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| Scott and me with "The Great One" behind us |
Ahhhhh, Denali!
We had arrived at Denali National Park and Preserve. We had been there before, but it's such a magnificent place, I don't think you can get too much.
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| A great National Park!; Photo: Scott Stevens |
And, we were seeing THE MOUNTAIN!
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| Spectacular! |
The Mountain was named Mt. McKinley through the work of an Ohioan who wanted to honor/recognize then presidential CANDIDATE William McKinley. Locals, climbers and the state of Alaska all prefer to call it by its native name, Denali, which means "the great one." Alaska has officially changed the name; every time it comes up in Congress, the Ohio delegation defeats efforts to restore the correct name.
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| Denali from Wonder Lake |
It is the tallest peak (actually two peaks) in North America. It takes 3 weeks to climb; 90 people have died on the peaks and 40 have never been recovered.
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| Denali from Eielson |
First Day
What a fabulous day. It started surprisingly
cool for our 6:15 bus departure, but by the end of the day we were sweltering
after zipping off our pants legs and stripping down to the last layer.
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| An Arctic ground Squirrel trying to cool off |
It have been be heaven, except it gives mosquitoes more square footage to work with. Repellent
is moderately helpful, at camp we are switching to those new devices you clip
on.
In case you don’t know, Denali is a park AND preserve,
dedicated to protecting native Alaskan wildlife. Thus, it is very restricted.
Closed to most private traffic after mile 11, the only way to see it is by
shuttle bus.
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| Our bus pulls into the Denali Bus Depot |
These school buses have drivers who narrate and stop for wildlife.
The passengers are the scouts, although Mary, our driver, was the best scout.
She was the best bus driver we’ve encountered at Denali, as well.
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| Our guide, Mary |
The trip – we
took the one to Wonder Lake – is a bit pricey ($92 for the two of us), but it
lasts about 11-12 hours.
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| Wonder Lake! |
There are shorter trips; we’ll planned to do the one
that turns around at the Eielson Visitor Center later in our visit.
The bus wasn’t completely full, so we each had a window and
moving about wasn’t too bad. It did fill up at the end of the day as hikers and
folks from other buses got on.
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| Scott on an almost empty bus at a potty break |
Our wildlife viewing started slow – the hot weather tends to
send the animals for cover – but turned out to be the best we’ve had.
We saw
five Grizzlies ...
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| This one was going for a stroll |
... three of which were sleeping rather near the road ...
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| Sleeping until the flies got too annoying |
... two of those
on patches of snow to deal with the heat.
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| The snow keeps these heavily coated Bears cool(er) |
We saw several Cross Foxes ...
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| Walking along beside the bus |
... Dall Sheep on
distance mountaintops ...
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| Dall Sheep on the mountainside |
... two Golden Eagles (but no decent photos), more Caribou than we’ve ever seen at
Denali ...
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| Nice Caribou sightings |
... and four Moose (all cows) ...
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| A lady Moose |
Plus, we saw an adventure playing out about
which we will never know full details. We spotted a Moose in a distant pond
running in circles and splashing wildly. This is NOT typical moose behavior.
Finally, someone found the cause: two Wolves patrolling the shore. In the photos, the Wolves are just dots. Many thought the Wolves were after the Moose. I think they may
have gotten her calf and were just keeping her at bay. She seemed way too large
and nimble to be their prey. All were gone when we passed by again, so we will
never know.
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| Distant drama |
Great wildlife ...
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| A Grizzly waking from a nap |
Pretty scenery ...
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| Every vista is breathtaking |
And, the mountain!!!!
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| The iconic Denali view |
Spectacular all day long!!!!
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| Scott capturing the view |
Views
from everywhere. Amazing!!!!
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| It just doesn't get any better than this |
Just wisps of clouds late in the day, but clear
otherwise.
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| Amazingly clear; Photo: Scott Stevens |
Of course, Denali isn't just one mountain. Everywhere we looked was beautiful.
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| The colors are staggering |
At the end of the line, before we turned back, we had a chance to walk along Wonder Lake, where there were great mountain views ...
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| Scott enjoying the trail |
... and some curious Gray Jays.
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| A common bird to see in Denali |
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| See? Photo: PacificStock |
Almost all promo photos feature Moose in the lake. I have been to Wonder Lake a few times and never seen a Moose there.
After a full day touring Denali, we returned exhausted, bug-bitten, dusty (the dry weather is good for viewing, but it creates lots of
dust).
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| A crystal clear view |
We had dinner and crashed. This is the first night we’ve slept more than
5 hours.
The Next Day
The next day was an almost lost day: we slept late (for us) and then went to breakfast. Then, we drove a bit looking for a carwash to get half of Canada off the car and trailer. We didn't find one, so Scott splashed the car and trailer with water from the river. It actually (kinda) worked).
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| With so many gravel roads, it's hard to keep the car and trailer clean |
Then we drove south for a mountain view, came back and used our cabin's wifi to do some Facebook and post my blog.
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| View from the south |
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| Riley Creek; Photo: NPS |
We had a nice campsite for two nights (shocked to get it on the spur of the moment; it was a cancellation). Wooded, but not as lush as our Fish Creek and Liard River Hot Springs sites.
It was incredibly hot and buggy, so hanging out at the campsite didn't work. Plus, Scott, CANNOT stay still.
For some reason, I took no pictures of our campsite.
