Denali National Park…a place filled with nature, beauty,
wildlife. As part of our tour we were
booked on the Tundra Wilderness Tour, an 8 hour bus ride that takes you 55
miles into Denali National Park.
Ughhh…we thought. Eight hours on
a converted school bus…with no toilet.
This is not going to be good. And
it wasn’t good…it was great!
Started out at 7:00 am from the hotel in a school bus, but
with more comfortable seats, driven by a park ranger named Katie, who has been
doing this for 22 years. She was
wonderful. She narrates the whole trip
sharing with us her vast knowledge of the park, its history, the habits of the
animals, how many species of each one can be found in the park and where. And all this while she’s constantly scanning
the view for animals to see!
She also asks everyone on the bus to keep a sharp eye and
yell when you see something so she could stop and we could all see it.. All of us are a bit timid at first…we really
don’t know what we’re looking for and are afraid to say, “Look a moose on the
right side!” only to have it turn out to be a rock. By the end of the tour, we could all easily
spot wildlife and were yelling like crazy!
We started out driving through lots of forest with nothing
to see. We’re all hoping the entire 8
hours is not like this. Then….Katie sees
a moose in the distance on a mountain.
Turned out it was moose cow with two babies!
Then we saw a ptarmigan in a tree. Chris said it looks like a cross between a
chicken and a pidgeon…a chidgeon!!! It
turns pure white in the winter so that it’s predators can’t see it in the snow.
So now we’re happy…we’ve at least seen one of the big five
animals in the park – moose, bear, caribou, wolf and dall sheep plus a bird. We travel along the narrow gravel road higher
and higher and the trees begin to give way to more bare mountains. It is just beautiful.
An bit later, someone spots something on the hills…it’s
caribou. A small herd of them. Those antlers are amazing!!!
That’s two of the big five!
Katie then brakes quickly for a cute ground squirrel who
runs in front of our bus. He stops on
the side of the road to check us out and pose for us.
A while later and we’re seeing larger mountains, and there,
way up high, are a herd of dall sheep.
It’s amazing watching them move around so easily on surfaces that are
more vertical than horizontal. Number 3
of the big 5!
And a magpie on the top of a tree.
And then...our first real view of The Great One...Denali. Wow!!
Off we go after a quick photo shoot, cross over a small bridge and someone yells, "Over there...what's that?" "It's a bear!!" Turns out to be not only a bear, but a grizzly mom with three little ones!
Then...something I imagine most people never see...the sow laid down and began to nurse her babies. Even our seasoned driver was amazed!!
We've now seen four of the big five species in Denali. How lucky are we??!!!
The bus travels 4 hours into the park and 4 hours out with bathroom/overlook stops every 90-180 minutes. We continue to see animals all the time.
The road further into the park wind throughout the mountains. Hard to believe that two buses can fit past each other. Looks like the wheels will fall right over the edge!
And then our first fully clear view of Mt. McKinley - Denali. It is a wonder!
At the turn around point - the Toklat River - we get out to stretch out legs and gaze upon the glory of Alaska. The rangers there have moose and caribou antlers to try on. Watching the people cross the bridge really gives you a true perspective of how grand everything is.
On the way back we see dall sheep right next to the road! And then those caribou and the mama bear and her cubs again. When the mama bear spots those caribou she charges them to make them go away from her cubs. They took off like a shot! It was like watching a National Geographic video!!!
This was the most amazing day of our lives!! We'll be talking about this forever!
