I am happily caught up with the blog!

July 11th
This day was halibut fishing day number 2 for Steven. This morning while Reagan, Athan, Josh, Ava and I were getting ready my family (the 4 guys) took a rafting trip down the Kenai River. After they finished we all met at the campground for a hike to the Russian River Waterfall. It was a 4.6 mile round trip hike. We thought that it was going to be much shorter, but we were never so thankful that we did the hike. Once we reached the waterfall that had salmon swimming upstream we waited for about 5 minutes to see if a bear would make an appearance. A huge grizzly bear came out of the woods and put on a one hour show for us. We were standing on 2 wood deck platforms above the waterfall and had a perfect view of the bear. It swam in the water and then did a lot of fishing with 2 successful attempts. We enjoyed watching the bear eat his lunch and then swim some more. The show ended with him walking up the waterfall with ease and then disappearing into the forest. On our way off the trail to our cars I spotted a bald eagle in it's nest. We were able to get awesome photos of that, too. Just when I think that things can't get any better on this trip, the next incredible moment happens.

July 12th
This morning Susana, Josh, Reagan, Athan, Ava and I all went flightseeing over Prince William Sound. It was breathtaking to see the glaciers from above. At a couple points during the flight we had complete white surroundings for as far as you could see. The ice looks so different from above. I loved to see all of the ice with just a few mountain tops peaking through. It was a one hour flight on a float plane that landed and took off on a river in Moose Pass, Alaska. While we did that Steven and the guys went river fishing. We all met up afterward and had some halibut before the guys took off for the airport. We enjoyed the time that we spent with them and I think that they had a great time, too. After they left we all drove to Kenai Lake to go on a little canoe trip. It was great weather and a nice, relaxing time together.

July 13th
This was our drive to Denali National Park and Preserve day. We drove to Portage Lake first to see if Reagan could have the canoe to a glacier in iceburg filled water experience, but the winds were bad and the waves were high. Major bummer! The drive to Denali NP was uneventful and we were able to see the summit of Mount McKinley in a haze/fog. The view was not of a clear mountain, but most of the people who come to Denali NP don't even get that view. I guess we will take what we can get. Our campground was only 1 mile to the park entrance which was very convenient.

TODAY!!!! Yes, I am finally caught up!!!!!
July 14th
Today we got to Denali National Park and Preserve at 8:25 AM and had a shuttle scheduled to take us to the Eielson Visitor Center with a few stops in between. It was cool that the bus would stop at any time someone on the bus spotted an animal. We saw 3 grizzly bears (a sow and 2 cubs) munching on berries near the road. The highlight was "the chance of a lifetime experience," as the bus driver and every single park ranger said about the sighting that our bus was lucky enough to have!!!!!! Our bus pulled over because we were watching a caribou walking on the road that we were driving down. We stopped for photos when one of the 60 to 100 wolves at the park popped out of the woods and had a stand off with the caribou right in front of the bus. Everyone was amped up thinking that we were going to see a pack of wolves take the caribou down. The caribou was obviously scared and I have 2 photos of it peeing in the street. It escaped the would be attack, but we were happy to be able to see one of the wolves. We also saw a bald eagle, a couple moose and a few more caribou along the way. It was a cool trip minus the smoke in the air from some forest fires to the west and north.