Oh, glorious day!!! Last night it started raining minutes after we got back to the RV, and rained a lot of the night, but had stopped when we left at 6:20 am to walk to the Wilderness Access Center for our bus to Eielson Center. It was cloudy and damp, 50's but bright skies by 4am! This time I knew to bring my coffee flask so that my hot coffee lasted several hours instead of yesterday's experience of 30 minutes - so we're off to a better start already. Also, shortly after boarding our bus, we saw our first wildlife on the side of the road - a black wolf! Apparently, these are very rare in Denali, only 47 wolves known to live here so sightings are very exciting. Our driver, Jose, explained that if we see the 3 main classes of animals at Denali (Dall sheep, bears, caribou) and the mountain is visible on the same trip, it is considered a home run, but if you also add seeing a WOLF, it will be a grand slam tour!! And shortly thereafter, we see a grizzly bear!! The skies were beginning to clear, so we're hoping for a better mountain view and more wildlife. Jose also told us about Wood Frogs that freeze for 7 months/year and then defrost in spring and live on for 4-6 years. They are the only reptiles able to live in this region due to this unusual ability. The things we learn!! It was 66 miles out, again on the same road, but we stopped at Eielson to do a hike instead of bussing farther out today. Eielson Center is constructed into the rocks, but has LEED energy designation and all the amenities (heating, air, running hot/cold water, solar power) in the ranger station/museum. We chose the Gorge Creek Trail that led steeply downhill via a switchback trail to the Thorofare Riverbed - it may have only been 2 miles roundtrip, but a very steep climb back up. But going down the mountain amongst the Spring wildflowers and out to the gravel riverbed had a great peaceful sound. We were also greeted by several Arctic ground squirrels who jumped into our path, observed us closely, then went back to the job of digging for nuts - very cute! At the river, we walked some of the riverbed - it's a wide gravel pit originally created by glacier melts, now with the river running through multiple channels and many rocks and boulders littering the sides. We were also waiting for Denali peaks to show themselves, since we could now see bigger patches of blue sky. We waited for an hour, thinking the clouds were nearly clear of the peaks, but it didn't quite get completely clear, so we started the arduous task of going back up! Made it in about 45 mins, after several stops for breathing! Guess we're not ready for climbing the summit! As we make it to the Eielson Center again, we catch another shuttle bus where we can safely eat our lunch - it is against rules to eat outside due to wildlife getting a taste of human food, so they prefer you eat on the buses - I would have loved a picnic at the river, but just happy to have food at this point since there is no food or drinks available once you leave the Wilderness Center (see why I value my coffee mug?!). But with the sun coming out, it must have climbed 20 degrees and our long sleeved shirts were very hot - climbing onto the bus, the driver is complaining of inability to tolerate such heat (80 degrees), so she had air conditioning running on the bus! Didn't even think they had it in Alaska! So we almost had a Grand Slam tour, if you count our partial view of the mountain peaks. On the way back, we saw some caribou, another grizzly, and then I fell asleep!! As soon as we got back (5:15pm), we swung into action - getting the RV out to go bail Sara out of Canine Resort, rushing back to get showers (use hair dryer), and cook dinner in microwave by 8pm when generators must be turned off for "quiet hours". I also took Sara for a long walk since she complained of what a rough life she had at the "resort" - apparently went on hunger strike and did wail her complaints to all who would listen. Thank goodness they didn't kick her out so we could get in our long tours! But she is calm and happy now that she is back in her RV! Oh, but would you believe, that after traveling another 130 miles today, we pulled out of our campsite to go get Sara, and there were mother and baby moose standing at campground entrance amongst the grasses!! To think I could have slept in, lazed around all day, then walked out my door to see wildlife that close up!! Guess those warning signs were for real!