Day 15 Denali National Park Tour

We spent a fabulous day today in Denali National Park. Our driver, Jim, drove us 92 miles into the park for lunch and then patiently stopped many times along the route to verify sightings of all kinds of wildlife. We awoke to a fine morning and stepped onto the bus at 6am. Our 14 hour wildlife adventure was underway. The weather in the park often involves some level of cloudiness because 2 weather systems compete with each other in trying to cross the mountains (they are incredible) in the park. Today there were a few wispy clouds around the top of Mt McKinley on our way in but we could see its peak on the return trip after lunch.

Private vehicles are only allowed to go 15 miles into the park so everyone has to take either a park bus or a charter bus to experience the scenery and the wildlife. This system helps reduce damage to the environment and accidents given that the dirt roads wind around the cliffs on one side of the park with razorback turns and very little space for buses to pass side by side in opposite directions.

Luckily all the drivers are tested on park roads and they do practice sessions involving possible difficult scenarios before they are allowed to drive in the park. Most of the time, there was a sheer drop on one side of the bus and very little warning about buses coming in the opposite direction. The roads have to be repaired every year after the winter snow melts so it is fresh dirt overhanging sheer drops. Our driver was fantastic.

Before we met Ranger “Happy  Harry” Zimmerman and entered the park, we saw our first critter; a 4 year old female moose who would begin the breeding cycle this season (Autumn). She will have 1 offspring the first year and 2 offspring every year after that for about 25 years. Wow!!! There are about 800 moose in the park.Harry welcomed us to the park and reminded us that “no wildlife is allowed in the bus”.  If anyone saw an animal, he/she had to call out “Stop” so that we could all see it and get good photos.

 The Savage River valley which we followed was one which had been carved out by a glacier which was fed by many smaller ones which flowed from the tops of huge mountains on either side of the valley. The mountains were spectacular in their shapes and colours. They ranged from sharp tipped ones with arretes and cirques adding to the angular shapes to rounded areas of Tundra covered in low bushes and grass. The colours ranged from black, grey and cream to brown, rust, yellow and green. Please look at Neil’s photos to experience the wonder of the landscapes. They almost looked as though they were drawn on a canvas. One impressive view was of Mt McKinley, the tallest mountain in Alaska at 20,000 feet. It appears above a group of snow-capped mountains and that group is surrounded by grey and black stern-faced guardians.

We saw many animals such as:

·         20 caribou: from babies to large males with huge antlers

·         5 of the 800 moose in the park

·         7 tarmagan which are members of the grouse family. There raced along beside the bus and luckily did not decide to cross the road

·         3 of the 118 pairs of Golden Eagles which live in the 6 million acre park. They have a big wing span and glide around surveying the activity in the park

·         3 grizzly bears (same as brown bears). The first one was a dot high on a mountain side but then we saw one in the river flat area digging for food and one at eye level on a slope.

·         4 squirrels rushed across the road in front of the bus

·         We saw 3 dall sheep (mountain goats with the curved horns) on the side of the road munching on green leaves. There used to be lots of these in the park but once the road was put through the park, the sheep thought it would be a good idea to use the roads rather than work hard to walk through the tundra vegetation. However, the foxes then realised it was easy to lie in wait for the sheep and pounce on them as they walked without any cover. Therefore, the number of sheep is declining.

It was a fantastic place to see both for the geographical landforms and the wildlife we saw. It is so hard to say which part of the last 2 weeks was the best. Every place we visited had new, spectacular and interesting aspects which we loved. Tomorrow we travel first class in the dome train again on our way to Anchorage arriving at 8.30pmand then we catch planes to Seattle and then Calgary so we won’t actually be in a hotel tomorrow so I’ll catch you up the next night. All the best from Alaska.