Day 18-19-20 In Denali National Park

Nice highway all the way from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. Lots of beautiful scenery and very little road construction until we got very close to the park. They were rock blasting next to the road and holding up traffic. We made it through with just about a 15 minute wait. We are staying at an rv park just off the highway.

Up early next morning to catch a 7:30 bus to the Eielson Visitor’s Center which is at milepost 68 of Denali Park. There is only one road into and out of Denali Park and private cars are only allowed to go 15 miles in unless you have secured a camping pass which allows you to go 30 miles in to tent camp (no rv's). Park busses are the only vehicles (other than for maintenance) allowed into the park.

They are cute green busses (or tan ones if you want to shell out the big bucks for a formal tour). Our driver was named J. Chavez and he is from Texas and comes up here for the summer to drive a bus. He is in his 50’s I’m guessing and an encyclopedia of knowledge on the park, both present and historical. He started the tour by saying that it’s his job to drive the bus and unless we were interested, he wouldn’t be talking much. Everyone on the bus said “oh no, please talk” and from then on, it was a blue streak that added so much to the trip, I can’t imagine what it would have been like without his commentary.

Right off the bat, less than 5 minutes into the ride, a mother moose and her calf were right next to the road. The driver coasted to a stop and stayed for probably 5 minutes letting us watch them munch the trees and take pictures.  Good start for a whole day of fantastic wildlife viewings.

As we continued down the road, the scenery was spectacular! Every twist and turn of the road opened up a new vista of unbelievable grandeur. Our cameras aren’t up to the job needed to capture what the eye sees. Take my word for it, it’s vast, big, majestic!

We stopped for moose sightings, caribou, ptarmigan (state bird), arctic squirrel, eagle, and grizzly bear! Most of my pictures are so funny because we were at a distance from the wildlife although it could be clearly seen with the naked eye (and even better with binoculars). But our pictures are of a meadow or the side of the mountain and it’s really hard to tell what the heck we were taking pictures of.

At one point, a grizzly came out of the bushes right onto the road. Of course, the driver slammed on the brakes and the bear continued digging for berries right next to the bus. Honestly we were less than 6 feet from the bear who then just ambled on down the road behind us. I got some great pictures! And it was amazing that the bear was totally unfazed by the bus. The driver had hushed us immediately and turned off the engine to the bus so there wasn’t any sound to disturb him but still, it was interesting to see how well the buses hid and protected 35 or so of us from a really dangerous situation.

At another point, the driver spotted a mother caribou and her little calf about 30 feet from the road. He stopped, turned off the engine and the mother and calf entered the road. They walked in front of us for about 7 or 8 minutes while the driver just coasted behind then at a safe distance.

At all stops we were wanted of the danger of bear and moose in the area and the potential for a dangerous encounter. Luckily we didn’t have any reason to be scared as I don’t think that I could have played dead if a bear decided to come after me. But we returned unscathed and unscared but feeling thoroughly blessed to have been on this trip.

Ok – here’s the best part. It was a cloudy morning and we were bummed to think that once again we were going to be denied a glimpse of the mighty Mount Denali. But boy were we surprised! About half way into our trip, the clouds parted and we saw her in all her glory! Now we are members of the 30% club (only about 30% of the people who visit Denali park get to see the mountain due to the almost constant cloud cover). Blessing upon blessing!  Life is good!!!

Denali National Park is huge but as you can see, there are roads only a short distance into the park (I think about 100 miles). The rest is a sanctuary and there are no roads. Maintenance is done by dog sled in the winter months.

Mother and baby moose.

J Chavez was our driver and he was a wealth of information!

Our first glimpse of Mount Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley)

A panoramic view from Polychrome Outlook.

Getting up into the artic tundra area. Just short shrubs - no more trees!

The hills go up and down and sometimes there are a lot of trees, sometimes just a few trees and sometimes no trees depending on the elevation.

Scary view from my bus window looking straight down the side of a very steep cliff.

If you can zoom in, you will find a huge grizzly bear on top of the darker colored rock.

Braided rivers are fed by glaciers.

Caribou in the field.

Colorful rock.

River, forest and mountain.

You go around a corner and wow, there it is - Mount Denali again!

Mother caribou and baby take a walk down the road in front of the bus.

I swear I took this picture. It looks like a painting but it's a real live photograph of Mt. Denali.

Craig and Arlene at the Eielson Visitor's Center with Mt. Denali in the background.

This grizzly walked right out into the road next to our bus.

After a few minutes, he just walked on down the road.

Beautiful beyond words.

Moose!

More beautiful scenery.

This is a river that is fed by mountain snow melt as opposed to braided rivers which are fed by glaciers.

Can you believe this is a quilt? It is huge - probably 10 x 10.

This is a sign that wasn't in Denali Park but at a hotel close by. Obviously the signmaker has a great sense of humor but Craig and I swear it belonged on some of the roads we tried to navigate in the past few weeks.

This is a closeup of the grizzly on top of the mountain in case you couldn't find it in the bigger picture.