9/7- Denali National Park

Got up and used the beautiful bathroom--it was very nice out, about 55 degrees-felt warm, very cloudy so unfortunately no northern lights on our trip.
We went to Rose's Cafe just down the road for breakfast-we split a cheese omelette with hashbrowns and homemade sourdough. It was a small, family-run joint. Very average tasting.
Then we were off to the park--wow just beautiful! So gorgeous while driving there. Reading about the park, it said we had to pay $5 per person so we decided we would put Alex in the trunk and not have to pay for him. Hahaha I was laughing so hard I was crying driving into the park--I could barely see where I was driving.
Anyway we found out that there was no spot to actually pay-it was a suggested donation but not mandatory so I quickly let him out at the visitors center when no one was around. Again was laughing so hard Hahahaha!
We went into the visitor's center, got a map, used the bathrooms, filled up our water and then realized we left our gloves at the airbnb. However, the sled dog bus was leaving in 15 so we just toughed it out with no gloves and went to visit them. They were so cute!! We got to pet some and see them run a short course with a sled, they are such smart and trained hard animals. We found out we can adopt one when it retires which is around age 9. We asked about CO and they said they send a lot of dogs to CO--woohoo!!
Then we went back to the visit center and had to wait 90 min for the next bus tour so we then decided to go get our gloves. One the way back to the park, we stopped by another gift shop where I got my parents a stained glass gift. So we drove all the way back to get them and entered the park again (this time Alex not in the trunk).
We took the bus to mile 15--last spot where cars can go without an expensive paid tour. They drove us there and back and then we took our own 30-40 min hike where we saw the bridge that the sled dogs helped bring the supplies for which they shared in the sled dog tour. Then we went back to the car and headed to Talkeetna where our airbnb was.
I wish we had more time in the park, but the tours were so long and so expensive--so we didn't want to sit for 6-8 hours on a bus but we also didn't get to see any animals either which was a bummer.
Once we arrived at the airbnb--this one was a house (2nd floor) with many bedrooms that can be rented and a shared kitchen. We made pancakes for dinner since there was pancake mix in the shared kitchen and I taught Alex how to play manicala. We read and just relaxed for the night.