JULY 29TH, TRAVEL DAY TO DENALI

Today was pretty uneventful until we got to our RV site. The ride to Denali was great. Good roads and beautiful scenery. We only had 111 miles, so we didn't leave Fairbanks until after a lazy morning. Our group that flew to the Arctic Circle didn't get back until 1:45AM. Unfortunately, they didn't see much because of the smoke from forest fires. It has really been bad, with ash falling on all our rigs and cars. It has me coughing some but not bad yet. There has been over 1 million acres of forest fires this year. They don't even try to put them out unless they pose a threat to people. This fire is over 50 miles SW of Fairbanks.

We still had smoke most of the way. For a few minutes, we had a great view of Mt. McKinley (Denali) from the road. By the way, Denali is the real name and what Alaskans call it. The name means "the great one" and it is. On a clear day, you can see it from Fairbanks (111 miles) or Anchorage ( 226 miles). We have seen it from Anchorage on a prior trip.

About 20 miles from our campground, the wind became unbelievable thru the passes. We were having 25 mph winds with gusts (which came regularly of up to 50mph. It was really hard to walk. The MH was rocking and rolling. I can't imagine these winds with cold and snow. Brrrr!

When we got set-up, we decided not to put out our slides until the winds subsided. We didn't really need them and we enjoyed some homemade spaghetti with marinara sauce and Italian sausage in our rig. About 9 PM, the winds subsided and we were able to put out the slides.

Decided to go to bed early as we had to be up at 4:00 to go on the wildlife tour thru the park.