Day 09 - Sunday - 09/01/24 - Denali

 It was once again an early day for us as we were on the #2 Tundra tour with a 5:45am report time at the Chalet.  We used our breakfast vouchers to purchase breakfast and snack items.  At 6am our bus which is really school bus with slightly better seats arrived and we boarded and got seats on the right side near the front.  


The trip is about 44 miles long up to the point where the road is blocked by a landslide that has been under repair for over 3 years.  We've done this excursion each of the last 2 years.  We headed into Denali and soon spotted three  moose followed shortly by some caribou.  A little farther along  we spotted Dahl sheep, ptarmigan, grouse, and a weasel, but no bears for the 3rd year in a row.  It was cloudy all day, and Denali could not be seen.


We drove back to the visitor center where we took the option to get off.  We visited the visitor center and watched a couple of Denali themed movies.  We then got in line for the shuttle to the dog sled demo.  It turned out that the couple sitting next to us were doing exactly the same itinerary for the rest of tge trip including staying at our new hotel.  It's a small world.


After the sled dog demo, we visited the kennel area and then we took the shuttle back to the visitor center.  There we found the trail that took us back to the hotel complex (about 3 miles or an hour and a half walk).  Most of it was downhill which was nice.  We stopped at the Princess complex and got a reservation at the Kung Salmon restaurant for 5pm.  I didn't have our dinner voucher so I took shuttles back and forth between the Princess and HAL complexes.


Angela chose the snow crab and it was just okay.  The service was really slow.  But by splitting meals we were able to eat in two specialty restaurants.  After dinner we walked back to our hotel and did the small amount of repacking for our early morning luggage put out.

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