Day 2 - Beautiful Denali

Made it to Jane's hotel around 8:30 AM and on to the Snow City Cafe for breakfast...another excellent suggestion of Gretchen's.  She told us to call ahead for reservations  and while it seemed like an odd thing to do, we soon saw why...the place was packed.  The reservation definitely sped things up.  After a yummy breakfast of Crab and Swiss Cheese omelet we were on our way 200+ miles up the road to Denali National Park.

The drive was as expected....gorgeous, and what a perfect day.  I had told Jane that most days Denali is shrouded in clouds.  However, 130 miles out there she stood...huge and beautiful without a cloud in sight.  We took bunches of photos, more than we will ever use for sure!!!

 A little later we found a pull out and Jane posed me in such a way that it looked like I was pointing right at the mountain.

About 10 miles from our destination Jane got very excited and said Moose!!  Moose!!  I did not see a moose anywhere. But sure enough, 1/4 mile up the road on the right side  stood a young female munching away on her lunch!!! I still don't know how Jane spotted that thing.

Shortly after we arrived at the Grand Denali Lodge and got ourselves checked in.  Then there was a mix up with our tickets for our tour tomorrow...so I had to drive to the Park and get our tickets printed. On my drive there as I pulled into the Park here was this guy...causing a major traffic jam!!

The rest of our Dixie friends arrived about the same time so we connected with them and made dinner plans.

It was a lovely day.  Lots of driving, but I don't mind that and of course it was Alaska!!!!

Tomorrow we are up before 5 PM in order to catch our 6:00 AM tour bus.  Time to turn in.  See you tomorrow.