Denali National Park

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Denali: Day in the Park

We arrived at the park for our 8:00 Shuttle.  
















The mountains were gorgeous, as usual, with the sunlight hitting them just right.  The day was cool and partly sunny.  Almost immediately, we began seeing wildlife!  As the day progressed, it began drizzling.







Partial View of Denali between Pines
















We were directed to where to watch for Mt. Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley).  We got to see a partial unveiling of the mountain, when the clouds lifted.  It would have been a treat to see the entire mountain, but apparently, only 30% of visitors ever get to see that.  The way it was 
described to us, the mountain is so high, it 
creates its own weather environment.






  





























We were able to travel into the part of the park that you can only see in a bus or with a camping permit (reserved one year in advance) and still limited to 30 miles as how far into the park one can go.  This portion of the park is not paved.  The roads are entirely gravel.  Most of the time, it was pretty smooth going, but often, it reminded us of the roads we’ve traveled in Canada!   Wash-board ripples, with teeth chattering bumps.  Not to mention that these are winding, very narrow roads that consistently climb the mountains!  The highest altitude is 3980 ft.  These roads are so narrow, that the buses need to yield to each other even on hair-pin turns! These roads have no barricades or shoulders as can be seen on several of the pictures.

  



 Some of the additional wildlife seen today:
Ptarmigan (Alaska State Bird)






Caribu


Grizzly Bear near Caribou (below)

 

Red Fox (eating)

Mamma Grizzly with 2 Cubs


Dall Sheep

We got to the Eielson Visitors’ Center, a 66 mile ride about noon.  Even though it was light rain, we continued with our plan of hiking with a Park Ranger, for an hour nature walk.   We caught another shuttle back to the park entrance.  Ending the trip by 5:45 pm

The trip back on a different shuttle, we also saw a Golden Eagle perched too close to a Magpie nest. We watched the protective Magpie chase the Eagle away!

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 9, 2016 at 6:09 AM

    We are surprised to see the park has that much Tundra. We also noticed that you both wear coats, must be nippy up there in the North Country. (:>)

    ReplyDelete

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