Drive to Denali
August 16 and 17, 2008
View of part of the long mountain road we traveled into the interior of Denali National Park
The sky was beautiful the day we took the tour into Denali
Howard panning for gold at the end of the road in Denali. The place was called kantishna (I think that is how you spell it) Of course they didn't find any and we started to buy one of those little bottles of gold that are for sale all over Alaska. Teeheehee
This is a golden eagle. The picture was taken out of the tour bus window (almost all of the pictures were out of the windows) so it's hard to see it unless you enlarge the picture.
This is another shot of the golden eagle. The guide told us it was rare to see them put on a show like they did for us that day. It kept disappearing and reappearing and gliding through the sky. It was beautiful.
We saw a moose not too long before we exited the park. We had looked for one all day and this was the first and only one we saw that day.
You will definitely have to enlarge the pictures of the wolf if you want to see it. When Merrell first saw it, it was chasing a rabbit. It caught it and then a caribou came close to the wolf and we thought we might see a fight, but the wolf finally took off walking across the hills. It was so far away, I wasn't sure my camera even picked it up, but when you enlarge the picture, you can see it.
Another picture of the wolf.
And yet another picture of the wolf. Yes, it is there............ Teeheehee
We saw several grizzley bears that day. For some reason, I didn't think they would look like this, but according to the tour guide they can be one of many colors.
Here are more Grizzley bears. This is a mother and two cubs. The cubs are a different color from the mother.
Here is a closer view of the grizzleys
Another Grizzley
A caribou with a large "rack". Merrell got the fever............. Teeheehee
Merrell took this picture of a fox out of the window. Howard and Carolee got some really good ones of the fox
Here is another one of the golden eagle we saw. If you zoom in you can see some of it's pretty colors
Another one of the eagle
Merrell and Howard panning for gold in Denali National Park
Tall Mountain Road in Denali National Park
Howard and Carolee on the swinging bridge at the end of the road in Denali National Park. I actually walked across it too. The water underneath was pretty swift and the bridge swayed A LOT when more than one person was on it. :>)
Steep mountain road that we had to travel to reach the interior of Denali National Park
We decided to drive the motor home from Anchorage to Denali and then take the tour into Denali National Park. We drove to Denali on Saturday and took the tour on Sunday. We had to meet the tour bus at the office at 6:00 A.M. Now most of you know that I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON, but I got up and was ready and there ON TIME!! :>)
The tour bus was like our old school bus with bench seats and an isle in the middle. Our tour guide was Barry and he did a great job. I don't know how in the world he remembered all of the facts and figures that he gave to us. No private vehicles are allowed into the interior of Denali National Park, so if you want to see the interior, you have to take a tour. It is a 90+ mile trip to the end on a one lane, dirt/gravel road. It is also VERY HIGH and STEEP for a lot of the way. I just shut my eyes and looked out the side of the bus with the steep rock walls going UP, so I wouldn't see the "DOWN" on the other side. lol The Big Horn drive was nothing compared to this drive. There were times on the hairpin turns that I was sure we were just driving straight out into the air. Especially when we were meeting another tour bus. The roads weren't wide enough for two to pass while they were both moving. One tour bus had to stop and wait for the other to pass. There were lots of places that two couldn't have passed if they wanted to. I was REALLY happy when we finally reached the bottom FLAT land. Teeheehee
We left at 6:20 in the morning and it was 8 p.m. when we got back to the campground. It was a long day, but definitely worth the trip. We saw grizzley bears, caribou, moose, golden eagle, fox, wolf and various other small animals in the wild. The driver would stop for us to take pictures. The animals were quite a distance away from us a lot of the time, so not all of the pictures are clear, but it was a great experience.
We took a lot of pictures, but I will have to post most of them later (especially the animal ones) after I have time to pick out the ones I want to post.
Catch ya later,
The gang
