You can’t be in Alaska and at least make an attempt to see Mt. Denali (the original and native name for Mt. McKinley). With the rain for the past 2 weeks I had all but assum
ed that I was going to be looking at a bunch of clouds imagining looking at Mt. Denali, but Mother Nature smiled on us and allowed the clouds to part on Saturday and provided us with clear blue skies and absolutely stunning views of the mountain!!
Friday night we piled 5 people and all our camping gear into Colin’s 2 door Ford focus (which was quite impressive) and headed north out of Eagle River. Four hours later we threw down at a campsite just inside Denali National Park boundary. The car was left at the campground because no private vehicles are allowed in the part past mile maker 18 of the park road
; instead there is a great bus system to make all of us gas guzzling, isolationist, Americans do something good for the environment and possibly interact with each other. A darn good idea!!
The bus ride out to Wonder Lake Campground, the campground furthest into the park took almost 5 hours with numerous stops for wildlife viewing and blowing through megapixels on amazing vistas. Denali’s big animals put on a great show for us starting out 15 minutes into the ride when a moose came meandering across the road in front of the bus. This w
as followed up by numerous caribou, bald eagles, ptarmigans, and many other smaller animals.
We saw a great interaction of survival and the food chain play out in front of us. The bus came to a stop because there was a red fox just ahead of the bus, then the eagle circling above came to a perch just 20’ from the fox. With his tail up straight and puffed out, the fox was trying to look domineering and scare away the eagle from his road kill meal. The eagle was eyeing both the road kill and the fox as a possible meal. When the fox finally left his road kill, the
eagle began circling the fox and following him down the road, setting up the scenario for a possible survival of the fittest contest. The eagle soon lost interest, however, and went off to soaring on the thermals high above all of us.
What about the almighty grizzly?? About half way through the drive we were traversing a hillside with the bus and looking down at the river bed below when there was the first sighting. Momma bear was running down the river bank with 2 cubs in tow, with one little trouble maker trailing far behind momma. Momma was being playful with the close by and to
ok a few playful swats at him as they were running. According to Cindy our bus driver, the cubs were probably 2 years old and over the next year or so momma will become less hospitable to the cubs and force them to strike out on their own. These were the first 3 of 6 grizzly sightings throughout the trip, with one of the big guys walking with in 20’ of the bus!
What about the mountain?? About 2/3’s of the way into the park rode we had our fist view point of the Mt. Denali. We came around the corner and saw the huge base of the mountain pushing itself up into the clouds that were shrouding the peak. As we got off the bus the clouds began to part as if on cue and suddenly there was the amazing peak as if sitting on top of the layer of clouds covering the waist of the mountain. Thirty minutes later the peak was completely shrouded in clouds again. I was happy; I had my 20 minutes to see the top of Denali and I could have gone home a very content man.
Denali, however, decided to reward us with more amazing views throughout the weekend. Saturday night, as dusk set in at midnight, the clouds left completely and the entire face of the mountain was visible in the incredible low level light that only certain times of the day can offer. We woke to clear skies and amazing brilliant light bouncing off each ridgeline of Denali providing an amazing sense of the topography of this mountain.
“Today is the best viewing day we have had of the mountain all summer,” was the comment from a park ranger as we ascended one of the mountains near the Eilsen visitor center on Sunday. That is a pretty impressive statement given this ranger looked at the mountain on a daily basis. We hiked up to the top of the ridgeline behind the visitor center which provided amazing views across the valley at Denali. The entire sky cleared out and there was only the occasional cloud blowing by in the sky.
