McKinley full day - 5/29/15

Today is our final full day at a lodge as tomorrow we will take the train to meet the Grand Princess cruise ship in Whittier. For today Chris and I decided to take a tour called South Denali Experience. After our bus ride to Talkeetna yesterday we decided we didn't want to do that again. We met up with the Kleins for breakfast and then began the tour. This tour was a brief look into the wonders of the south side of the mountain and Denali State Park. First we went to the Alaskan Veterans Memorial. Here there were some great views of the mountain.

Our second stop on the tour was Byers Lake. What a peaceful place. It was quiet and beautiful.

Here the lake is full of baby salmon.

Our next stop on the tour was the house where the tour director lived. She performed a fire making demonstration as means of survival in the wilderness. Then she invited us inside for some Alaskan made tea and crackers and jam while she showed some videos of Denali and wildlife photos from their backyard camera.

After the tour we headed back to the lodge for some picture taking and lunch. We decided to eat in the 20320 Alaskan Grill restaurant. We just chilled for the afternoon sitting on the deck taking in the spectacular views as the mountain was very clear today.

At 4:30 I sat in on the mountain talk presentation.... I only caught the first 20 minutes and this is one thing I am sad I missed throughout our stay here. Twice a day they have a presentation from someone who has summitted Mt. McKinley. I find this extremely fascinating. The person today was a woman who was a park ranger. She showed photos and shared her experiences. I am told that currently there are 500 climbers on the mountain as we are in peak climbing season. Only 2 people have actually summitted however with the weather so clear and little wind today they felt there would be a lot more actually finishing today. You have not actually summitted until you are down from the mountain. 

At 5pm our next tour began....horseback riding. I was not too excited about this tour but it was something Chris was really looking forward to. I was worried about the bugs and came prepared with my bug head net. Once we arrived we were paired up with a horse. I rode Denali and Chris had Montana. We mounted the horse and off we went. I will say I did use bug spray but the bugs were not bad. I will be returning my head net to Cabela's when I get home. It is better to be prepared though. The trail was very rugged and you rode up to an overlook with spectacular views. At one point the guide said there was a moose on the other side of the brush and to pull tighter on our reins but we did not see it. The brush was very thick but we heard it.

We finished the day with dinner at the Mountain View restaurant again. Chris had crab legs and I had a delicious Alaskan seafood pasta. We finished with raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.