I always remember when Matt was little, he was obsessed with the story of Balto and sled dogs. Today, I thought about him a lot, wishing he was with us to see the sled dogs of Denali Natl Park. Three times a day, they let people in for a sled dog demonstration. You can visit the kennels, see the dogs, pet them and the rangers give a talk and finally a demonstration. It was so cool!

Most of them were in their dog houses when we got there but they came out for some attention from the visitors. They were all so sweet-natured and lovable. It was a warm afternoon (at least it was before the rain) and you can see the white dog was cuddling up to his water bucket to cool off! There was a litter of 6 pups too. 8 weeks old. So cute!

When it was time to harness up the sled, the dogs all started barking when they saw the sled come out! It seemed like everyone was yelling out, "Pick ME! Pick ME! I want to run!" They hooked up the lead dogs first and of course, they were so impatient, pawing at the ground, jumping and barking to get going as the rangers hooked up the rest of the dogs. They normally run with 10 dogs in the winter, but said for these demos, they only do 5 dogs. As soon as they started, the dogs were quiet immediately and just ran as hard as they could. What fun!

Between the pika that we saw in the morning and the sled dogs in the afternoon, I kept thinking of Matt, wishing he had seen what we saw today! Lots of fun! Love you all!