Thursday July 5 Denali stream hike

After a wild July 4th celebration here (not), we woke up to rain. Not much recognition of the 4th here it seems. It was raining again this morning, so we decided to get out our rain gear and still go hiking. We drove into the park to a stream bed that we had seen in passing along the road. We hiked up for a while. It was fun as we had to navigate thru the rocks and the stream changing course. We probably crossed the stream 20 times. The rain changed to a drizzle and eventually went away. The sky actually cleared up in the late afternoon.

Went to eat in town at a restaurant on the hill. Usually we fix stuff at the campground, but occasionally we'll go out to eat. Kind of reminded us why we don't mess with restaurants in these towns, as the food was so-so, service was bad and we spend a lot of time waiting for every step.

Cooler day today starting in the mid-50's and not getting much warmer than mid-60's. Rain early and then became clear and sunny.

Tomorrow, we pack up and leave Denali. Heading to Anchorage to stay in a campground in town. We've been in Denali about 7 days, which was about the right amount of time. We were able to do the hiking that we wanted, rode the bus thru the park (which was a long day), seen a lot of wildlife and seen Mount Denali from a number of different angles. Again, most people who visit the area don't get to even see the mountain because of clouds. We got lucky with some very clear days. July is their rainy season here, so it makes for cloudy days during the peak warm season.