then it stops at The Eielson Visitors Center for 30 minutes. It also makes unscheduled stops if there are any wildlife to be seen along the way. We see lots of wildlife, including grizzly bears, dall sheep, moose and a fox. Unfortunately, it rains most of the day and we don’t get to see Mt. Denali.
The next day we go to the dog kennel to see the sled dogs and a presentation. After that, we walk on some trails around the park. Later, we meet up with our new friends, Michelle and John, at The Denali Park Salmon Bake. They are also RVing through Alaska, and we’ve run into them in Haines Junction and Chena Hot Springs.
On Saturday, we wake up early and drive down Park road and try to view Mt. Denali. It is not clear enough. We get back to the RV at 8:00 and try to start the generator. Generator hours are 8:00AM to 10:00AM and 6:00PM to 8:00PM. We were out past 8:00PM last night and couldn’t run the generator. The last time we ran the generator was 8:00AM yesterday. We don’t have enough house battery to start the generator. So, we start the main engine and jump the house battery with the chassis battery. We are also out of water. We cook breakfast—bacon, eggs and grits. After we eat, we drive to the water and dump station. We extend our stay by a day.
We extended our stay in Denali National Park hoping for some nicer weather. That doesn’t happen. It has rained here every day. We try to go on a hike, but it starts raining, so we go back and do laundry. It finally stops raining and we hike around Horseshoe Lake. We see a beaver, beaver dams and lodges. We also see a snowshoe hare and take some great pictures.
Later we go for a drive and see a mama moose and her three calves.
The weather could have been better, but we have really enjoyed our time in Denali National Park. We’ve been on the road for 82 days and driven 7,100 miles and it’s time to explore Anchorage.