Day 341. July 13, 2014. Denali National Park

LOCATION:  Near Denali, in central Alaska

WEATHER:  Sunny in AM, then cloudy and rain. Highs in 60s

Last night, when George walked to town to find quarters for the laundry, he stumbled upon this cafe that has a microbrewery.  What luck!  

So, this morning, we decided to go back to the cafe to give them some breakfast business.  We had reindeer sausage and eggs.  Then, as a breakfast dessert, George had their homemade rhubarb strawberry pie.  He was in heaven

Then, we headed south to Denali National Park.  On the way, a mother moose and her gangly baby crossed the highway right in front of us.  So cute!

Denali was busy.  Hundreds of Princess, Celebrity, and Holland American tour busses were there, up from the port in Anchorage.  In order to control traffic and to protect wildlife, they don't allow cars on many of their park roads.  They have busses to take people deeper into the park.  We took one for a 2-hour ride.  It was too cloudy to see Mt. McKinley.

We saw a bull moose in the distance, and another female with her baby, born in May.

The Denali campground was full, so we drove on.  We went to a cute little town called Talkeetna with plans to stay there overnight.  It is an artists' village with cute shops and restaurants.  They were having a festival, so their campground was full, too.  They do a lot of flight-seeing tours around Denali.  

We drove down the highway a few miles and found a nice state park.  We were the only ones here until about 10:00.  On nights when we only plan to spend one night, we don't unhook.  That makes everything easier.  

DINNER:  Shrimp and grits want-to-be.  We had leftover grits made one morning for breakfast using the morel mushroom water.  In the small grocery where we had shopped along the road, I had planned to buy shrimp, but the frozen shrimp were $31 for a small package!   There weren't any canned shrimp, so I substituted a can of tuna.  I started with sautéed onion and kale stems, left from a salad.  They added a nice crunch.  Then, I added the tuna, grits, and pepper cheese.  Pretty good, considering.  We are headed south where I think seafood is plentiful and inexpensive.