Denali is the third largest National Park, so there are a lot of wilds to roam. We saw only a tiny portion. (Gates of the Arctic and Wrangell-Elias are the two largest Parks, both also in AK) We went out to the Eielson Visitor Center, which is 77 miles out. There is so much to tell that it's impossible to do it in order, so I'm going to try to report by categories.
First, the landscape. I've used almost all of the superlatives in the English language to describe Alaska, so there are few left for this awesome place.
The variety of terrains in the short distance we travelled was incredible, considering that we weren't up all that high. 4000 feet was the highest altitude we saw in the Park, but the climate is quite dry, and so very cold in winter that things don't decay. We saw trees that had been dead for 200 years that hadn't changed a bit. Given that last statement, you'd think it would be brown and dusty, but not so. The vegetation was rather lush and green, with little flowers everywhere, in every possible color, all short. They looked like miniature versions of normal flowers.
Needless to say, the area was very glacial. Some rounded mountains, some spiky, sharp ones.
Very broad, flat-floored valleys with braided rivers running through them. A braided river is one that has several channels, and they cris-cross each other in a sort of braided pattern.
The riverbed is so flat that the river can't get up enough energy to carve a deep channel. There was a lot of gravel on the hillsides.
They would be green up to a certain level and then be rock and gravel to the top. Some of the gravel was sculpted into lovely shapes.
The landscape at the lowest level was spruce forest. There was black and white spruce, and some alders as well. This is the taiga ( a Russian word meaning "stick forest") or boreal forest. It is the largest forest on earth, and circles the globe at the sub-Arctic level, passing through Siberia, northern Europe, northern Canada and the USA. It was very thick; a human would a very difficult trek through it without a saw or axe. Then a bit farther up the road things changed and the trees began to thin out until finally there were a few trees sticking up above the "high" or "dry" tundra.
The land was covered with waist-high scrub, mostly dwarf willows. Finally the trees gave way totally to true Arctic tundra, which was covered with ankle-high brush, mostly blueberries and other types of berry bushes.
Eventually we came to Polychrome Pass, so called because of the many colors in the rocks,
These rocks are volcanic, and their colors are vivid reds, yellows, oranges and browns. In the gloom of early morning they were screaming "Wake up!" By this point the road was one lane with hairpin turns, muddy, and scary. Guardrails are for wimps, and the drop-off was sheer and a long way to the bottom.
Eventually we came to the Eielson Visitor Center. It was a little hard to spot because it is a new building, and as it was built to be as "green" as possible it is built into the hillside.
You actually get off the bus on top of the building. It is a lovely place, made with the smallest carbon footprint possible. Most of the materials from the old Center were reused and it creates all of it's own energy.
There wasn't a lot of view because of the weather, which had stopped raining but was still overcast. Also, there was quite a bit of haze from the fires in the Interior. We left the Center and made the return trip down to the campground. When we got to Polychrome the road was a bit drier, but no less scary.
Wildlife! Lots and lots of it. During the trip we saw Dall sheep.
They are the ones with the big curving horns. Unlike the deer family, the Dall sheep don't ever shed them, so by the time they are old their horns are huge. At one place we saw a large flock on the hillside; I counted at least 26 in it. These sheep were the main reason that Denali National Park was created. When Charles Sheldon, a naturalist, hunter and conservationist, saw that thousands of them were being killed each year to feed the mining camps, he began petitioning Congress to create a preserve for them.
We also saw caribou herds.
They have lovely, delicate antlers, and are much smaller than I had pictured them to be.
As there are no deer in Denali, the caribou are the smallest members of the deer family in the Park. One of the herds was quite large and we had to stop for it to cross the road, as we were on it's trail.
One of the most amusing things we saw was a momma Grizzly and two cubs.
She was busily excavating a ground squirrel nest, and the cubs kept running off as soon as she stopped paying attention to them. It only took a growl from her and back they came, stopping to wrestle every now and then. The ground squirrel nest was obviously pretty deep, but Mrs. Griz was determined. She dug deeper and deeper. Soon all we could see was a big bear butt sticking up out of the hole. She was moving some dirt! She tossed it up behind her, out between her legs. By the time she either gave up or caught the squirrel the pile was quite large.
We saw another Grizzly and cub a bit later. The cub had lagged farther behind than the mother liked, so when it caught up she sort of smacked it around a bit, and then gave it a kiss! Fortunately Bill caught that in a photo.
It was very sweet, and would make you forget how formidable these animals actually are.
A wolf pack was wandering along the riverbed. There were at least 5 adults and more than 6 pups. The pups were having a great time together, romping around. Wolves have very long legs and large paws so that they are very effective winter hunters.
We also saw golden eagles, an owl, and a red fox who sat right in the middle of the road and didn't budge when the bus came along.
It was so focused on whatever prey it had in it's sights that we were not even registered on it's consciousness. There were lots of Arctic snowshoe hares and ground squirrels. These squirrels are amazing! They are the only mammal whose body temperature actually goes below freezing in the winter. True hibernators.
Enough for this post. I have only been able to recount a bit of that amazing trip, but I hope I have given you a taste of Denali.
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