Travel Day - State Parks - Eagle River to Byers Lake CG

Today we are off on an adventure with my friend, Nancy, who flew in from Tucson, AZ last night. This is her first meeting with Suite Pea and her first experience in Alaska. We are headed North in Alaska. Okay, so it's not funny! We are driving north so that we can make a couple of day trips. We will drive to Denali State Park, Byers Lake Campground. From there we will make a day trip to Denali National Park and another day trip to Talkeetna. So this morning it is partly cloudy, but that's okay. It is Sunday morning and driving north should be nice. We made a stop at the South View park and it was it's usual nice stop.

Here we are glad to be on the road and on vacation.

The Mountain, Mt. McKinley.

The Mountain, Mt. McKinley.

Nancy with a warm coat as it was a little cool.

A hike up the trail to the view spot.

We made it to the campground and found a couple of nice pull-thrus and took off for a hike.

There were no maps on the campground, so when we found one drawn and posted we took a photo of it. It did come in handy a little later.

The lake was nice and calm. It was really gorgeous.

Oh, wow. Now if you look close you will see that the "B" has been carved into the wood before the word "Ridge". There is a hanging bridge that takes you to the Ridge. Above the word Ridge is written in black ink, the name of the ridge....I can't remember it. It was on the map.

Interesting fungi!

Another great look at the lake.

Off we go, following our fearless leader, who is heard to be saying "Here Bear" every once in a while. Then you, too, can hear, Moose here.

The bridge is before us!

 Okay, we have two on the bridge. Guess I need to go next!

Intrepid leader checking for alligators on the river. Ooops, wrong state!

As is usual, it was a shorter hike back to the campground than it was going out. It was a pretty rugged hike and we didn't go to the Cascades Trail and up to the Ridge. It was anice day and we all knew we would sleep well as it is to be an early call for the day trip to Denali National Park.