Exploring Denali National Park, Alaska
July 18, 2006: Fairbanks to Denali National Park – 125 miles
I dropped my group off at the Alaska Railroad for their trip to the park, while I went ahead with the motorcoach and got their luggage into their hotel rooms before meeting them at the Denali railroad depot. This gave me an hour or so free, and I took advantage of the time to explore the new park visitor center. The Denali park managers have the difficult task of balancing access to the park for a rapidly-increasing number of visitors, with preservation of the wilderness they come to see. The new Visitor Center is a beautiful structure, with room for several times as many people as the old one which is now the Wilderness Access Center where people catch shuttles buses, get backcountry permits and other such things. This photo was shot at 11:35 a.m.
The exterior of the Denali Visitor Center, at 11:44 a.m.
My group’s train arrives, at 12:35 p.m.
My tour escort Kevin Maher on his balcony at the Denali Bluffs Hotel at 3:45 p.m., with Mount Healy behind (there’s a great hiking trail up the mountain, though it doesn’t go right to the summit).
July 19, 2006: Denali wilderness tour (124 miles) and Denali to Princess McKinley Lodge (107 miles) – 231 miles total
At 6:20 we boarded the Tundra Wilderness Tour bus, which picked us up at the Denali Bluffs. This shot, taken at 8:13 a.m., shows the video monitors which are new this year. The driver has a video camera with a huge zoom lens (he told me 100x) that he uses to pick out distant wildlife that passengers are having a hard time finding or want a better look at. Also in these new busses are comfortable fabric-covered bucket seats instead of the vinyl bench seats that have been standard. Between them, these improvements make a huge difference in the trip.
We stopped at the Toklat River (Mile 53), and I fully expected to turn around there, as is the normal case when Denali (still Mount McKinley to some folks) isn’t visible due to clouds. However, our driver had gotten a message on the radio that the clouds were thinning and she just might come out of hiding, so we continued on towards Stony Hill at Mile 60. A few minutes after leaving the Toklat we had our first grizzly sighting – a sow and 2 cubs down in a ravine close to the road. Not a good photo op, but a good sighting regardless. Another mile brought us to this sow and cubs – this photo was shot at 10:21 a.m.
Denali wasn’t visible from Stony Hill, so we just had a coffee break and turned back. A mile back down the road we met this sow and 2 cubs (at 10:50 a.m.) – the driver just stopped the bus and let them amble peacefully past.
The cub seen above, at 10:51 a.m.
When we got to the bears who had been down in the ravine, they were up relaxing on the tundra – 10:57 a.m.
The bears seen above, at 10:57 a.m.
The south side of Highway Pass as seen from our grizzly-viewing spot at 11:00 a.m.
Polychrome Pass, one of the major stops, at 12:02 p.m.
The term “Denali wilderness” takes on an unusual definition at spots such as Polychrome Pass when several busses congregate for a toilet break. This photo was also taken at 12:02 p.m.
After the Tundra Wilderness Tour, we had to drive south for a couple of hours, as the Denali Bluffs wasn’t able to accommodate us for 2 nights. We went to the Princess McKinley Wilderness Lodge (this is Room 502, seen at 5:52 p.m.).
That night, 2 couples joined Kevin and I for drinks and an excellent dinner in the just-opened Twenty,320 Alaskan Grill, with Denali (which for many years was thought to be 20,320 feet high) visible in a clear sky from our table by the massive windows. Despite backlighting on Denali which made for relatively poor pictures, I took a few “insurance” photos just in case the forecast for clear skies in the morning didn’t turn out to be correct.
We would drive to Anchorage the next day…
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