4 Wheels 4 Girls

We saw…

Five caribou and a baby caribou,
three moose,

eleven grizzly bears,
two golden eagles,
a flock of ducks,
about five ptarmigans (the state bird for Alaska),
two snowshoe hares,
a red fox,

eleven dall sheep,
and a lynx!

We had a fun time at Denali National Park!

On June 5th, we went on an 11-hour bus ride in Denali National Park. You’re probably thinking, 11 HOURS!? DANG!!! But it was actually pretty fun. The idea didn’t sound so hot when I first heard about it, but then I realized that it was going to be a lot of fun with great scenery.

Stella and I slid in to a seat together, and then we were off! We saw some great animals and views, and we stopped at a really cool visitor center. It had lots of interesting displays, and outside there were a pair of locked moose antlers. They had been fighting for a girl moose, and while they were fighting their antlers got locked. One moose poked the eye out of the other moose, and since they were stuck, they died together with their antlers bound. It was really cool.

After driving for about an hour, someone shouted, “Look! It’s Mount McKinley!” and there it was, peeping out of the clouds! It was SO tall and SO huge, and it was covered with snow, even though it’s July. It was so beautiful and I tried to take a picture, but my camera died before I could take the picture. Oh well; Dad and Jean took some pretty good pictures.

Our final destination was Wonder Lake, where we could get great mountain views. It was really pretty. Then we turned around for the other half of our ride. We read books, wrote in our books and journals, and chatted. In what seemed like no time, we were back at the visitor center.

It was really cool to see Mount McKinley!!! The bus trip was great; we saw the mountain a few more times on the trip as well. I’m really glad we did it! It was a wonderful experience!

We were driving along when somebody said STOP!!! What is it every one said? It’s a caribou with it’s baby. Were I said? It’s near the end of the hill. Oh it took me for ever to find it. The baby was trotting along behind it’s mom. We watched it for a long time. I love seeing baby animals. They are so cute. They went behind a hill and we left.

We learned that both the female and and the male both have horns. We also learned that caribou and reindeer are almost the same thing.

July 5th we went on a bus ride in dandaley. All the anamolse we saw were so cool. the 11 hower bus ride was very fun! we saw alot of ceraboo and grizzly berars. we saw a babby grizzly bear. we saw some dal seep all the sotent the seep started to run my mom sede it was a wolf that what she thot. We a snowe shoo here. I only saw oue. Shotly after late we saw a links. Shotley after that we saw a sowshoohere.

We saw a baby ceraboo. Then we drove alittel bete father and saw to bole mooses. on the the bus we ate sawechs and some chees. my dad spoden some tamagens. we ate are Luch and dener on the bus.

Editor’s translation:
July 5th we went on a bus ride in Denali National Park. All the animals we saw were so cool. The 11 hour bus ride was very fun! We saw a lot of caribou and grizzly bears. We saw a baby grizzly bear. We saw some dall sheep at the top of a mountail. All of a sudden the sheep started to run away from something. My mom said she thought it was a wolf. We saw a snowshoe hare. I only saw one. Shortly after that, we saw a lynx. Shortly after that, we saw a snowshoe hare.

We saw a baby caribou. Then we drove a little bit further and saw two bull mooses. On the bus we ate sandwiches and some cheese. My dad spotted some ptarmigans. We ate our lunch and dinner on the bus.

After the awesome parade where we collected loads of candy, we all walked down into the park to go to a giant picnic. We laid down a blanket and then went through the line to get some lunch. People from all over the town brought the food, so there was tons of it and a very large selection.

We piled our plates high with all kinds of yummy food and then went back to our picnic blanket. Then Dad asked if we had seen the pig, and I’m like, “What pig?” He told me there was a whole roasted pig on a table near the food line, so I threw on my shoes and raced over to the table. Sure enough, there was a WHOLE pig that was sliced open and you could see the ribs and the head and everything!!! It was super cool and super gross. There were men pulling meat out of it, and while I wanted to look at that crazy pig more, Stella was really grossed out by it and she wouldn’t go anywhere near it. I think she was even a little afraid of it. 😛 So anyway, we ate tons of food and desserts, and then sadly, it was time for us to leave our friends and move on down the road. After we said goodbye, it hit me that I hadn’t even tried the pig. Well, oh well. Too late now.

