Denali

This view is typical of the scenery along the Parks Highway from Fairbanks to Denali. It's a relaxing and pleasant drive.


The first night at Denali, we camped at Savage Creek campground, about 13 miles into the park. These are boondock campgrounds with no hookups. We had filled our fresh water tank and emptied our waste tanks in North Pole, so we were ready for a few days without hookups. We were looking for large wild animals, but all we saw that first night was this snowshoe rabbit and a chipmunk.




In the morning, a neighbor camper came by and asked if that was Mt McKinley in the distance. Since it was the only completely snow covered mountain, I assumed it was. I climbed on the roof of the motorhome with camera and tripod and took this shot. We were now members of the '30% Club'. Seems that only thirty percent of the people who visit Denali get to see Mt McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, over 20,000 feet.




Teklanika campground is the furthest, about 29 miles, you can drive your personal vehicle into the park and requires a permit. We were lucky to get a 3-night stay here. Again, it is dry camping only, no hookups. We were frugal with the water for three days. On the drive into Teklanika, we again were able to see Mt. McKinley.


We spent the rest of Monday getting caught up on chores and getting ready for the tour in the morning.

Here's a typical tour bus that will take you the rest of the way into the park. We had purchased tickets for the Kantishna tour, which goes as far into the park as you can go by tour bus. From the entrance to the park, that is 91 miles and takes about 12 hours. Since we were at Teklanika, it was 'only' a 10 hour tour on a gravel road that sometimes narrows down to a lane and a half at best with, of course, no gaurd rails.


This is our first encounter with wild animals on the tour.....a few Dall sheep about a quarter mile away. Unfortunately, this was typical of the animals we saw on the tour.


Also, as you can see, it was a very overcast day and this picture of Polychrome Pass was not very colorful.


These pics are of glacial riverbeds, with many smaller streams winding their way thru the gravel bed the glacier laid down as it retreated. This is typical of many of the rivers throughout Alaska.




We happened to see this golden eagle land in this treetop, and this is the best shot I could get of it. It was a very large eagle.


At the Eielson Visitor Center are these two moose antlers locked together and were found with the full skeletons of both moose.


Also displayed at the visitor center was this quilt of Denali in it's four seaasons.




There were also many of these little critters running around the visitor center.


We saw several brown or grizzly bears, but these two were the closest. They appear to be momma bear and perhaps a two year old cub.


This Arctic fox turned out to be the shot of the day. He was only about 40 yards from the bus, and was not in a hurry to run away.


After we had turned around at Kantishna, the skies began to clear and soon after someone on the bus yelled 'stop' (the common practice if you see anything of importance) as Mt Mckinley once again poked out thru the clouds. The picture just doesn't show it, but this view was simply awesome as we were about as close as you can get to it. It's height was quite apparent as it dwarfed all the other mountains around it. Words cannot describe the awe of looking up at something this beautiful almost four miles high.




This is how the day ended after 10 dusty hours on the tour bus. Though the lack of animals near us was disappointing, we were very lucky to have seen Mt Mckinley again for a third day in a row. I think that puts us in at least the '10% Club'.


More tomorrow about our trip from Denali to Wasilla. Also, there will be more contests coming, so stay tuned.

For now, take care, have fun and be safe.

Ron & Barb