Day 6, Friday May 31st

We started our day with a visit to Eielson AFB. Due to the 11th of September, it wasn't possible to make a private tour of the base, so we took the standard tour. Unfortunately not much activity that day. We drove past the KC-135 flightline and the F-16 workshops. A visit to the A-10 workshop made our trip to Eielson worth while. We were allowed to photograph the aircraft in service (showing lot's of the internal systems). Could this day get any better? no. Our request to photograph next to the runway was not granted, so we drove direct to Denali National Park, our next objective.

On our way to Denali nothing was seen on the strips we passed. When we arrived at our motel the owner advised us to book a trip on the early bus into Denali, so we did. After a short stop at the Era heliport (used for helicopter sightseeing trips over Danali) we went to bed early.

Day 7, Saturday June 1st

Who wants to spot wild life has to get up early. So we were present for the first bus into the park departing at 5.30 am. The roundtrip to the Denali visitors center located at the base of Mount McKinley will take about 8 hours and is only possible with a shuttle bus service. No cars allowed in the park!

It was a great ride on badly paved gravel roads. Several animals like moose, caribou and bears were spotted along the way. Another highligh of our trip was just around a bend in the road. "Oh my god, there's a bear on the road" shouted our driver. This was the first bear encounter this season so close to the bus. Slowly we drove the bus next to the bear, which took no notice of us, searching and digging for roots. We made great pictures of the wild bear at a distance of 1 meter to the bus.

When we arrived at the visitors center Mount McKinley's (highest mountain in Alaska 20320ft) top wasn't showing. We were along the 95% of the visitors not seeing the complete mountain.

On our way back we got of the bus to hick a part of the way. After one hour in a beautiful scenery with grounds covered with snow we took another bus for the rest of the way back. After 12 hours we were back at the base of the park, a prefect day which we concluded in a bar with the largest collection of Alaskan beer in the state.

Day 8, Sunday June 2nd

Today we headed back to Anchorage. A long trip with several airfields to visit along the way. We stopped at Talkeetna to visit the glacier flyers. You have to drive several miles back on a side road of the main highway to get to Talkeetna. Talkeetna is the home base of several companies flying aircraft with both wheels and ski's. You can make a trip to one of the glassier and land on it.