Is it magnificent or majestic??

Richard Dreyfus said that famous line in a goofy chick flick, But- Morgan Freeman also said " witness something truly majestic" in what is a classic guy movie. Can you name both movies? The Denali National Park is nothing from a chick flick, it is the kind of territory that real men can appreciate, and in some cases, fear. The size of the bears, and the moose, and the terrain demand respect- large amounts of it. 

 

Denali:

 

 Finally found some Asians that could speak enough English to take a picture of someone else, that was not a selfie. UGH! Being on vacation is soooooo hard.

 

 

 We took a Ranger led hike to start the day. It was educational, in a painful kind of way. Walking really slow, in a group of people that, well- just aren't that interesting. We learned about the local flora and fauna, which was really good. And then we had to endure the mindless questions from the confused and uninformed- if all the uninformed voters can stay up here past November, we may have a chance.

Met a nice family that were visiting from Singapore, Les shared a few stories from his travels there, and they were interested in cruising, which led to a prolonged discussion about buffets and the semi-organized herding of people.

 

 Part of the flora is blueberries, which are abundant and tasty. You just have to be able to bend over far enough to collect them!

 

 

How does a bear get so big eating these? Questions, questions, questions- that the bears refuse to answer for us.

 We spend the afternoon on another hike. It started out led by another Ranger, but about 1/4 of a mile in we figured out that he had the same flora quiz cards as the first Ranger. We made a hasty exit and moved on down the trail by ourselves before we got trapped! We hiked several miles to the Ranger station where they keep, train, and show the sled dogs that the park service has in Denali. They are the only sled dogs in any national park in the U.S.

 

 The dogs are all Alaskan Huskies, not the specially bred ones that do the Iditarod, these are full blooded Huskies and are all about endurance and hauling loads of supplies and construction equipment in the park. They originally were used to pull sleds for Rangers that were after poachers and other freeloader types that tried to frequent the park in the winter. Now that helicopters are used for that, the dogs get to haul goods without leaving a carbon footprint. (like the helicopters don't)

 The trails are well kept and easy to follow. Watch your step, the critters like them too, and don't necessarily use the park restrooms.

 After a long day of hiking and avoiding two legged obstacles, we found our way to the Prospector, a really nice restaurant and bar with a huge selection of draft beers and a few ciders. The bartender was a nice guy named Chad, who spent last winter in St. Thomas working at Bluebeards. We had a lot to talk about with him about his experiences in both places.

 The Prospector has the usual amount of local decor, it is a great place to eat, drink and hang out.