Thu 17 Jul 2008 @10:10
Continuing the story I started here and here:
Denali is the only U.S. National Park with sled dogs. They help patrol the park in winter. The kennel is open to visitors and there are regularly scheduled demonstrations. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours there.
Some of the dogs are more accessible than others and provide lots of photo ops like:
Gotta Laugh!
Gotta Scratch!
Gotta — hey! No tongues!
For me, it was the most enjoyable part of our visit to the park, but not necessarily the best part of the whole trip. Stay tuned….
Posted by Tim
July 17th, 2008 at 18:12
can’t wait to hear the rest of the story
Stay tuned! ~Tim
July 18th, 2008 at 20:01
The dogs in Denali are forced to live at the end of a chain when they aren’t hauling people around. Due to animal cruelty concerns, many jurisdictions across the United States have banned this practice. For information about the cruelties of chaining, please visit: http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks-abuseinkennels.htm#chaining
When I was there, some dogs were tethered and some were in fenced runs. All of the dogs are walked every day and socialized. ~Tim
July 18th, 2008 at 22:12
Tim, you gotta watch who you date these days…
Glad you had such a great time–and I don’t blame you for your lack of interest in the internet with so much other stuff to do!
–snow
Is it still considered a date if they are working girls? ~Tim
July 19th, 2008 at 15:33
Did they let you ride on that cool sled?
Sadly, no. We had our photos taken standing on it, but this place does not give rides. There are other places in Alaska that harness the dogs to wheeled carts to give rides in the summer and it might [almost] be worth going in the winter to ride a real dog sled. And see the northern lights…. ~Tim