We had an amazing day driving 180 miles roundtrip inside Denali National Park.

Normally cars are only allowed 15 miles into the park. However, at the end of each season, there is a 4-day road lottery. The lucky lottery winners are offered the opportunity to drive their personal vehicles through the park.

400 cars per day for 4 days are allowed to drive the 35 mph dirt road 90 miles one-way to Kantishna. Beth Knox won the ticket this year. And since she wasn't in Alaska, she let us use it!

As you can see, the scenery was breathtaking and the day was perfect.

Among Denali's raptors are falcons like this one.

One day earlier the road was closed at mile 29 due to snowfall, some of which I'm standing on!

It's very rare to see Denali as clear as we did on this day.

Mt. McKinley rises 20320 feet - the tallest peak in North America.

The odd formation in the pond is a beavers' den.

MT. McKinley from Wonder Lake, near the end of Denali Park road.

Enjoying the day!

This is a very popular camping destination.

How many colors can you find?!

We were within 50 yards of this grizzly bear!

He was eating everything in sight, except us, of course, preparing for hibernation.

These Dall Sheep look about as tired as we did after driving 18 hours in one day!