I’m so glad we went to the picnic. We all had a great time!!!

On the morning of July 4 we had breakfast in Susan’s house. It was really rainy when we got out of the RV. Me and Ana went to feed the horses. We also went to check and see if there were any eggs. There were not any eggs yet. When we got inside it smelled so good. We were having pancakes! Yummy!

We went up stairs and hung on the bar that was attached to the celling. It was for exercise. It was really fun. After that we went and had the best pancakes. We had sausages and yogurt and orange juice. After that we went and got in the RV.

We drove to the parade. On the way there we stopped by Susan’s sister’s house. She had a huge garden. It was almost as big a football field. Gretchen gave us some greens. After that we went and got back in the RV. We played apples to apples when I looked out I saw these bison things. STOP! Why? There were these things like bison things. Ok they said we will go back. When we went back Susan said those things were musk ox. They were big black things that looked like bison. They had white hair on there bellies. They had these horns that were curly. After that we went back and got in in a hurry.

When we got to the parade at last I grabbed a bag for the candy. We went near the the judges and waited. After what seemed like forever the kids came riding bikes. Some were dressed up some had their bikes dressed up. Then the fire trucks came and threw candy to all us kids. There were people walking on stilts. Some people gave me and Stella beaded necklaces. There were also people that gave us radishes. Daddy loves the radishes. We all gave them to him. We looked for more but we found none. We had a ton of candy and ran and got it when we saw the chance to. We saw Smokey Bear and we saw a pig with flowers on it. We talked with each other and we got more and more candy. After the parade we headed to the picnic. The fun was not over yet!

On July 3, we went to visit Susan, a friend of my mom. After arriving to Susan’s house me and Ana went and looked at the horses. There names were Lily and Silka. We really wanted to ride them. After a while me and Ana went to the field with Eric to get the horses. We got to pet the horses. When we got back to the RV Eric almost killed me in a GOOD way. He said that WE COULD RIDE LILY!!! Thank you we said over and over.

He got the saddle and every thing else. Ana went first. She rode though the fireweed. Fireweed is a flower that is pink. Silka got crazy. She started bucking and running and started snorting. She had never been away from her mom. Me and Daddy watched her. Finally Ana came back. When Ana got off I was so happy. After letting Lily eat grass for a while it was my turn.

When I got up it felt good to be on a horse. We walked for a while through the fireweed and then came to the bottom of the hill. Eric asked me if I wanted to trot. I said yes. When we did it was the bounciest ride I had in a long time. Eric ran beside me. When we came to a stop I felt sad that it was over.

We thanked Eric a ton more and by the way Eric THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! After that we went inside and waited for OUR parents.

On July 3rd, after leaving our campground in Fairbanks, we went to visit one of Jean’s childhood friends, Susan. We arrived on her farm, and she greeted us and introduced us to her youngest daughter, Elsa, and to the horses. Then she showed us her garden and then we met her husband, Eric.

After picking something to have for dinner, some chard, then we went inside the house to make dinner. They showed us around, and then we started to make dinner, which was chard, rice, moose meat, salmon, and a caesar salad. All of it was absolutely delicious.

Then, after dinner, the adults sat and visited, and Ellie, Elsa, Stella, And I played Clue. Ellie only played for a little bit, ’cause Eric brought out the horses for Ellie and Ana to ride. When we finished our game, (I won, by the way) Stella went out to ride the horses too.

Then we played Guess Who and had dessert, strawberry cheesecake. By then it was getting pretty late, so we went out to the camper and went to bed. We slept in their driveway.

It was so nice to meet some new friends, and it was a great day! 😉

July 2nd, we were heading to Fairbanks when we saw the second cutest baby moose in the world! It looked orange. It was orange! After about five minutes of squealing at the wonderful views we got, we watched as the mama moose lead the baby moose into the woods and away.

July 1st, we were at the Sourdough Campground. We discovered that the campground did karaoke! So Greta and I got up our courage and sang in front of everybody! I was so scared, but when I realized that they were actually fun, Greta and I sang three more.

I don’t know if it was for a reward for Greta and I singing, or if it was just for dessert, but our parents let us have two marshmallows! But after that, we had to go to bed.