Mother's Day in Denali

We had a late start, not leaving Anchorage until (gasp!) 7:30 a.m. While Tom and Liz were packing the truck, I had the task of getting Liz's boots shined. The Captain Cook hotel even has it's own shoeshine stand! I had the easy job, that's for sure.

Lunch was sandwiches, made by me from the back seat. Dinner was at a small cafe in Cantwell, two miles off the highway. Again, we were lucky to find any place open for food!

We arrived at the park at last, tired...and found Liz's new abode. It's a three bedroom, two bath house that she shares with another ranger, at least for the next 90 days. Then, most likely, she will have to find another place to live. It will go up for bid and the person with the lowest pay grade will get it. That probably won't be Liz.

All right, Mother's Day! Liz, rather than her usual phone call (pointless since I was well within hugging distance), gave me earrings she'd bought while we were in Canada the first time. Very cute! First Nation made--frog earrings. Tom gave me an Alaska Bear medallion from the Alaska Mint in Anchorage. Sneaky fellow, so that's why he wandered off to sightsee by himself for a bit. Jeff phoned later. We talked for a bit and he wished me a Happy Mother's Day. I told him I appreciated his call and that it really meant a lot to me. No kidding there, I was tearing up as I said that, but I don't think he noticed. It did mean a lot! These kiddos...they have no idea...

We tried to go to church in Healy. The website said the meeting time was 11 a.m. We got there and waited and waited... Liz later, after many phone calls, found out they've gone to summer hours now and meet at 5:30 in the evening!


To fill the rest of the day, we went on a Sunday drive, down the park highway. Not as far as Liz's cabin at Toklat, though.
We hiked a bit. Liz did some repair on Tom's blister. Nice to have an EMT around!

We saw a lot of ptarmigen (birds, similar to grouse) along the road. Here is a photo of one:
The highlight of the drive, however, was the two wolves we saw! They still had their fluffy winter coats on and were pretty cute in a vicious predatory bite-your-face-off sort of way. I read in a Denali visitor's guide later that few Park visitors even see wolves here, so we were lucky. Six million acres of Park...100 wolves. It's no wonder! They were marking their territroy. Tom got a photo of one of them leaving it's "skat" behind, and I do mean..behind. A photo of a wolf's backside!

Another moose sighting as wee pulled into Liz's driveway. It was probably the same moose we'd seen wandering through the housing area that morning, still hanging out there.