Alaska - Denali National Park

Yesterday after flying to Anchorage in the morning, picking up our rental car (got upgraded to a Jeep Patriot) and doing some shopping in Anchorage and a 4 hour drive we arrived at our first Alaskan destination - Denali National Park. We are staying at McKinley Creekside Cabins, and as you can see from the first photo they are not kidding, our cabin is literally 10m away from the creek. We have a microwave and fridge, so we will be storing and eating our own food (hence the shopping) as well as making use of the local joints.

I was surprised at how colourful it is right now, so many variations of green in the plants, going right up the mountains. Driving along here it really feels like you're driving in a postcard landscape :)

Today is our first activity, we have booked the photography tour with local photographer Terry Boyd.

Terry has made this area his (summer) home for 10 years and knows where all the good spots are to take beautiful photos and what the preferred hangouts are for the local wildlife. Unfortunately our luck with the weather let us down this morning, it was overcast and drizzled with rain. But we made the best of the situation, since overcast = long exposure water shots! On our way we came across this moose and her offspring. I'm only posting a few shots here, I took a lot more.

Terry took us to a beautiful little creek where we had the perfect setup to take some long exposure shots, with the help of Terry's tripods. The flowers on the bank of the creek have come in bloom a few weeks ago, an added bonus. Again I have only picked one shot that I think came out quite nice.

Both Simone and I learned new things about how to set up your camera properly for the various outdoor scenarios and how to make sure all the settings are correct so you get the best chance for a nice photo.

After showing us various locations that would have been brilliant had the weather not spoiled it, and writing down additional locations to check out during our stay here, we got back at lunch time. After a short break we continued to one of the locations that Terry is not allowed to take us. For some reason no independent operator is allowed to take tourists into the park. Only one company can take people in, what a crock of shit.

Anyway that location is Savage River and we found it quite easily. There is a looping trail there that we walked, and it provided for some great photos. By that time the sun had partially made it through the clouds, so we got some better light. It was quite windy though and I was glad I was wearing some layered clothing.

Some of the rocks had a golden sheen to them.

One of my favourite shots from Savage River. I had to take the wide angle lens out for a few shots here, there was just so much to fit into the frame!

Another favourite. The sun came out at just the right time here on our way back to shine onto the mountains.

We started walking where the RV is parked, on the right side of the river westwards into the valley and then across the river and back.

On our way back we stopped at the visitor center, and a train had just arrived from Anchorage. Unfortunately I couldn't take photos of the locomotive, but the carriages looked cool too.

Tomorrow we are going to do the Husky homestead in he morning and get our puppy fix on :)