After our Discovery Boat Tour and making purchases at the gift shop, we headed two hours towards Denali National Park. We were not too sure of our cabin we rented for $88 that did not have a bathroom or running water. We got there and wow was it the cutest little cabin you ever saw! We took pictures but you don't get to see those. As you can see there were mountains everywhere around us. Jess and Steph found this flight seeing tour of Mt. McKinley. We signed up an hour before we had to be there. It said it was on Talkeetna Street so we looked at it and it wasn't even in Denali. It was in Talkeetna. I told Stephanie to make sure she asked where this was but she didn't listen to me. :) So we cancelled that one and found some dinner: fish and chips and the owner and Jess got to talking and she found a place for us and called them for us. So we ate and off we went to see Mt. McKinley. It was a beautiful night: clear and sunny and we saw Mt. McKinley! It was amazing how huge it was. As you can see in the picture there are two peaks to the mountain which are two miles apart from each other and have a glacier running in between. I got a little sick and glad we landed soon. We saw dall sheep, a beaver lodge, and a the glacier you see in the picture among other ones. Steph and Jess were sure excited about going in a "little" plane. I go in these all the time so it wasn't much of a thrill but I enjoyed the scenery. Our pilot comes to my village Koyuk every year for Iditarod. He helps fly the dogs if the musher scratches and also transports the food.
The next morning we had our rafting trip down the Nenana River. There was confusion with the company weather or not we were driving or they were picking us up. I thought I asked for pick up. So they were pretty late. We had friendly truck driver and guides. We signed up for the all day tour. I was so excited to do some physical exercise like rowing but was disappointed when our guide did all the work and also felt guilty that I was just sitting there and not doing a thing to help. It was beautiful. The color of the water was a sea green and our said she has never seen the river this color. I learned there are 100 glaciers that feed into the Nenana River and the temperature of the water gets between 35-40 degrees so of course we wore these styling wet suits that were sooo comfortable. We had amazing warm and sunny weather. We saw a moose and two twins with her. That was really neat! Jess and I had rafted before in the New River is West Virgina so we were waiting and waiting for class 4 or 5 waves. Finally, we got to the last part of the trip that had the waves we were told were amazing. As many of you know I have a fear of deep, wavy water but that is only when I'm in the water like snorkeling in Great Barrier Reef, Australia or Noah's Ark. So I was ready for the challenge of hanging on but not falling out. Well, Jess and I were very disappointed because it didn't make us even a little nervous. So I would have to say the New River rapids were better and the scenery was better at the Nenana. Do I dare tell you the story of Jessica and Steph getting out and swimming and then the guide couldn't get them in? It was pretty funny to both of them as they are laughing so hard as the guide is trying to get them in before we hit a sandbar full of rocks. Our guide was getting nervous but not the girls! It was a fun day! Sorry there are not any digital pictures of this adventure except for the waterproof camera photos that I hope Jess is developing soon!
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