Alaska Part 5: Denali

Well I think this is finally going to be my last Alaska post.  We did a few other things but I’m getting so far behind I want to move along.  We did so much on the trip it was so hard to figure out what to post and to get it all out there for y’all to enjoy.  We’ve been without internet most of the time in our travels since Alaska so we’ve gotten really far behind in blog updates.  I now have a way to type them up offline and post when we get internet so hopefully that will help.  So far we’ve spent time in Urbana Illinois, Wilson Lake Kansas, Boulder Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Steamboat Springs Colorado, Grand Teton National Park, Teton Valley Idaho, Yellowstone National Park, Bozeman and Missoula Montana, Glacier National Park, Banff, Yoho, and Glacier National Parks in Canada, Revelstoke British Columbia, Vancouver British Columbia, Seattle Washington, and Olympic National Park.  So yeah I’ve got a lot of writing and posting to do to get caught up, so without further ado the last post on our trip to Alaska, our amazing day in Denali. 

The only way to get in and out of Denali national park is by taking the bus.  There is one narrow winding dirt road into the park and it was decided back in the early 80’s that it just wasn’t safe to have cars driving all over the road so a bus system was established to keep the traffic down and the road safe.  In order to get the best chances to see wildlife, Scott got us tickets for the earliest bus he could (7am) to the Eielson visitors center.  This is a trip of 66 miles to the visitor center and view point from the Denali wilderness access center.  We got up at 2 am and piled into the van in order to get to Denali by 5:30 am to be the first in line for our bus so we could get the front couple of rows of seats.  Being up front gave us the best opportunity to help the driver spot animals and also to get the best views and pictures.  We were all certainly very exhausted from the little sleep we got that day but having those seats was very much worth it.  Here’s a sampling of what we got to see on the drive. 

 

Our first animal of the day.. a moose…

We were lucky to spot this wolf.  Our driver had watched it take down a caribou the previous day and had a feeling it would still be in the same area.  He had a collar around his neck, which identified him as the alpha male of the pack in this area.

A whole family of Ptarmigans (mama, papa, baby, from left to right)

The road up the side of “polychrome”

On top of “Polychrome”

Denali poking through the clouds

Those white dots are Dahl Sheep… I promise…

First (and only) glimpse of the peak of the mountain

Denali, in the clouds as usual…

A beautiful quilt on display in the visitors center that was made one summer by an “artist in residence”

This mama and cub grizzly decided to run across the road in front of our bus and say hi

Now that’s a caribou

Look at that rack

Even our fearless leader finally got tired and dozed off…

Well that’s it for our Alaskan adventure.  We are so glad we decided to start off our travels with this great trip.  We had a fantastic time with our family and got to see and experience so many amazing things along the way.