Alaska Review! Day 4--Denali National Park

I had been waiting for this day for a very long time.  Today was the day I hoped we'd see Denali.

When I walked outside the cabin to head to our breakfast and use the restroom, I was greeted with blue skies and not a cloud in sight.  I knew our chances were pretty good that we'd see the mountain.

😃

As I said, we had full use of a kitchen.  We didn't cook anything up, but we were able to sit and have our fruit and cereal in that area.  We then packed up our stuff and we were off to drive the 15 minutes to the park entrance.

See?  Nothin' but clear skies.  👍

There was plenty of parking in the Wilderness Access Center, so we parked and went to wait for our shuttle.  There is a ton of activity in this area, and you want to be sure you listen and get on the correct shuttle.

Here it is!

Somehow, riding in a school bus isn't really as much fun as it is when you're a kid, but I didn't care.  We were going to see Denali (I hoped).

This was our driver:

His name is Ken and he was from Kentucky, so it was easy to remember.

I will mention here that there is always mention of the Wilderness Tour which costs a whole lot more per person (and kids aren't free on that).  For us, it was never even a consideration, but for anyone reading who might be debating the Tour or the shuttle, go with the shuttle.  Ken told us that the next day, he was going to do a Tour, and I would imagine that we had essentially the same tour as the Tour folks, for a whole lot less money.  Heck, the view is the same for certain.

Ken was fabulous.  I don't think we could have asked for a better guide.  His wife works in the gift shop, and this is their last year (so hurry up and ride a bus with Ken before he's done for good.)

We didn't have long to wait for the big event...maybe about 30 minutes?

 

He's out!  He's out!  In all his glory!  (Ken told us the mountain is a "he", not a "she", as he originally thought.)  I had told my kids the stat about 30% of the people seeing the entire mountain, and they were so 😊 to become members.  We learned after that the weather had been kind this summer, and more than 30% of visitors had a chance to glimpse Denali.

We were so happy that we were so lucky.

I took a ton of photos, but I will try to limit what I share.

We drove along and a ranger boarded the bus to officially welcome us, once we hit the non-public vehicle part of the road.  In an ironic twist, it was the same ranger who had helped us with the backpacks at the Visitor Center yesterday.  At least they get to change up their stations.

Our first wildlife siting was some golden owls.

We saw the owls about twenty minutes before the first bathroom break (Teklanika River).  It was nice to have the scheduled stops, just to stretch. 

Quite the picturesque rest stop.

Onward we went...here comes Polychrome Pass.  While I don't love heights and open spaces, this didn't bother me, especially since Ken reassured us that there had never been any accidents.

 Not a rest stop with bathrooms, but Polychrome Overlook was amazing!  Again, the mountains didn't look real.

 One without people.  Gorgeous.

A splash of color.

And here is when it started getting more interesting with regard to the wildlife.   I am not very good at spotting wildlife (camouflage in the photo below works well for me.)

 Chretien is excellent at finding wildlife, and is super patient when I don't see them right away, evenw with prompting.  Earnest is following in his footsteps.

 Much easier to see the above guy with this view.

Toklat rest stop.  This was completely different from Teklanika.   There was even a small gift shop, although we didn't bother since there were antlers to try to manipulate

 

These rest stops sure beat the ones we have in the Lower 48.

Onward we go...

 
Ken had been talking up one last spot with a great view of Denali, if he was out. 

Guess what--we were rewarded with a fabulous view of him at Stony Hill Overlook.  This is probably one of my most favorite photos of the day.

 Some more color to break up the green, brown and white.

And look here!  A mama and her cubs.

Stony Hill Overlook is fairly close to Eielson, our last stop.  We decided to eat lunch while seated on the bus and then get off to do the 1 PM ranger hike.   We had to bid Ken farewell, but we were looking forward to our hike.

The hike wasn't very strenuous, and didn't cover much ground.  There were tons of mosquitoes, and I think it was made worse by the fact that there were 30 people just standing still to attract them.  But the above view was what we were treated to, so it was fine.  💗

The kids were mostly attentive.

You can see Eielson in the background.  Yes, we didn't go too far.

After the hike, we checked out the center.

 Earnest shows us where we are along the Park Road.

The kids had finished their Junior Ranger booklets, so they were sworn in as rangers here.

We looked at some exhibits and watched a short movie.  When we were ready to go, we told the dispatcher and we had to wait for the next bus, as there was one just departing.  We didn't mind just waiting and admiring the view some more.

On the way back, we stayed alert, more or less.  We were hoping to see Dall sheep.

 You'd think we'd see some here.  Nope.  We did see a ton of caribou, to the point where Dale, our new bus driver, told us that unless we saw a herd of them, he wasn't going to stop for them as we probably had enough photos to paper our bathrooms with caribou. 

Some final photos from Toklat rest stop.  I will say that Earnest was probably the most enthusiastic about trying to spot wildlife.

 

Way out there, more caribou.

 

 Breathtaking.

 Still no Dall sheep.

The kids befriended another family on the bus with five kids, and they spent the time playing number games.  It definitely made the time go faster.

Our final wildlife siting was when we were on the 15 miles that anyone can drive...a solitary grizzly.

This day was fabulous!  We said goodbye to our bus friends and headed back to Healy.  Since some of us had leftover meals (I was ready for my second night of chili from Gwennie's, and someone else had a burger), we stopped at a Subway in Glitter Gulch for sandwiches for everyone else.  Three sandwiches were $23. 

But the day wasn't quite done.  Look who we spotted on the way back to Healy.

Just minding her own business along the Parks Highway.

Having that new zoom lens helped a lot here.

But wait, that's not all.  She wasn't alone.

And another!

We watched them for a bit, and then they vanished into the woods.

Back to Denali Outdoor Center we went.  We ate our food in the kitchen and settled in for the night.

Before I went to bed, I took a few photos at 10:30. 

Not only did the midnight sun amaze me, the fact that no one thought anything about fishing at that time, or later.  Another drawback to staying at the Center is that some of their tours returned back at that time or later, and it wasn't always quiet.

 Sort of like the photographic golden hour, I guess.  Most of my photos aren't edited, because if I did edit them, we'd never have this review.  This photo is not edited as well.

Later I learned that Chretien was up to use the bathroom around 1:15 AM, and took this photo.

Looks like the fisherman finished.  Yes, midnight sun at work for sure.

😁