We drove part of the Park Road and saw a few caribou; up to then, we hadn't seen any animals all day.
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| A resting Caribou |
Denali Flightseeing
That night we went on a flightsee over Mt. McKinley/Denali.
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| We were driving by and it seemed like a good idea |
The 200-mile path circled the mountain. Absolutely incredible.
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| The best possible weather for flying |
Scott got the co-pilot seat, so he had the primo spot.
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| A great view from his seat |
I was a bit upset that I had a huge wing and engine blocking half my view, especially because the teen-aged girls who got better seats weren't even looking out the window or taking pictures most of the time. It was on this trip that I learned to check the plane type. You want the wings above you rather than below for maximum view.
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| Still, it was spectacular |
We traveled 200 miles and circled Denali. It was almost cloudless and brilliant sunlight. We saw the Wickersham Wall, which drops an amazing 14,000 feet (yes, the height of Pikes Peak) straight down.
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| The wall |
We saw base camp and hikers.
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| A nice view of base camp |
And we saw lots of snow that looked like it could avalanche at any second (it didn’t).
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| The extreme heat was melting the snow |
We also had some nice views of the river as we flew in and out
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| Not quite as dramatic, but ... dramatic |
The weather was still hot and the mosquitoes still voracious; but everything else that day was wonderful.
More Denali
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| My favorite photo stop is on the Eielson steps |
The next day, we took our second Denali bus tour – this one just went to the Eielson Visitor center instead of all the way out to Wonder Lake.
Located at mile 66 on the 92-mile Park Highway, Eielson is only 33 miles from the summit of Denali.
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| Eielson view |
It sits at an elevation of 3,300 feet (compared to Denali's 20,310 feet) and offers some of the most spectacular views of mountain.
Eielson is a popular stop, with nice displays, pleasant hiking trails through the tundra and frequent Ranger programs. There is a National Park store (with Passport stamps), but no concessions.
This day's trip was from 2:30 to 10:00 p.m. (our Wonder Lake trip had been 6:15 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.).
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| Three clear days in a row |
We thought that the animals might be more active later in the day. But, it appears that the heat (mid-80s, extreme for Denali) had everything lying low.
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| A Caribou sighting |
You could probably call it the ‘Bou Tour because we saw many, many caribou. Much more than we’ve ever seen before in Denali.
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| Two 'Bous |
Many were in snow patches and some were in the river. Many were twitching and stomping, obviously, suffering from mosquitoes and the flies that hatch under their hides and burrow their way out.
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| The Caribou use snow to combat biting flies |
We saw a Grizzly in the some bushes, not a particularly satisfying sighting (for us, since it was our eleventh grizzly).
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| Look at those cute little Grizzly ears! |
And, among the Dall Sheep we saw were two in the river - very odd since they are generally on mountain tops this time of year.
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| Unusual to see Dall Sheep so low |
But, when we were almost ready to call it a failure, we had a very close encounter with two caribou that were right on the road. Pretty weird looking animals!
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| A close-up Caribou |
Lovely sleeping night, even though the mosquitoes were getting worse. Tip: those clip-on things really don’t work. They may help. Repellent may help. But, nothing was stopping these monsters.
That brings us to the next morning. This was the day we were supposed to arrive for our original reservations at Savage River (we spent our four days of early arrival at some marginal cabins and the very nice Riley Creek campground). The mosquitoes were worse and we had had about enough heat and bugs. We moved the Little Guy to Savage River, where everyone was wearing nets on their heads (I broke out my net parka). It was almost impossible to even get the trailer unhooked in the swarm. We rushed off to the showers and then decided that camping or hiking in that environment would be hell – plus the heat was keeping the animal countdown – plus we had gone everywhere we could drive. So, we decided to head down to Anchorage.
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| We had had such lovely weather, we didn't feel bad moving on |
Heading South
We had great views of Denali on the way down.
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| That makes me happy; Left photo: Scott Stevens |
Really great views ...
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| Livin' the dream; Photo: Scott Stevens |
Then, we took a quick cruise through Talkeetna and had a lovely Italian dinner at Evangelos in Wasilla.
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| Talkeetna |
A night at a Hilton Garden Inn and a visit to the Alaska Heritage Center ...
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| We usually stop here when in Anchorage |
... where we saw a great demonstration of native dances ...
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| Local young people are the performers |
... and games, including the stick pull, seal hop, walrus wrestling, one-legged jump and two-legged jump ...
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| Impressive athletes |
Then we headed for the Kenai Peninsula.
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| Photo: Scott Stevens |
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| Seward Highway |
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| Weather more typical for Alaska |
We did see one female Moose ...
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| Roadside attraction |
We had a lovely dinner and booked at the Breeze Inn, a so-so hotel with the most uncaring desk clerk I’ve ever met. There was a car in the parking lot with the back hatch open. We knew they recorded car make and color, so we reported it. She told us, “that’s their problem.”
We also scouted our planned campsite for later this month. It was another icky commercial RV lot. So, I called to cancel – IF they rebook, they MIGHT refund 50 percent.
Oh well, it was down a narrow road and on a beach on Resurrection Bay.
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| Why did the Black Bear cross the road? |
Could be cool, but also could be windy and miserable. And, the sites are too close together.
We also went out toward the Exit Glacier to look at the campground – lovely, but tents only. Boo hoo.
Still, saw a black bear on the way back to the hotel.
Trip date: June 3-July 20, 2013
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