3 Out of 10 is Really 10 Out of 10

Friday, September 9^th

Another early day started with a quick breakfast prior to embarking on a 13 hour bus trip around Denali National Park. The itinerary made me think a school bus would be used, but it was more a charter bus with sliding windows to open to get clear pictures of the wildlife and scenery. The driver was a Danish woman named Gitte who was born in Greenland, moved back to Denmark, made her way to Alaska where she had married and drove one of the Kantishna Roadhouse tour buses three times a week during tourist season.

The bus had barely entered the park when the first glimpses of wildlife occurred. A female moose was spotted with another one nearby. There was also a bull moose a little way further into the park, but a second bull moose was very close the main road. It crossed in front of the bus as if we weren’t there. Gitte had told us to be as quiet as possible any time the windows were open to prevent the animals from being habitualized to humans. Everyone on the bus was warned of this again by the park ranger at the Savage River station which marked the end of the paved roads in the park. Most, if not all, of the roads past this ranger station were gravel due to trying to minimize the impact of frost heaving and the remoteness of the roads. Once past the Savage River ranger station, only tour buses were allowed on the roads to further ensure that wildlife did not become habitualized to humans and have a better control on traffic flows. I would learn later in the day that there was a lottery that allowed individuals to drive their personal cars into these restricted areas. Throughout the day, we would pass many hikers along the road exploring the park.

Although there was some cloud cover, it was largely a nice day with plenty of sun to see the wildlife and get plenty of scenery. The bus stopped often enough for bathroom breaks and to stretch one’s legs. At one stop, the Roadhouse provided hot beverages and very tasty chocolate chip cookies.

The damage to the sign is from where bears have ate the sign. It was shortly after this that the first of two grizzly bears were spotted. The first bear was fairly close to the road. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good shot of the bear’s head, but it was pretty obvious he was ready for the winter which was to arrive shortly.

Late in the morning, we arrived at the Mt. McKinley overlook. There is a 3 in 10 chance that you will be able to see either of its peaks and I was lucky enough to see both peaks (hence the title for this entry). Clouds develop and obscure the view of the mountain very quickly. While both peaks weren’t in sight the whole time, I could see how quickly the clouds would blow in and obscure the view. As you can see from the pictures, it was a spectacular view of Mt. McKinley and the nearby peaks. Although Mt. Everest is about 9,000 feet higher in elevation, Mt. McKinley can be -40F in the summer and Everest only reaches that in the dead of winter. There is a fascinating story about a group of prospectors (called sourdoughs due to that type of dough working well in Alaska compared to other types) that were the first to climb Mt. McKinley. Allegedly, the climbers in the "Sourdough Expedition" subsisted on doughnuts and hot chocolate in the 18 hours it took to climb the peak. They were the first known individuals to climb the peak, although it was not realized till later. A second group climbed the opposite peak. However, they later discovered the spruce pole that the sourdoughs had left as a marker to prove they had climbed McKinley.

Lunch was at the Kantishna Roadhouse. There was the ability to pan for gold along the creek near the Roadhouse or learn about dog mushing. The guy that talked about dog mushing was the son of an Iditarod winner (Emmitt Peters, the 3^rd winner of the race). His father had revolutionized the way runners thought about the race in that he treated the race as a series of sprints as opposed to an endurance race. The dad had cut the time to win the race down dramatically and is the only individual to have raced in 4 different decades. The dog with the goggles is Reba, the lead. Why goggles? Because the lead dog has to look cool in the words of the son. The son hopes to run the Iditarod following completion of college.

After leaving the Roadhouse, the sky clouded up and drizzled or rained all the way back. The route back to the entrance of the park retraced our path from earlier in the morning. More sightings of Dall sheep occurred with one group walking right in front of the bus as if the bus was not there. It was nice to finally get back to the hotel as 13 hours on a bus was a bit too much.

I really don’t know how to describe Denali. It’s a national park unlike any of the other parks I have been to. Hopefully the pictures in this entry do it justice. I took a lot of pictures and there is not enough space as each shot is fascinating in its own right. Its remoteness prevents some of the commercial development seen in the areas surrounding other parks, but there is still some development to support the hotels and tourists that visit the park. However, everything that supports the park essentially shuts down in mid September. There are still some rangers that stay in the park during the winter, but they are mainly there to maintain the paths for dog mushing and the limited number of individuals that come during the winter. Its expansiveness is awe-inspiring as are its seemingly endless U-shaped valleys created by glaciers over thousands of years. Its flora and fauna are unlike other parks and well suited to the harshness of its winters. Surprisingly, most of the bears are vegetarians, but will scavenge meat if available. They subsist on a variety of berries (including blueberries and cranberries) which are abundant and low to the ground. If there is one regret I have about the whole trip, it was not going back into the park to explore the visitor’s center and the science center which are supposedly top class. However, the desire to take it easy once I got back from the bus ride and just to have a lazy day (on Saturday) got the better of me.

After eating supper, I did some shopping and learned that night was supposed to be a great night to see the Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights. Upon getting back to the lodge, I ordered a wake-up call for the lights which many hotels offered. Unfortunately, cloud cover prevented the lights from being visible.