As much as yesterday now holds the honor of our worse day of the trip, our campsite was a lovely place to spend the night. Because we are now even closer to the North Pole, it did not get dark at all last night. I awoke at 4:00 a.m. to rain and nearly convinced myself that our RV would sink into the earth since we were parked so close to the river. I worried about that for at least a few minutes until I fell back asleep.
We did not have any set schedule to arrive in Denali National Park. I told Bill we had to check in to Riley Creek Mercantile (in the park proper) by 11:00 p.m. for our campsite. I thought it odd that he immediately started hustling around. He asked what if we didn’t get there in time and it took me a while to realize he thought I had said 11:00 a.m., not 11:00 p.m.
It took us nearly two and a half hours to get to the end of the God-Forsaken Denali Highway. We filled the tank in Cantwell finding gas at the first station for $.60 less a gallon than gas at the station ¼ mile down the road. (We learned later that the gas station down the road holds a contract for government related vehicles.) We headed up the Parks Highway delighted to be traveling on relatively new road. Hallelujah! We wanted to stock up on several provisions before entering the park so we ended up stopping at Denali Grizzly Bear Resort for a loaf of $4.25 frozen bread (can you believe that?) and beer. A short time later when we checked in at Riley Mercantile I was actually thankful I’d paid $4.25 because the bread there was nearly $6 a loaf. A regular large size of Lays potato chips was over $8.00! Holy Toledo!
Bill and I dumped the tanks, filled up with fresh water and made an obligatory stop at the Denali National Park welcome center. On the way to the visitor center a cow moose and a calf crossed the road in front of us. While the visitor center was nicely done, I couldn’t help but think we’d seen even nicer museums/displays at some of the towns we’d visited thus far. The center did have life-sized animals made of composite materials and some interesting displays. I found myself thinking, “Couldn’t you stuff a naturally dead moose (or mountain goat, or eagle, etc.) to put in this display instead of some big plastic thing?” But that’s just me.
From the visitor center we stopped by the Denali sled dog kennels to visit the little canine darlings. Lots of the dogs are really accessible to the touch for visitors. The park service patrols the park with teams of sled dogs when the roads become impassible due to snow. It kind of surprises me in this day of liability that little kids can have their pictures taken kissing a sled dog. There was a sled dog demonstration scheduled for just a few minutes after we arrived but here I have to confess we’d watched the travel channel shows on Alaska a few too many times. We felt like we’d already seen the demonstration and were anxious to get to our campsite at Teklanika Campground.
Denali National Park has attempted to reduce the impact of visitors on the park and its wildlife by limiting driving on the park’s road. Visitors wanting to get into the park proper must either hike in, or purchases passes to ride either a shuttle bus or a tour bus into the park as far as Wonder Lake at mile 85. Teklanika Campground is the farthest campground in the park that you can camp in with an RV or vehicle of any kind. At mile 29 you are allowed to drive in, select your site, and then stay put for the next 3 nights. You are not allowed to drive in and out. Prior to leaving Michigan, Teklanika was still closed due to three feet of ice that had solidified over the campground sometime in the spring. While I knew that the plan was to have some sites opened by July 1st, even with reservations there it was not guaranteed that the whole campground would be open by our arrival. It was.
We chose a lovely little site right off the Teklanika River. The “Tek” as it is commonly called, is a braided glacial river without one major stream but many weaving in and out of each other. 
We took a hike upstream after arriving for maybe a mile or so. There were small mounds of snow still surrounding the campground at the river’s edge. Moose and wolf tracks were also apparent. The campground had been closed to tent campers for several years because of high wolf activity in the area.
When we returned to our campsite we sat outside on the picnic table for a spell. The weather felt like fall and the sun had broken through the clouds intermittently. It was like a beautiful fall day. After sitting there and taking in the smell of the balsam forest, campfires, and burgers on somebody’s grill I realized that right next to our picnic table was a chunk of ice nearly a foot and a half thick. 
Not quite completely thawed here in Teklanika, but beautiful none the less.
Tomorrow we’re up early to catch the shuttle Wonder Lake at 6:40 a.m.
