Denali

We stayed at the Denali Bluffs Motel aptly named because it is up on a bluff. In the morning, the tour bus picked us up for our 8 ½ hour tour of Denali National Park. They use old school uses for the tour buses because they are lighter and due less damage to the road. You can’t drive into Denali, only on tour buses. We stopped by other motels to pick up more people Shortly out of town the microphone for the driver to narrate started cutting out. He tested and tested until we all were about to scream. He decided to go back and get a new part. With all of that fooling around it was almost an hour before we were underway. He does narrate almost all the time so it was important.
Along the way to mountain viewing, it is a constant watch for wildlife. We were rewarded quite soon by a group of 3 caribou not to far from the road. After that the hunt was really on. Most of the park is tundra like. Because of the short amount of daylight and growing season, the tundra line starts at about 2700 feet while in Colorado it is 10,000 feet. Above the plant line the mountains are barren. The road is paved for the first 13 miles and after that it is a hard packed dirt road, narrow dirt road. I was amazed the buses could pass one another. It was smoother than I thought and they did have water trucks out attempting to keep the dust down. It was quite a thrill for those on the bus that had not experienced narrow mountain roads that hug the hillside with steep drop-offs. Our driver was unfazed, just kept talking and driving.
People on the bus came from all over—Virginia, Pennsylvania, England, Georgia. Let me tell you about the Georgia women. They were well put together for this tour complete with jewelry and perfect makeup. One woman’s hair was perfect and somehow it still looked perfect when she came in from the gale force winds that were blowing. Me not so much!! They and their husbands were frantic to see wildlife. The bus stopped for black dots on the “fa hill”. One time no one could see the black dot she was sure was a bear and she said—it went behind that peak! We look and there are so many peaks that it was pretty funny.
The only bears we saw were far away. A moose was closer, but the dall sheep were the best. On the way out they were pretty far out, but on the way back they were perched on the rocks just above the road.
The main attraction of the day was Mt. McKinley. It was partially out so we could get some idea of its size. I looked in the visitors center at the chart and it doesn’t matter what month you come, it averages about 9 days a month where McKinley is visible—not very good odds. We see Baker about 1/3 of the time too, but people aren’t flocking by the thousands to see it. At the visitors center you are 36 miles away from the mountain and the closest that you get is 24 miles. Not only is the park in a remote area it feels remote when you are there or at least I felt that way.
We had lunch at Karnishna Lodge and were entertained by a dog sled presentation. His father raced in the Iditarod 4 times winning it in 1975. His name is Martin Phillips and his son is a Jr. He has been running dog sleds since he was 2. He grew up in Ruby which is one of the check points on the trail. They have a race for toddlers, the mother releases the brake and they race their dog sled to their Dads. He was very entertaining and at the same time informative. After his talk, we went out to the kennel. The lodge gets six dogs from the shelter each season that he uses for the demo and trains. When the season is over they are up for adoption. Last year one girl took all six and she won the Jr. Iditarod this past year. The dogs by the way are a mix of husky for power, Irish setter for boundless energy, lab for liking water, and collies for smarts. And female dogs make the best lead dogs. The way they train in the summer is that they hook the harness up to an ATV and around the roads they go. They were pretty excited when he fired up the machine.
On the way back it was more wildlife looking and the mountain was still not out. We got back into Denali about 8 pm. We are glad that we went, but I’m not sure that we would go to Denali again.