Night #16 and #17. Savage River. Denali National Park. 4750 miles. Took an 11 hour bus out to the interior of the park (the only way to get into the park actually other than walking or biking). We were lucky enough to see the north peak of Denali. It doesn't come from behind the clouds too often. We got off the bus (in order to pick up another one later) for a 4-5 hour hike in the tundra right near the foot of the range. It was amazing. So quiet. Everything was so large and much further away than it appeared. You can walk up a glacial river bed toward the mountain for hours, it seems, and never get any closer. Allison had National Park Euphoria and was taking pictures of everything. Wildflowers mostly. "I've never seen anything like this flower--I'm goin to take 5 pictures of it" she'd say. "You don't even like flowers," I'd say. We saw a mama Grizzly and her 2 cubs about 500 yards from us. We went the other way. Our second bus driver was Jon. He knew all the boring facts about Denali, and would explain those facts by providing minutes and minutes of even more boring context. Also, he writes poetry. He recited one for us. It had an ocean metaphor in it and it was called "Alaska." He also sang some songs for us. The trip started at 6:15 am and we didn't return to our campsite until 10 pm. It was one of the best days of our lives. The next day we went white water rafting on the Nenana, a glacial river. It was very cold but we didn't fall in. I wore a purple dry suit that made me look like a fat 1950's version Martian.