Denali Roadtrip

Last year at the kids’ school fundraiser we won a two night stay at the Denali Grande Lodge in Denali, Alaska.

We’ve never spent time in Denali, usually just seeing it as we drive through. This was the view from our hotel window when we arrived:

We got in later than we’d hoped and decided on Pizza since it was one of the only places still open. The wait was 40 minutes for our to-go order so the kids kept busy looking at souvenir shops and playing outside the restaurant.

We finally ended up eating dinner in the hotel room around 11 pm.

And spent the night playing games and watching Battle Bots. The kids were absolutely glued to the screen enjoying the robot fights.

The next day we went to the Murie Science and Learning Center.

They had a large variety of activities to, and we all had fun. They had Alaskan Animal feet to feel.

My favorite part was this fossil exhibit with real dinosaur fossils from the Denali National Park.

They had a little art center which Kaiya spent much of her time at.

And the boys loved playing with the microscope and all of the fun slides.

Next we went to the Denali National Park Visitor Center.

The indoor visitor center was so nice, with so many surprises and interactive displays.

Kaiya loved checking out this little cabin, because it reminded her of the Little House on the Prairie books she is reading right now.

Sadly, I was the only one in the family that wanted to step into Denali National Park and go for a little hike. I got outvoted so we left. First the kids wanted to balance on these poles, so that’s what we did.

After losing the hike, I insisted we go to the big bridge outside of our hotel.

The kids had fun running up and down the bridge.

Stuart surprised us when we saw him peeing off the bridge into the river. Stuart, you’re not going to be able to get away this stuff forever…

We were lucky because late in the afternoon the clouds cleared and the rain stopped just in time for our covered wagon tour. I found this excursion the day before our trip and I thought it would be fun for the current ages of our kids. It’s called the Denali Black Diamond Covered Wagon Tour.

They started the tour with delicious warm cinnamon-oatmeal cookies.

We went on a slow, easy, couple mile ride.

Ending up at the Dinner Cabin.

During the meal he had a nice view of the horses.

I also wanted to mention we had a wonderfully entertaining and enthusiastic tour guide.

After dinner they let us pet the horses.

And then we headed back. It was a very enjoyable experience. I’m glad we did it and the kids loved it.

After the tour, we were completely stuffed, and had another night of TV at the hotel. In the morning, we packed up and left Denali for home. Taking a picture with the sign on our way out.

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