Denali

Boy, what a day! We arose early and took the shuttle bus over 60 miles into Denali National Park. We lucked out with the weather as it was rainy yesterday. But the sky dawned fairly clear this morning and we had beautiful weather all the way in. The trip took 8 hours and by the time we returned, the skies had closed over and we saw a little rain. Definitely a first rate experience.

Here we are athe bus getting ready to go and purchase our tickets. We had to have the tickets bought and be in line by 7:30 and the shuttle bus left promptly at 8.

We stopped three times on the way into the park for bathroom breaks. They had plenty of vault toilets so there was no problem that way. the problem was tearing ourselves away from the scenery long enough to attend to business.

                                                                         The toilet facilities.

                                                        Our shuttle bus, patiently waiting.

The bus trip goes 62 miles into the park along an acess road that is a little over 90 miles long. Our trip took us to the Eielson Visitor Center. The paved section of the road is open to travel by all but it is only 15 miles long. After that point, you need a paid permit to go to the one camping area in the park or you must be on a shuttle or tour bus. At the point where the pavement ends, a park ranger came on board for a little welcome talk.

By the time that we had gotten there, however, we had already started to see some wildlife. Just a few miles in we spotted this cow moose.

She was headed across the road to join a couple of bulls on the other side. I got a look at them but no photos.

We kept our eyes peeled after that start. Eventually, we spotted a grizzly up on a hillside. Not a great shot but you get the idea.

The scenery continued to expand and kept offering us limitless views.

And then we rounded a corner and were finally treated to a view of the summit of Mount McKinley, now known as Denali, The High One.

 This made us members of the 30% club as only about 30% of the visitors to the park ever see the summit free from clouds. Denali is majestic, towering high above the horizon and dominating the view. All of us, including our bus driver, were thrilled.

We continued on down the road and were treated to views of the Toklat River.

The Toklat stop revealed yet another species to us. Way, way up on the mountain was a band of Dall Sheep.

                                                                   See them up there?
No? How about now?

After that we entered an area where we were likely to see caribou. After spotting a couple of young ones, this bull crossed the road in front of us.

He was still there on the return trip and I got some video of him but that will have to wait until I get home.

The Eielson Center was really special, with a relief map of the entire park and many examples of artwork by visiting artists. Here's a look facing away from the entrance.

Those moose antlers are from a pair of bulls who locked horns in a supremecy duel in 2003 and couldn't get unlocked. Their skeletons were found afterward.

At the rear of the center was this quilt by a local artist. It took over a year to construct and was done on a sewing machine, not a quilting frame. It was just stunning.

We reluctantly turned back for the return trip, tired but just amazed at what we had seen. I could go on and on about how great the experience was but no words or pictures can do it justice. It ranks right there with the Grand Canyon and the Canadian Rockies as one of those peak experiences we select for our bucket list.