This was another amazing Alaskan hike punctuated with a couple of caribou, numerous arctic squirrels, a few marmots, and some amazing arctic tundra. It was incredible to look across the valley at the ridgeline of mountains which were relatively comparable to the continental divide in Colorado, but these mountains were dwarfed by Mt. Denali which is another 8,000’-9,000’ taller. This is by far the largest mountain I have ever seen and I am in awe of the shear mass and majestic beauty of her. Thank you Denali.
ed that I was going to be looking at a bunch of clouds imagining looking at Mt. Denali, but Mother Nature smiled on us and allowed the clouds to part on Saturday and provided us with clear blue skies and absolutely stunning views of the mountain!!Friday night we piled 5 people and all our camping gear into Colin’s 2 door Ford focus (which was quite impressive) and headed north out of Eagle River. Four hours later we threw down at a campsite just inside Denali National Park boundary. The car was left at the campground because no private vehicles are allowed in the part past mile maker 18 of the park road
; instead there is a great bus system to make all of us gas guzzling, isolationist, Americans do something good for the environment and possibly interact with each other. A darn good idea!!The bus ride out to Wonder Lake Campground, the campground furthest into the park took almost 5 hours with numerous stops for wildlife viewing and blowing through megapixels on amazing vistas. Denali’s big animals put on a great show for us starting out 15 minutes into the ride when a moose came meandering across the road in front of the bus. This w
as followed up by numerous caribou, bald eagles, ptarmigans, and many other smaller animals.We saw a great interaction of survival and the food chain play out in front of us. The bus came to a stop because there was a red fox just ahead of the bus, then the eagle circling above came to a perch just 20’ from the fox. With his tail up straight and puffed out, the fox was trying to look domineering and scare away the eagle from his road kill meal. The eagle was eyeing both the road kill and the fox as a possible meal. When the fox finally left his road kill, the
eagle began circling the fox and following him down the road, setting up the scenario for a possible survival of the fittest contest. The eagle soon lost interest, however, and went off to soaring on the thermals high above all of us.What about the almighty grizzly?? About half way through the drive we were traversing a hillside with the bus and looking down at the river bed below when there was the first sighting. Momma bear was running down the river bank with 2 cubs in tow, with one little trouble maker trailing far behind momma. Momma was being playful with the close by and to
ok a few playful swats at him as they were running. According to Cindy our bus driver, the cubs were probably 2 years old and over the next year or so momma will become less hospitable to the cubs and force them to strike out on their own. These were the first 3 of 6 grizzly sightings throughout the trip, with one of the big guys walking with in 20’ of the bus!What about the mountain?? About 2/3’s of the way into the park rode we had our fist view point of the Mt. Denali. We came around the corner and saw the huge base of the mountain pushing itself up into the clouds that were shrouding the peak. As we got off the bus the clouds began to part as if on cue and suddenly there was the amazing peak as if sitting on top of the layer of clouds covering the waist of the mountain. Thirty minutes later the peak was completely shrouded in clouds again. I was happy; I had my 20 minutes to see the top of Denali and I could have gone home a very content man.
Denali, however, decided to reward us with more amazing views throughout the weekend. Saturday night, as dusk set in at midnight, the clouds left completely and the entire face of the mountain was visible in the incredible low level light that only certain times of the day can offer. We woke to clear skies and amazing brilliant light bouncing off each ridgeline of Denali providing an amazing sense of the topography of this mountain.
“Today is the best viewing day we have had of the mountain all summer,” was the comment from a park ranger as we ascended one of the mountains near the Eilsen visitor center on Sunday. That is a pretty impressive statement given this ranger looked at the mountain on a daily basis. We hiked up to the top of the ridgeline behind the visitor center which provided amazing views across the valley at Denali. The entire sky cleared out and there was only the occasional cloud blowing by in the sky.
This was another amazing Alaskan hike punctuated with a couple of caribou, numerous arctic squirrels, a few marmots, and some amazing arctic tundra. It was incredible to look across the valley at the ridgeline of mountains which were relatively comparable to the continental divide in Colorado, but these mountains were dwarfed by Mt. Denali which is another 8,000’-9,000’ taller. This is by far the largest mountain I have ever seen and I am in awe of the shear mass and majestic beauty of her. Thank you Denali.
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