Deenaalee says the Raven

The ultimate place to stay at Denali, a view you can hardly believe, and a scary trip up the car for us, wondered if the car could tip backwards if we went any straighter up the road, awesome, really

And this is where we stayed, in the RV Park, a few steps down from the Grand Denali Lodge

The Athabascan Indians, who are native to Alaska, believe that The Raven is God, and the story goes that the Raven was being chased by an enemy across the river when the Raven threw a stone back at the river, the waves turned to stone and the last wave he called Dee Naa Lee, it was called that for many years until a judge changed it to Mount McKinley, when we were there 5 years ago everyone called it Denali, today it is

called either name

Princess and other cruise lines have turned the canyon by the park into a tourist center, there are walk ways that you can walk from the center to the park and many souvenoir shops, restaurants and hotels

Some of the hotels are on the hill, called Denali on the Bluff, Denali Grand , they are only open in the summer, as there are no cruise vacationeers, or other tourist here in the winter

Gracie did not like this caribou,

and it didn't move a muscle it was so afraid of Gracie's growl

The Denali Princess was the only hotel in the area when we were here last, but it looks like everyone else caught on

We always look for where the clinics are now

Holland America's Hotel

This is a beautiful lodge, McKinley Lodge

The canyon area is very well laid out for walking, shopping, eating, all the tours you can go on have vans that will pick you up, even the restaurants have vans that go around and pick people up, seems like hundreds of rafting companies, helicopters and to the amazement of Alaskan's two traffic lights

This is the carpeting that they put the rafts on to bring them down to the river