Alaska Day 9 - Anchorage to Denali National Park

Early in the morning we took a taxi from the hotel (yeah - glad to leave) to downtown Anchorage where we would catch our bus to Denali.  The downtown area wasn't exactly busy at this time on a Sunday morning.  Here's the Anchorage Welcome Center and a shot down the street.

Luckily (since we hadn't eaten breakfast) there was a Starbucks near where we were scheduled to catch our bus.  Either the muffin and coffee were yummy or I was very hungry or both!

On the bus ride over, we made one stop at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.  It's a great place to take a potty break, get a coffee/snack and see the mountain - except on days like today when it's cloudy.

We arrived at the Denali Education Center at about lunch time.  Here's Rosie by the Center's sign.  Note: the Denali Education Center is located outside the park.  

Here I am in front of our cabin.  It was a two bedroom cabin with a shared bath - very interesting.  Luckily we ran on a different time schedule than our cabin mate.  We're early birds and she was a "let me sleep to the last minute" person.  It worked!

After checking in and dropping our bags in our room, we went to the lodge next door for lunch.  

After lunch we took a short walk around the area.  Here I am by the Nenana River that flowed behind the Center.  The river is very dirty since it's a glacier melt fed river as opposed to snow melt.

Here's Rosie by the bridge on the trail.

A view of the Center from a nearby hill.  The Denali Education Center is in the trees on the right.  The nice fancy lodge (which is not associated with the DEC) is located on the left.  On a typical day, the lodge may have ten tour buses parked in its lot.

This evening we had our orientation to the week.  Tomorrow we make our first trip into Denali National Park.