After landing in Anchorage, we met up with the wonderful sailing couple who have loaned us charts for the Arctic, Chris and Jess Bray.  We had a fun dinner despite the jet-lag and exchanged tips for our respective routes 🙂  After a few errands the next day, we hit the road for Denali National Park!

Despite rain and snow and not being able to see Denali itself (Mt McKinley), we really enjoyed our time there.  We camped at one of the Park’s campsites, getting a bit wet and cold, but having a good time anyway!  We especially enjoyed hiking around the tundra and peaks with great views on the one dry day!

And we loved the wildlife, the main reason we’d headed up there.  We saw tons of Arctic ground squirrels; one even tried to eat Seth’s shoe!

We spotted grizzly bears gnawing on a caribou carcass killed by wolves (sadly we didn’t see the wolves), as well as lots of herds of caribou, including this beautiful group grazing in the snow:

And then on our way out, we spotted this big bull moose in the rain:

After a brief stop in Talkeetna, we headed back to Anchorage to visit with relatives of Seth’s.  Ian is the son of the cousin Ted who visited us in Whittier last year, and we had a wonderful time with him and his wife Jen and son Springer, exploring the Chugach State Park behind their house and chatting with them in their gorgeous timber-frame house they built themselves! Wonderful to meet them and we hope to see them again some time!  Then it was time to head to the airport to board the plane for Dutch Harbor!