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Denali National Park was amazing. We stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort for three nights. I loved
it. Somehow our room reservations were not as planned, but we finally persuaded the manager to re-arrange
things and we got our requested room for our second and third nights. We were right on the banks
of the Nenana River. The lodge consists of many buildings scattered throughout the vast property, nestled
amidst the forested hillsides, offering shuttle service for each building. (It's quite a climb to
the front desk!) The whole complex was very charming. Their Cabin Nite Dinner Theater was great. Fun and
informative, and I actually got to have barbequed food! (Best dinner for me during the entire trip!) The night we
arrived, we took a tour of Jeff King's Sled Dog Kennel. It was neat to hold the precious puppies,
watch them run on their giant hamster wheel, and interesting to hear about racing in the Iditarod. While we
were there it started snowing - first time it had snowed there during July in twenty-some years! It was
Dan's first time in falling snow. The next morning we were lucky enough to see a winter wonderland during
our bus tour of the park, which later cleared to blue skies in the afternoon, granting us a spectacular view
of Mt. McKinley! (Only one-third of visitors actually see the mountain.) During our bus ride we also saw
a mother grizzly and her cub, and numerous wildlife that was just a little too far away for us to photograph successfully. We met
a great lady named Ligia, who is a very talented photographer, and also a fellow moose lover. She and I had fun
chatting for hours about our travels, photography, and sharing stories about our beloved moose encounters. Then to
top off the whole trip, one night around midnight, Dan and I took a drive into the park hoping to catch a glimpse
of my revered "wild" moose that had so far eluded me during this whole trip, and we just happened upon a bull moose and
three cows within twenty minutes of each other! It doesn't get any better than that! (Well, maybe if it had
been light enough to get THOSE pictures - photos of glowing eyes in the darkness are not my favorite!) On our last
day we went horseback riding and enjoyed more incredible scenery. Luckily we had slathered on insect repellent
before the ride - the mosquitoes along the trail were slightly smaller than your typical Boeing 747! (That
was the second time we had a mosquito encounter of the bad kind; the other incident occurred while we were
walking through the trees at the banks of the Kenai River during sunset - duh!. Those bites swelled
up like golf balls - o.k., a slight exaggeration.) Mosquitoes aside, Denali was totally awesome!
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