Alaska: Denali National Park

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

We were up bright and early to catch an early bus since we planned to go all the way down to Wonder Lake at the end of the road. 

We rode a few miles down the road about to take a turn over a riverbed when a huge grizzly bear comes walking out of the woods right in front of the bus! I’m so glad our bus driver/tour guide was extremely alert and quickly slammed on the brakes. The bear went along its merry little way to the other side of the road to eat more berries along the river bed. He kept eating in the brush so it was hard to get a good picture of him here.

Snapshot of Denali. 

Another grizzly beer sighting on the hillside. 

Tongue out looking for more berries!

Look at those chompers. 

We finally let the bear be even though he had no care about the stopped bus. He only cared about eating berries. As we looked back that same grizzly walked right in front of another bus.

Polychrome Pass where the many colored rocks are hardened lava from a 100 million years ago. 

Jackie at Polychrome Pass.

Shallow riverbed. It must look totally different in winter. 

Another grizzly bears sighting. This time x3! Mama with her spring cubs! 

The cub is so lazy it needs to lie down while it eats its berries. 

The most amazing view of Denali! 

Other tall peaks in the Alaskan Range. 

The Eielson Visitor Center is a LEED Platinum certified building, one of the first of its kind for the National Park Service. It was built into the hillside, using solar panels, hydropower and natural light.

In 2003 2 massive bull moose clashed in an effort to establish dominance and the right to mate. During battle with their heads down, their antlers locked together. One tine pierced the eye socket of the other. They remained entangled on the tundra until their death.

My favorite photographer, travel partner and best friend. 

Dueling cameras.

Gorgeous peak from Eielson Visitor Center. 

Me & Denali. 

Us & Denali. 

Still in awe. 

Golden eagle spotting.

Loon. It may look like a normal aquatic duck. Their feet are far back on their body making them great swimmers but poorly adept on land and require a lot of space and wind velocity for take-off.

Joe couldn’t resist going in for a dip at Wonder Lake.

Joe wading in Wonder Lake for the perfect photo.

Wonder Lake.

On our ride out we saw a caribou. 

We stopped back at the Eielson Visitor Center and were inspired by our last wildlife sighting. Those antlers weighed like 70 pounds.

We had our fill of sitting on the bus. We hiked up a hill near Eielson to have a Subway sandwich and snacks for lunch. Clouds had started to roll in as we made our way down to Wonder Lake. We truly are lucky to be part of the 30% club of people that actually get to see the 20,327 foot summit, the highest peak in North America.

First plane we saw heading to the mountain.

More caribou sightings back on the bus.

We still wanted to go hike some more so we got off at the next rest stop. It just happened to be the Toklat River stop. Our tour guide in the morning had said there had been some odd bear behavior near this location over the last few days. She said if someone asked you to get on a bus, you do it and don’t question it. Obviously there were no bears spotted at the stop so buses were still using the rest stop. We were hoping to see a bear from the allowed distance of 300 yards.

My turn with the antlers.

We walked a ways up the riverbed before we hit a ranger construction area that we didn’t like the looks of so we turned back around.

I should mention here that there has never been a fatal bear mauling within Denali National Park’s 6 million acre boundary over its 90 year history. The bus driver informed us that rangers were monitoring bear activity closely in this area of the Toklat River due to some recent odd behavior. About a week after we returned home, a lone backpacker was attacked and killed 3 miles further up this riverbed we hiked. The San Diego man didn’t follow the park rules. He stayed within 50 yards near the bear instead of the mandated 300 yards and leaving the area when the bear was spotted. He took photographs for at least 8 minutes before the bear finally noticed his presence. It is sad that all the rangers’ education work is lost on some and in this case taking the man’s life.

The next bus wasn’t stopping at the rest stop for 15 minutes so we decided to hike to the road and let the next pick us up on the side of the road.

Even the gravel road is a beautiful trail.

Another caribou below the road.

Another grizzly bear in the distance.

Back at Teklanika Campground we went to listen to Ranger Peter take about bird beaks and give a memorable explanation on how to handle encounters with bears. Every minute or so he suggests saying 'Hey Bear' just so bears know you are around.

We had exciting freeze-dried food for dinner because it was easy.