There are 18 people on the trip (including myself), one Alaska expert, one tour leaders and two support people.
We pile in 3 vans (have lots a space and window views for all) and start on our way to Denali National Park. It's not my first time there, I was there about 20 years ago, but I'm very excited especially since we are spending 3 nights at a back country lodge deep inside the park at Kantishna (mile 91 or 92 on the park road).
The drive from Fairbanks is extremely pretty even though there are no big mountain peaks to look at, just wonderful wide open spaces!! This is what I expected to see!
I love the areas with the smaller (somewhat stunted looking) Black Spruce.
We make a stop at the Nenana Visitors Center.
I head over to look at the roadside flowers - got to check for butterflies.
I see a Canadian Swallowtail fly by and a Field Crescent among the flowers.
We continue on crossing the Nenana River several times.
As we get nearer to Denali, the mountains get bigger and I start seeing a little snow. It's actually a lot less than what I expected. Also, most of the creeks we cross have very little water flowing. There's talk about AK receiving a lot less snow this past winter (more rain due to higher temps). Even the flowers are said to be a month ahead - again adapting to the warmer temps.
Our next stop is the Denali Cabins which sit outside the park. We get a little free time to explore before having lunch.
I see some plants (I was told this was cranberry.)
and lichen.
At 1 pm, we load up and start our journey thru the park. It'll be around 7:30pm before we arrive at the lodge.
Although it's been about 20 years since I've been in Denali, I think I remember ever delta as it was truly a magical experience (one day in the drizzle, one day in sun w/ fresh snow on the ground) - there were moose, many grizzlies - some with cubs, caribou, and Dall Sheep. Can't forget the wolves surrounding a moose in one of the river crossing not far into the park - film crews were here watching the events play out.
I'm sure I'll remember this trip for a long time too.
The sun has disappeared as we head into the park.
Our first sighting is a nesting Mew Gull.
And we drive on.
Definitely not as active with animals as before. But then there's a lot more traffic on the road - park road construction and lots of tour buses. (This is so-called progress.) The rest stop are also more "official" -- better infrastructure to handle the additional people. I so like the way it was before.
But the scenery is still awesome!
The first stop is the Tetlanika River Rest area. There's not much exploring here as there's a parking lot, rest rooms and a viewing platform of the Tetlanika River.
Onward we go.
We finally see our first mammals (other than the ground squirrels) - Dall Sheep. But they are just white dots on the mountains sides. I count 6 Sheep.
A little further down the road, we have a little closer sighting of Dall Sheep - a total of 9 sheep. There's a main herd of about 5 and then the other 4 are scattered nearby.
The views continue down the road.
The road is curvy and narrow not a road I'd want to drive.
The next stop is the Tolkat River Rest Area. This where some of the folks on my prior trip took a short stroll down the braided river. A little hard to do today as there's a pretty deep section of river running along the parking area.
So I walk to find some flowers. There's Fireweed, Vetch, and this mounded flower.
The upstream and across stream views are nice. The downstream views include big construction trucks - mining the rocks/gravel for the park. Not pretty to look at but a necessity.
Now we are headed to the Eielson Visitor's Center
Along the rest of the way, we see a huge male moose -- now that's a big rack!
Further along, another bus reports a mating grizzly pair. By the time we position ourselves, they have moved off.
But we are able to see of the one of the bears as we move further down the road. (Grizzly #1)
Not too far away from that Grizzly, we see our first Caribou herd in the distance.
And still further down the road, we have grizzly #2. This one is closer to the road.
We stop at the Visitor's Center - Denali (aka Mt McKinley) is NOT visible.
This is a turnaround point for Park visitors. But we get to continue down the road to our cabins.
After the Visitor's Center, the road is flatter with far reaching views on either side of the road. There are also many Kettle Ponds.
There's excitement on the bus as Denali is poking her head out. Just the very tip - mountain, cloud layer, and tip. But the clouds are still moving off, she could become more visible.
Along one of the Kettle ponds, there's a big male Caribou! Pretty impressive animal!
And then we see a family of Willow Ptarmigan - the bus driver counts 9 babies.
The babies are running back-n-forth along the road. We wait for them all to cross before we continue.
And then we see Denali! What a sight!
Boy doe she tower over the rest of the Alaskan Range!
We pass Reflection Pond. There's a Horned Grebe swimming.
And a nice reflection of Denali.
We pass Wonder Lake -- Denali is still visible.
We arrive at our cabins just in time for dinner at 8pm.
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