Teklanika to Talkeetna, Alaska

This morning we left our site in Teklanika Campground in Denali National Park.  Although we never got to see Mt McKinley/Denali, we had a wonderful stay and saw lots of wildlife so it was well worth the stay.  There are advantages and disadvantages of staying at Tek.  The advantage is that you can ride the bus as much as you want on a space available basis in addition to your paid trip.  The disadvantage is that quite often the bus is very full when it arrives at the Tek bus stop and you may not get a window seat.  But overall, it worked out very well for us.  As we drove the 30 miles back to the Parks Highway, we got to see more of the Denali “Big Five.”  We saw these large caribou grazing quite a distance from the road.

As we continued down the road, oncoming traffic was stopped for a wolf in the road.

Yum-O…I think I see some fresh roadkill.

I’ll just do the park a favor and clean up the road for them.

It sure has a lot of bone left in it.

Oh, barf!  This stuff isn’t fit for a wolf.

I’m having a good time holding up traffic.  I’ll just take my time and walk down the road for a while.

Don’t go getting snippy with me…I’ll just take my sweet time.

This is so much fun.

Oh…I’m on film..okay…big smile!

Our next stop was for a moose down in a pond.

We stopped at Riley Creek to dump our tanks.  There was a lineup so we patiently waited our turn.  I found it a little bit entertaining when I heard one rental Rver asking someone “how do I tell the black from the gray?”  Okay…so we got that task completed and headed south on the Parks Highway.  We stopped at MM 134.8 at the South Denali View rest stop for lunch.  When we finished our lunch, we took a walk to the upper viewpoint.  Along the trail was this interesting sign about bald eagles which we didn’t remember from our last trip here.

We ended our traveling day at Talkeetna Camper Park where we stayed last week in the same site.  We’re catching up on laundry once again.  We met Ashley (Ian’s friend) and his other Alaska Railroad coworkers for dinner and a beer after their train got back into town.  Tomorrow, we’re hoping for clear skies to take our flightseeing trip over McKinley/Denali.  After that, we’ll be headed to Wasilla Elks lodge for a night.