Alaska: Day 10--Tour in Denali

The sun was up before us on Friday, August 15th, but in the summer in Alaska it's impossible to beat the sun. It's up practically all night. Regardless, we were up pretty early to get ready for our 6 1/2 hour bus tour into the park. Jared and I had tent camped with Karcyn and Calvin. Jake slept with Grandma and Grandpa Lee in their tent and Cooper bunked with Grandpa Hough in the camper bed, while Grandma Hough took the bed that converted to a couch. I was a little stiff after sleeping in cramped quarters trying very hard not to suffocate my 3 month old. Karcyn tossed and turned some and not wanting to wake up the entire campground, Jared had her sleep on his stomach. She slept soundly after that. Jared not so much. He was a little uncomfortable but other than that, it was a good night. And when we woke up, it was dry outside!


We had reservations for the 9:30 park service shuttle that would take us to Toklat River about 3 hours in, before turning around. I forget how far Toklat is from the park entrance, but it's not that far. It takes a while to reach your destination because the buses are only going about 20-25 miles an hour, at most. And you have to add in stopping time for wildlife sightings.

It didn't take us long and someone spotted a black bear and a moose on the ridge of a hill. They were too far to get pictures. Then we saw some female moose on the opposite hillside. Male moose (bulls) have the big antler racks and so if you didn't know any better, one might think these moose were actually horses eating the vegetation.



We came to a stopping point where the bus driver said was the best spot to view Mt. McKinley (or Denail) on the tour. The clouds were just a little low and too hazy, but...if you squint really hard, you can see a very bright white outline in the middle of this picture. That's the peak of Mt. McKinley. Not real spectacular, I know, and for those of you who weren't there in person, it probably just looks like clouds. But we got a teensy glimpse of her. Ironically, Mt. McKinley is easier to see from Anchorage and looks different on the park side surrounded by all the other mountains. I forget the statistics, but because Mt. McKinley creates its own weather, there are only 40-60 days (if that) out of the entire year that the mountain is seen in the clear. So we weren't banking on being able to see Denali in all her majestic glory anyway. But you can always hope.


Here is an arctic ground squirrel. The park pays him to pose for tourists. Just kidding. He is cute though.


There is a very important rule of this park: "Do not approach the wildlife." Apparently this young lady didn't get the memo. And where are her parents?? Poor squirrel.


Oh wait...her mom was in the bathroom! Her father was probably watching and laughing while her grandpa took the picture. Good thing they didn't kick us off the bus. That would have been one loooong walk back to the campground.


A little further down the road and we got to view a group of the Alaskan state bird...the ptarmigan. (The 'p' is silent). I learned this is the only bird that stays in Alaska year round and their feathers actually turn white in the winter. Legend has it that when the townspeople of a small area up north got together to name their town for post office purposes, they wanted to name it "Ptarmigan". But many citizens were fearful no one would know how to spell it. Someone said that ptarmigan tastes just like chicken and suggested they name the town that....and thus was born the town of Chicken, Alaska.



We came to our first rest stop at Teklanika. There was just barely enough time to go to the bathroom, but out across the river was a grizzly bear (yes, the brown dot in the middle of the picture--you can click on the picture to make it bigger)--so we got to hangout a couple minutes longer to watch it digging around for roots. The boys were pretty excited about that. Our bus driver, who was on her sixth season of driving into the park, said this was the first time she'd ever seen both a black and brown bear on the same day. That made us feel pretty blessed.


Speaking of blessings--as we slowly drove along the dusty road, I couldn't help but notice low dark clouds looming to the north on one side of the bus and sunshine poking through blue skies to the south. My heart swelled with gratitude for my Heavenly Father's love for me and my family as I acknowledged that Jared's heartfelt prayer from the day before had been answered. It never rained on us. The bus driver even commented on the dust from the road, apologizing for it when we slid our windows down to take pictures. Yet she said the dust was better than mud. If it had rained, the roads would have been muddy and splashed up on our windows making it difficult to see out of them, something we had never considered. Say what you want. Call it a coincidence, call it luck that there was no rain on our bus tour. But I don't believe in coincidences--haven't since I was 16. I call it a sweet answer to a humble prayer. Those black clouds were just begging to release rain and threatened to the entire bus ride in and back. But they never did. Only the powers of heaven can make that happen.








We finally made it to our turnaround point at Toklat River around 1pm and had 20 minutes to explore the area. The land is so beautiful and far-reaching, you can hardly take it all in.







And then it was time to head back to our starting point. Another 2 1/2 hours or so to go. But there was more wildlife to look for. We were having quite the wildlife sightings, which, much like trying to see Denali, is no guarantee. The summer Jared and I got married, we went with my family all the way to Wonder Lake--the furthest in you can go on a park service bus. It was an 8 hour drive--one way--and all we saw were moose, on both bus rides. So this was Jared's first time seeing more than that. And it was a great day for his parents.


Our next viewing: I'm proud to say my very own dad spotted what he calls a "trophy caribou" on the hillside before anyone else saw it. He's got a good eye at finding animals such as these and was chomping at the bit, wishing he had his rifle, that it was hunting season and that we weren't in a national park and preserve! It was a nice looking beast. Tastes good, too!



Shortly after spotting the caribou, we saw some grizzly bears not far from the road. They were doing what our driver calls the "berry bob" scrounging up roots and soap berries. These bears are very blond in color. The grizzlies vary in all different shades of "brown" from a butter color to a deep russet. Black bears, however, are just black.


On the park shuttle passes we purchased, we could have told the driver "stop" at any time and gotten off to hike in the back country. Because of this possibility we were instructed in wildlife safety. First, it's best to make lots of noise to let the animals know you're coming. If you're not in the habit of singing loudly nonstop, you can always get a bear bell to put on your pack. If you get charged by a bear (black or brown), curl up in a fetal position, using your hands and arms to protect your head and neck, and play dead until the animal has lost interest in you and leaves the area. These next two tips were news to me. If the bear starts biting or chewing on you, then you want to start to fighting back. And hopefully you win. If a moose looks like it's going to charge, you actually high tail it in another direction. I never was sure what to do during a moose encounter. We actually picked up some adventurous backpackers and dropped some off as well, who would jump on another park service bus when they were done hiking. It's daunting enough, for me, being on a bus in that park. I can't imagine traipsing around on foot. It's soooo vast and raw and wild.

We got back to the visitor's center around 4pm, tired but feeling very fulfilled from our bus tour through a teensy bit of the park and preserve. We were so pleased at our wildlife sightings that not seeing the mountain was hardly a second thought.

Once we made it back to our campground, it was soon time for a hot dog roast followed by s'mores before retiring to bed and saying goodnight to Denali. Karcyn loved roasting her own marshmallow. Who doesn't??