I’m in the park for a whole week, from Saturday, July 1 to Saturday, July 8 this year and I’m on my own which I’m finding quite pleasant. Leaving home I got a bit of a later start that I planned and then got held up by traffic and the wait at the park office to check in. I had planned to be in Teklanika Campground (Tek) by 3ish, but I finally arrived around 5:30 pm. Most of my drive I was saying “I’m coming puppy!” which might seem quite odd, but I was supposed to be checking in on Dottie, a doggie who was staying in the park with its humans that took the Kantishna ride and it’s humans were worried about her being alone in their (quite plush and super cute) Airstream for eight hours, but its humans were already back by the time I got into Teklanika and the doggie was quite fine.
Once I parked I decided to take a bike ride, the same one that Susan and I first took a  year ago. It’s seven miles round trip and though there were no major hills it was hard for us last year. I’m happy to say it was significantly easier for me this year and I only had to stop a couple of times for a drink of water. I got some pretty shots and a rather fortuitous shot of a hare that looked like it was begging from a bus. I’m surprised I took the shots since I really don’t like rabbits; I basically hate them, great gnashing teeth and traumatizing Watership Down and all.  It was a lovely ride and while I missed the company and the giggling, I do enjoy being on my own a lot these days.
Being on my own already has some other advantages I’d not considered. I’m able to leave the table in the RV set up and considering that half of the RV is still not complete and I’m missing much storage from the roof replacement still, it’s kind of nice to not have to figure out where I’m going to put all the food that I have in tubs on the table right now. Â I will be glad to get all my storage back in order so stuff isn’t strewn about though, and then I can go back to having room for company without playing the RV tetris game.
Tomorrow I get to take my reserved spot on the End of the Road bus ride to Kantishna. I’m excited to try to my new lens, the 70-300 which is more like a 105-450 on my cropped sensor camera and I’ve heard good reports of animal viewing from that trip for some folks met online who did the trip today.
Dinner was leftover salmon burger and salad that I had Michael prepare when we had the same thing Friday. Delicious!
Denali National Park sign, outside the park on the PARKS Highway.
New signage just inside the park.
I really appreciate the skies here in Alaska.
Finally made it to Tek!
The skies here are just HUGE.
Landscape that goes one for miles and miles…
Did I mention I like the skies here?
Nearly done with my first bike ride in Denali of this year. At the 26 mile marker but I’ve only come from mile 29.1 making the whole trip about 7 miles.
Run away! Hare! Scary!
  
Pretty sure this is a golden eagle. It was REALLY FAR but I caught it with my new lens!
Lupine, I believe.
Squirrel!!
Such detail with my new lens and I’m still learning how to use it.
Home for a week.
Classic RV, aka the Sandcrawler. I swear every person that walked by tried to look inside. Lookie-loos, the lot of them! They are just jealous of my awesome accommodations.