Jul 21 2014

Last Day at Denali

The weather finally cleared up – it is sunny and 16C today. We went for a short hike on the Mountain Vista Trail hoping to catch a glimpse of Denali – but nada, zilch. That’s why they have a special “club” here, the 30% club for people who have seen Denali. Many visitors to Denali Park do not get the see Denali/Mt McKinley. Anyways, we did get some pics of the other mountains
snowcap

Road

mtnVista

After our hike, we went to this little place outside the campground called the Canyon. It’s your typical touristy place – food, tours, gifts and souvenirs.
canyon

We also made our way up the hill to see the Grande Denali – it seemed so “Grand” from down at the canyon, but it didn’t live up to its name. The only thing worthwhile were the signs along the way.
sign_Granderoad
sign_wet

sign_road

sign_moz

sign_moose

sign_freeway

sign_curve

sign_coconut

sign_aircraft

In the afternoon, the kids and I biked to the Visitor Center to submit their Junior Ranger activity book. They earned their badge and were sworn in as Junior Park Ranger. (I asked for a badge for show and tell at work. LOL)
jrRangers

We will drive to Anchorage tomorrow and hope to catch a view of Denali then as there are 2 good viewpoints along the way. Keeping our fingers crossed

Jul 19 2014

Like a Bus Safari

Yesterday I was on a bus tour that brought us into the heart of the Denali Wilderness. I saw some animals! First we saw a moose, then a caribou, next dall sheeps on the top of a mountain. I also saw a hear of 100+ caribous and 3 grizzly bears. One of the bears was on the road so we had to follow it – it took a long time for it to notice us!

Herd of caribou

Herd of caribou

See the bear down the road?

See the bear down the road?

moose

Jul 19 2014

Hike along Savage River

We went on a short hike along the Savage River Trail. At the midway point we went off the maintained trail and headed straight up the mountain to catch a better view of the area and to take a quite break.

Savage River

Savage River

savageriver
Happy hikers

Happy hikers

Selfie for two

Selfie for two

An arctic squirrel came onto the trail to investigate and decided to nibble on my bootlace. That was pretty cool. Good thing I had the camera in my hand to capture the moment!
articgroundsq

At the end of the trail, we saw 3 caribous in an open field.. and the other typical Alaskan wildlife 🙂
caribou2

Typical Alaskan Wildlife

Typical Alaskan Wildlife

No, still no sight of Denali. Still cloudy and raining. 10C today.

Jul 18 2014

Denali National Park

The drive from Fairbanks to Denali was slow – it was the first time on this trip that we have encountered delays due to road construction.

Road Construction on Parks Highway to Denali

Road Construction on Parks Highway to Denali

Denali Park is around 6 million acres and there are 6 campgrounds – front country and backcountry. There are 3 visitor centres in the park. It is home to about 39 species of mammals, 169 bird species, 14 different kinds of fish, and one amphibian. The park road is 92 miles but private vehicles can only drive up to mile 15. Visitors wanting to venture beyond mile 15 will have to catch either a bus tour or shuttle. The highest point along the road is Sable Pass at 3900’. There are a few hiking trails and it is ok to create your own path out on the tundra – all they ask is that the hikers do not trample on the same spot as it will take years for the plants/shrub to recover.
Polychrome mountain range

Polychrome mountain range

Today we got on a bus for the Tundra Wilderness Tour.

Tourists

Tourists

The main objective was to see wildlife and we sure did see it. We saw a bull moose with an impressive rack. You have to see this moose to really appreciate its massive size – they can grow up to 1500 pounds.
mooseThere were dall sheeps way up in the mountain which appear like small white specks against the rock. The coolest sight was seeing a herd of caribou (100+) move across the tundra. It was definitely a sight to behold and the Ranger said getting to see a herd of caribou was rare and we were lucky. On the return trip, a grizzly bear decided to walk right down the middle of the road and so the bus had to follow slowly behind it without scaring it off the road.
Grizzly in front of tour bus

Grizzly in front of tour bus

We attended a couple of evening ranger talks and it has been extremely educational learning about animals that live in this park.

The kids are working on their Junior Ranger Badge. I hope Jerry the Moose doesn’t mind it 🙂

No, we haven’t seen Denali yet… It has been cloudy and raining..

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