Monday July 14, 2014 Denali, Alaska

Mt.McKinley/Denali with no clouds

Up early this morning for our tour of Denali National Park.  I didn't make coffee.  We walked over to the Chalet across the highway to catch the tour bus for a tour of Denali Park.  Our tour bus was, as are most of the tour busses, a Thomas Built Bus.  These are commonly used as school busses but these tour busses had nicer seats than any school bus.  The tour was scheduled for 8 hours and box lunches were provided.

The tour took us into the wilderness part of the park on the only road that goes into the park.  This road doesn't go through the park.  It only goes 92 miles to an old mining town where there are still some in holdings where some lodges are run.  Our tour bus only goes to the 62 mile point and then back.  There is a point at the Savage River that only tour busses and shuttle busses may go.  The number of vehicles allowed in the park on a given day is highly regulated.  Some of the hiking trails and primitive campgrounds are only accessible by shuttle bus.

Our day started clear but windy and cold; which actually turned out lucky for us.  We weren't too far along the way when we were able to see Mt. McKinley/Denali clear of clouds.  We were 70 miles away but the mountain dominated the landscape.  We got clear views at other points along the road, too.  We were told that only 25% of park visitors ever get to see the entire mountain without clouds.

A Ptarmigan and her chick

Our wildlife viewing started a little slower.  Our first sightings was a family of Ptarmigans crossing the rod.  The Ptarmigan is a member of the grouse family and are about the size of a large chicken.  They are white in the winter to blend with the snow and in the summer are mostly a mottled brown, again to blend in.  Next came a couple of ground squirrels.  Then things got better with caribou off the road grazing and then a large male walking on the road toward us.  

The bottom of the animal food chain

The bus was equipped with a video camera and monitors.  The driver was able to focus on most of the animals we saw and zoom in on them.  I didn’t take my Nikon with the 200mm zoom lens.  We took a picture of the video monitor on some of the animals we couldn’t see very well.  I was able to zoom in on the computer and save close ups of some of the animals.

Mama and cubs

We saw a family of Grizzly bears, a mother and her two cubs.  They were relaxing on a hillside.  The mother was a blond color and the cubs were darker.  We also saw three Dall Sheep at a distance.  We also saw them on our return trip.  The bus driver was a wealth of information and she stopped the bus any time someone spotted an animal. 

Polychrome Viewpoint

The only rules were to stay quietly on the bus so as not to disturb the animals activity.  Also on the return trip we spotted a female moose.  I wasn’t able to get a good picture.  We may have to get a copy of someone else’s picture.

We stopped at a couple of viewpoints, two of which had restrooms.  On the return trip we stopped at one of them again.  The park service had exhibits and a gift shop set up in a large tent. 

Our tour bus

When we returned to the bus we learned that it had lost all the engine coolant and the driver had called for a replacement.  The replacement came in about 45 minutes and we were on our way again.  As a group we have experienced a lot of breakdowns.

Our driver said we made a 
"clean sweep."  We saw the big five in the park; the mountain, bear, moose, caribou (several),  sheep(3) and a golden eagle.  Plus we saw some of the smaller animals and birds too.

Baby Dall

Back at the RV Park we had a Lasagna dinner prepared by Ben and Nancy.  The dinner was held in a two bedroom suite that had not been rented out.  It was too rainy to have the dinner outside.  Bob

A family of Dall Sheep

and Rebecca had rejoined the group, their vehicle problem turned out not to be serious. 

How do they hold them up, this one weighs about 40 LBS

Scruffy looking Caribou

We also learned that Craig and Leslie are driving in tonight and staying in the room where we had supper.  They and Alec and Sheila will return to Anchorage to hopefully get their coaches out of the shop and rejoin the group.

We had our trip to Fairbanks briefing a day early.  Tomorrow is a free day for those of us who didn’t sign up for optional activities.  A free day ending with a dinner show at the Denali Lodge.