Friday, August 21, 2009
Denali Wilderness Tour (bus through the National Park)
To say that I’m overwhelmed is an understatement. I really wished I had the computer with me for the return trip from Denali, but in all honest, it would’ve done me little good. The only vehicles allowed in the depths of the park are Bluebird- or Thomas-built schoolbus type busses and they’re not known for their suspension systems. The road itself is paved only about half way along. Then it becomes a very well-kept gravel road that twists around the tundra’s mountains in curves and bends that are more suitable for the Dall Sheep that roam up there than for a schoolbus! Mom, you never would’ve made it. The road is just wide enough for two busses to pass with only an inch between their mirrors. One of the other drivers put his arm out, elbow bent, and ran his hand along our bus, we were that close!
And the drop offs! Mom, you never would’ve made it. I hope the pictures we took show the depths of the valleys. Going around and over Polychrome Mountain (so named because of the many colors of the rock) even made me a little nervous sometimes. Definitely above the treeline at that point…nothing around but rocks and wind.
Although the wind gave us no trouble that we could feel today. In fact, once again we had a gorgeous day to be in Denali. We’ve heard so many times from the natives here that they’re just amazed at the beautifully clear skies we’ve had these past two days. Our bus driver today (Barry) said he’d never seen the entire mountain, top to bottom, two days in a row. Ever.
But I’m ahead of myself. Let me go back…
We began our day at 5:00 am and were in the lobby by 5:45 for our 6:00 bus tour. We got danishes and large hot chocolates to take along since we’d been told the box lunch provided wasn’t the best (our informants were right. More on that later). Armed with breakfast and other snacks, we boarded the bus and headed into the park.
Our first animal sighting came within fifteen minutes – a female moose eating a willow bush right beside the road. Let me tell you, moose are BIG creatures! We took pictures and moved on.
The taiga (the lower permafrost) slowly gave way to the tundra, which is still permafrost but is higher in elevation. I’d always thought of vast, snow-covered expanses of nothing when I heard the word “tundra” but apparently that’s only in winter. Since this is the end of summer here (we would call this early fall at home), the tundra is still green with some of the vegetation starting to turn color. The tree line isn’t a straight line across the mountains as it appears to be from a distance, however. It meanders up and down depending on the side of the mountain (south side vegetation grows higher up than north side does) and the amount of water it gets.
Speaking of water…The mountains here in the foothills of the Denali range apparently don’t have snow year-round. The snow that graces them now just fell three days ago in the first snowfall of the season. Wasn’t that nice of it to do for me? Just so I could say I’ve seen mountains with permanent snow? Of course, that was before I saw the TRUE mountains of Denali…
Mt. McKinley – which I’m going to start calling by its real name, Denali. Denali means “the great one” in the Athabascan language and really, only those of us in the lower 48 call it by it’s political name. Anyway, we saw Denali several times before getting to the aptly named Road’s End. Each time he’d tell us how far away it still was and each time it was still the most impressive sight to see. At first it just looked like one of the other mountains in the foothills, only white in color. By the time we got 32 miles away from it at Road’s End, it dominated the skyline and there was no doubt who was boss on that range.
(and one more to prove we were there:
We saw lots of other animals, in fact, more than the bus driver had seen in one trip ever before. At two separate times we saw grizzly bears just walking down the middle of the road to greet us. Once on the way out and once on the way back (not the same bear). Steven got a good shot of the first bear, but only got the second one’s rear end as he walked into the bush just as he took the picture.
I was the first to spot the red fox on the rocks, but by the time Barry was able to stop the bus the fox had slipped over the ridge.
We saw caribou twice. On herd was spread out over a ridge and into the river valley; there were several female and one male on the ridge; the ones in the valley we think were all female or very young males. The second was actually just a group of three wandering along the valley of one of the “braided” rivers. They’re called braided because the path they take through the permafrost changes, often carving branches that meander around the valley before rejoining the main river. Seen from above (which we did several times), the rivers look “braided” together.
We saw magpies, which was cool because I’d never seen one bfore. They’re actually very elegant looking – at least in flight. Never saw one on the ground. But the black body with the white stripe on the tail is very striking. We also saw several snowshoe hares and one weasel.
But our best sighting of all had to be the wolves. Apparently there are only about 85 wolves in the entire 6 million acres of Denali National Park. Today we saw at least eight of them. The numbers varied depending on who you were asking, but I saw six myself – two adults and four puppies playing together on the hillside and two others hunting rabbits closer to us. In fact, the hares near the road were hopping all over the place looking to hide since they’d scented the wolves. We didn’t stay long enough to see if one of the wolves caught any hares or not though.
I fell asleep on the bus on the way back, but only for about 15 minutes. Too much to see! It’s been an amazing trip so far – truly incredible sights. Wonderful!
Dave, Dar, Lori and Steve's mom got back to the hotel shortly after we did. The boys and Lori went in search of a liquor store and I uploaded the rough draft of these posts. Then we all got together and drank a toast to Michele and Steven's dad, knowing they both had a hand in the beautiful day. What made it even more special was the wine they found...the name of the winery was St. Michelle!
Dinner here at the hotel in their casual dining room (the formal one is WAY too expensive for the likes of us peons). Resting after a long two days of exploration. At least tomorrow the bags don't need to be out till 9:00 am and we don't need to be on the bus to the train till 10!
Shoutout to Reenie who's following me! The rest of you leave a comment so I know I'm not just sending this into the cyberspace vacuum!
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