Denali Day 4 - Denali Backcountry Lodge

The breakfast was subhuman - carb-o-fest and instant coffee. Did I mention $219 a night?

I went into the media room to update this blog and Barbara miraculously packed again (two bag, 35-lb limit at Denali Backcountry Lodge). She even found room for our two black boxes of wine -- a miracle.

This left us time to cab it to the tacky Denali glitter gulch strip mall where we got real Alaska-roasted coffee (Ravensbrew).

At 1:00 pm we took off on the schoolbus to Denali Backcountry Lodge. We were fortunate that only 19 folks were on the bus -- there is room for 40 on the bus. Our guide Peter, was excellent -- guided us through the entire park -- it's a 6 hour, 90-mile trip from the park entrance to the lodge which is a few miles beyond Wonder Lake.

It was smokey on the way out. Denali was not out. There are currently 56 active forest firest burning in Alaska. The state does not make an attempt to put out these fires unless they threaten human populations. All are caused by lightning strikes.
On the trip, we saw an Eagle's nest, three grizzlies (mamma and two babies). We saw Dall sheep pretty close up. Also spotted my first Ptarmigan -- the Alaska state bird.

Lucky us, we got to white knuckle through Polychrome pass again, but this time on a bigger bus.

Peter recommended that to see the mountain we get the Lodge staff to take us out early in the morning.

We arrived at the lodge at 7 pm for our first mediocre meal. Dinner was family style -- we sat with Freda and her husband, Craig, Kathy, and Gary. Pay attention to the names. At dinner, I asked if we could reserve a special van to Wonder lake at 5:30 am the next morning and we arranged it. Of our 19, 15 decided to go -- amazing, huh?