Our Trip to Denali

Yesterday we drove up to Denali National Park.  We were able to drive through the park in our own car, which only happens three days a year and your name has to be drawn to get a permit to do it.  I'll admit, I was nervous about this trip, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity.  


We drove four and a half hours up to the park Thursday from Anchorage.  Friday, we drove through the park, which took eight hours.  We didn't even make it all the way through.  The road is ninety-two miles and we drove sixty-six.  Jackson couldn't make it much longer.  Then today, we drove back home (another four hours).  So you may ask why was I nervous?  Well let's add that up, that was at least seventeen hours of driving with a very active one year old in his car seat.  


The good news is that we are back home and we survived!  It was an AMAZING trip!  Thank you to everyone who prayed.  I definitely felt all the prayers.  Jackson was a trooper!  I can't even begin to describe this park.  It is beautiful and it is not even the pretty time of year!    If you get a chance to tour Denali National Park, DO IT!  


Here are some of the pictures I took:

The view from our hotel

Fall has hit the park and winter will be close behind.  When we went in July everything was green.  It is still beautiful though.  The picture at the top of my blog is from the park in July. 

Bull moose - the biggest one I've seen since I have been in Alaska.

Grizzly bear

Dall sheep - We saw at least forty of these

Two grizzly bears - there were actually three right there, but you can't see the other one in the picture.

We actually got to see Denali!!!  We were told by a park ranger that only twenty percent of the time, people that come in the park actually get to see the mountain.  We drove around the corner and saw it.  Literally, five minutes later the clouds had covered it and you couldn't see it.  It is something else to see it in person.  This picture doesn't do it any justice.  

Mt. McKinley - known as Denali by Alaskans

The family in front of Denali

Jackson using Luke's ears for handles.  I find this really funny for some reason!

He had almost had his fill of our little trip.

Wasn't God creative when He created our world?

Yep, that's the road we were about to drive on.  It is not quite big enough for two cars to pass and on the other side is at least a thousand foot drop.  

More Dall Sheep - there were easy to spot because there were the only white things on the sides of the mountain.

Jackson crashed hard after we got back to the hotel.


This is a video I took of Denali and a grizzly bear we saw.  Please excuse the shaky camera work.  I was dodging a little boy who was wiggling and wanting to touch the camera.