Awesome Adventures in Alaska: Quick Road Trip To Denali National Park July 17-18 2012

Now for part 2 of this trip...

On the drive up to the park, we stopped at an overlook where we could see Denali (a.k.a. "The Mountain" or Mt. McKinley). The sky was quite hazy with smoke from the record wildfire season in Siberia, which added a nice pink hue to the sunset (at about 11pm).

And while we were there, we saw a black bear wandering around the river basin.

Just HAD to catch the reflection. :)

Time to cross this section of the braided river.

Swimming...

Made it! No problem at all.

What's he got his eye on? There's apparently something he sees...

I didn't even see the eagle sitting there until the bear was almost to it and the eagle flew over to this tree. Sneaky!

Eventually the bear crossed the main braid of the river which was moving quite swiftly. Pretty impressive to see how well he could swim in that current.

We stayed at the Denali Hostel, which I just learned about this year since some friends stayed there during their visit to Denali National Park. We were able to get a cabin just for ourselves, and it was right by a river that we could hear from the cabin. Not too bad... I'd definitely stay there again!

Our cabin. :)

Some photos from the rest of our time in the park... this first photo is along the trail from the Visitor's Center to the Denali Kennels.

Along the Savage River... mile 15... the farthest you can drive your own vehicle into the park without a special permit.

We then went to do another short hike and found this relaxing spot. That rocky shore at the middle-left part of the photo is where we sat for about an hour just taking in the sunshine, lack of busyness, and sound of the "babbling" creek.

Looking the opposite direction as the last photo... a.k.a. downstream.

On the drive home, we saw some lenticular clouds forming over the peaks of the mountains. Add in sunset right behind Denali as we got to the overlook we had stopped at the night before, and you've got some pretty special views.