Catching up on a part of our Alaska summer that I wasn't able to blog much about at the time. Either because we were too busy, too tired, or there was no Internet. Or all of the above.
We stayed in Denali in mid-July. Dall sheep were just one of the animals we saw there for the first time.
The scenery all along the road was beautiful, even though we were not among the lucky one-third of Denali visitors who get to see Mt McKinley shining in the sun. Clouds hung over these lower peaks … and raincoats were the costume of the day.
We stayed at Teklanika Campground while we were there. At 29 miles up the road, it is the furthest place where you can drive a private vehicle. From there we took the Park Service bus along the rest of the road through the Park.
It's a hop-on/hop-off, so at any time you can get off to spend some time exploring or hiking. (Just hailing the next bus when you're ready to go further or go back to camp).
The first day, we took the bus straight through to the end of the trail at Kantishna, the site of a reconstructed miner's cabin from a brief gold rush in the early 1900s.
This ride was an all-day excursion with several planned stops and frequent spontaneous ones for wildlife sightings.
The second day, we rode just part of the way stopping for a while to explore and spend some time at the Visitor Center, which is about half-way up the road.
All of our drivers were great about waiting for wildlife photo stops as long as they could stop in a safe place.
This was the cause of one of those stops — and I was proud to be the first person on the bus to spot this grizzly guy and shout out.
It's kind of funny to hear the shouts "bear on the left", "moose on the right", etc. Sometimes you hear "oops, rock bear". Once somebody yelled "mosquito in the bus".
More wild Denali animals in a future post.
This weekend, I am linking to SCENIC WEEKENDS (thank you to Gemma) and to SATURDAY CRITTERS (thanks to Eileen).
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