21 July, Tuesday

Up early again as we had a 7 AM bus tour on Natural History of the park. The ranger took us to the Wildlife center to watch a movie of the early history of the park and the how’s and whys it was formed. Then we traveled further into the park, with more explanations and viewing of wildlife. We were able to travel beyond the milepost 13, end of the road for private vehicles. From that point on only National Park vehicles can transit. We went to MP 19, or Primrose lookout. At that point a native Athabasca told the history of the mountain from their tribes history. Several of the people elected to stay there and catch the Park Service bus to points deeper into the park.

Returning to the main lodge at Princess Riverside, we decided that a plane ride around the summit would be of interest. There were two spaces left on a flight and we grabbed them. There were a total of seven passengers in the twin aircraft. I had hoped to get the right seat, but no such luck. We were scheduled to climb to 21,000 feet, and were given oxygen masks. However the weather was moving in rapidly from the South and we could only go to 19,000. Even there clouds were closing in and we descended on down. We kept the mountain in view as long as we could. Upon returning to the base field, the rest of the flight for the day were cancelled. Out flight was great and would do it again.

To round out the day we elected to attend the dinner theater. The food was served family style and the waiters were the entertainers. The production was about the first climbing of Denali. It was a very good dinner and excellent show.