Instead of heading south to the lower 48 the first week of September, we decided to go back to Denali National Park to see Denali in beautiful fall foliage colors and then head south. Denali Riverview had already closed for the season, so we stayed five nights at Denali Motel and RV Park, until they too closed for the season. The weather was still rainy and I watched several weather forecasts to decide which of the four days to choose for our eight hour trip into the park, which turned out to be our last day in the area. The day could not have been more perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and Mount Denali was in full view all day long, so we are now two for two on seeing Denali’s summit. On the 132 mile round trip green shuttle bus ride to Eielson Visitor Center, we saw four caribou, a wolf, a grizzly bear and several sheep, but no moose. After we got back from Eielson, we returned to our campground, had dinner and then went back to the park with the intent of getting sunset photos of Mount Denali, but we encountered six moose in the tundra/taiga area, so getting moose photos trumped getting sunset photos of Mount Denali.
It’s been a great summer and we’ve really enjoyed our Alaskan adventure, but it’s time to head south, before all the campgrounds close for the season and/or it starts snowing.
