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Recreational
Vehicle Camping Journal - Alaska Day 11
An RV
camping trip to Alaska is a dream most RVers will never get to
experience. We are fortunate to have been able to spend the time to
take this amazing RV camping trip. Follow our daily RV
camping travels as we cover over 6000 miles of the most incredible
scenery in North America. We'll share a few pictures of the
trip, but pictures can not do justice to this beautiful country.
Each day's journal entry will have links to yesterday and tomorrow
journal entries, and a link to the main journal
page.
The Campers
Passengers
on our RV camping trip were Brian, Margie, Helen (Brian's Mom is 87),
Casey our 4 ½ year old Golden Retriever, and Sox, a 10 year
old gray housecat with an attitude. Brian and Margie have been living
full time in their 36' Class A motor home over 3 years, and boondock
(remote dispersed camping) almost always. Mom has RV camping experience
since she and Brian's Dad owned both a pickup camper, and Class C motor
home.
Riley
Creek Camping
It’s a
sunny morning for the most part, but quite breezy! The campground is
nice and quiet, and I get to sleep in! Brian gets caught up on his
journal and Mom has a new book to keep her busy! We spend a
very lazy day today, but do venture out for lunch.
The bus system in the park is very efficient and we use it to go into
the visitor center. There is no charge for the shuttle
service, and it will take you anywhere in the park including the
furthest point you can drive your personal vehicle into, Savage River
camp ground. This will work exceptionally well for us, since
we didn’t bring our Jeep!
The visitor center is quite interesting, and also has a bookstore and
restaurant. They have a short movie in the amphitheatre about
the park and its habitants. I would highly recommend seeing
“Heartbeats of Denali” as the scenery in the film
is just spectacular! The park was originally established in
1917 as Mt McKinley National Park and was the first national park
established after the creation of the National Park Service.
It was originally founded to be a refuge for the Dall Sheep which were
found in the rocky crags of Mt McKinley, and also to protect the
surrounding lands. The name “Denali” in
the Native dialect translates roughly to the Great One, and this
mountain fills the bill! The mountain looks surreal, and
after seeing it in person it still looks like a majestic mirage!
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There are several options for
transport into McKinley Village, including the Princess and Holland
America tour buses, and the red or blue buses which have a posted
schedule at the visitor center. We catch the red bus, and
head for “The Salmon Bake”! It is quite
breezy and we wish we would have gotten off at a closer stop.
Mom isn’t interested in the Salmon Bake and tries the Thai
Salmon Wraps. This is a real stretch for her, and
we can tell when they arrive it isn’t at all what she
envisioned! Mom is a real trooper though,and doesn't
complain. I am happy with the Fish
Taco’s! Who would have thought Alaska would have a
fish taco? Brian doesn’t care for fish so
he’ll have leftovers later at home. A nice thing
about “The Salmon Bake” is they have a van and
shuttle us back to Gozer after lunch so we don‘t have to
fight the wind again!
I head over to the Mercantile to do a load of laundry, and Brian calls
our friend over in Kenai--we’ll see him and his wife some
time next week! Check our e-mail and do some reading-nice
lazy day!
0 miles!
Next...RV
Camping Journal - Day 12 - Dogs, Sleds, and Moose
Yesterday...RV
Camping Journal - Day 10 - Riley Creek
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