Even though our refrigeration is limping along (I suppose something had to break) and we have a service appointment in Anchorage for next Wednesday, we decided to come to Denali anyway. We planned on staying at a commercial campground outside the park and check things out in the Jeep before we brought the coach in on the appointed date. That turned out to be a wise move as there were a bit of logistics to deal with. We needed to figure out where to park the Jeep (can’t tow it into the campground) and we needed to fill our water tank and dump the holding tanks since the campground has no hookups. There are also passes to obtain since you cannot drive past the Savage River Ranger Station without a permit. John had been fretting and concerned about finding an
open camping site in the Teklanika Campground large enough for our 40 feet; even though we have reservations, it is up to us to find a suitable space. As it turns out, we found a very nice spot after only a little bit of driving in the first campground loop (there are two loops.) Thanks to the extremely acute turning radius of our coach, John was able to maneuver into the spot without too much trouble and only brushed up against the spruce trees limbs while turning. A later walk around the entire campground revealed many sites large enough for our coach that were empty – all that worrying for naught (thank you Lord!)
After we got settled in and had lunch we were very pleased to be enjoying a very beautiful slice of the wonders that God has created for us to enjoy. While we were busy absorbing God’s wonders we were greeted by some of the local wildlife. Some of the more curious ones are the ever-present squirrels and the ones here seem quite tame and apparently used to schlepping for handouts even though it is expressly forbidden to feed any critters here for obvious reasons. This one particular squirrel seemed to
notice the very interested and concerned Trekkie and took great delight in taunting her with lots of chirping and running around in front of the door. The squirrel, not content with the current level of taunting, jumped on the screen door and hung there for about three seconds. This was an unprecedented level of hostilities escalation. Thank goodness the squirrel didn’t have a box cutter or it would have gotten really ugly. (Perhaps we as humans are lucky that God created us with an opposing thumb and forefinger and not crazy squirrels)