showmetravelers: 7/19/2014 Inside Denali National Park

The day's report should and is beginning with birthday wishes to my sister, Janis Irene. She'll love that! Better know as "Jan", she's all I could ever want in a sister! Hope you have had a great day, sister.

We spent the day inside Denali National Park.

It has been a drizzly, cool, even cold, day. Temps ranged from 48 this morning to 56 this afternoon, with drippy drizzle most of the day.

We started with riding a shuttle bus to the Dog Kennel area. The kennels are home to 31 working sled dogs. We listened to a ranger describe the duties of the dogs, how they are cared for, etc. Four of the dogs were inside a fenced in area on concrete while the others weren't. Why? Those four were "rock eaters". Must be quite a problem if they have to be penned up to prevent it.

Here's some photos:

The dogs are "mixed" breeds; no Husky or Malamute. The prerequisite is to be strong and work well with others.

If the dog showed no interest in being petted, like this, then we were told not to call it or try to get it to come to us.

This is after five dogs pulled this sled and a ranger around a small area. One dog had been taken back to the pen so it wouldn't eat rocks.

There is a short video of the sled pull but data usage is very s-l-o-o-w tonight. I will post it later.

We drove the one-way 15-mile paved road into Denali NP. This is as far as private vehicles are allowed. We saw eight Dall sheep with the binoculars at the top of a faraway--3 miles--hill; and three caribou. That's it, nothing else. Gary and Evelyn, Jeff and Marcella, in the other vehicle saw a big bull moose and the best--a mother wolf and four babies. We arrived at their viewing spot just as they told us "they--the wolves" just walked out of sight. Darn it.