Denali Outdoor Center - the rafting headquarters
Our view from the bar
Day 9: Saturday, July 29, 2006
Rafting the Nenana
We slept late then ate huge breakfast tacos before joining up with our rafting party. Today's plan was to go white water rafting on the Nenana River, which cuts a canyon through the landscape and forms the eastern border of Denali National Park. The river is fed by two glaciers - the Nenana and the Yanert.
We put on dry suites over our clothes, grabbed helmets and loaded into a bus that drove us upstream. Our rafting crew consisted of 8 people — two retired full-time RVers with their grandson, two people that worked in Fairbanks, us and our guide. As we rafted the river, our guide would shout out commands like "forward 3!" or "back 5!". We were supposed to all paddle in sync, but it never quite worked out...especially when we hit the white water.
The first 2 hours of the trip was pretty scenic but the second half included class 3 rapids that we had to maneuver around and through. It's not like we were risking life and limb, but they were just dangerous enough for us to have a really good time. The total trip time was around 4 hours.
The silt from the river sticks to your hair and skin, so we jumped in the shower as soon as we got back. We made some sloppy joes for dinner and then decided to check out the Denali nightlife. We headed north about 3 miles to the McKinley Chalet Resort. I drank White Russians while Courtney tried the featured Pinot Noir. The bar had huge glass windows so we had our drinks overlooking the beautiful Nenana River Canyon.
After an adventuresome day, we ended the night in relaxing fashion.