8/12/2009 Dianne Does Denali

We were in search of a real live moose. Our friend, Dianne, has been in Alaska for the past ten days now and has yet to see a moose. Since there are about two thousand moose in Denali National Park surely this will be the day that she gets her sighting.

Our bus trip through the park didn't start until noon so we spent the morning packing all our supplies. Cameras, binoculars, water, Pepsi, a few beers already wrapped in coolie cups so the label didn't show, sandwiches, potato chips, Cheez-Its, Tastykakes, an east coast snack staple that Dianne brought to us, cookies, trail mix and I'm sure a few other "snack-y" things got thrown in the bag too. We were going on a bus ride in the wilderness for heaven's sake, what if the bus broke down, we had to have FOOD and PEPSI'S and BEER!

We arrived at the Access Center in plenty of time to get our tickets, get a refund for the park entrance fee that we were charged when I made the reservations via telephone, since we have a National Park Pass which has already paid for itself from when we renewed it in May, thank you very much.

We had plenty of time to go to the visitor's center for breakfast and to tour the exhibits. Or so we thought. We all had our hearts set on a breakfast sandwich of some type. My mouth was watering at the thought of a bacon, egg and cheese on a biscuit, a McMuffin, Denali style. My two companions had their own mouthwatering ideas for the perfect breakfast in mind too. We read the wall posted menus and were ready to place our orders when we got the word. We were too late for breakfast! They were serving lunch now. Darn! It wasn't even eleven yet and breakfast time was over. It just didn't seem right. At least they still had some pastries out and the coffee was still going so at least we had that. (I had a Pepsi, I've never tasted coffee but I know I don't like it)

Breakfast, such as it was, done and out of the way, we walked over to the Visitor's Center. We remarked on the way that we were having the perfect day for this trip. It was sunny, the skies were blue, laced with see through ribbons of clouds and it was comfortable temperature wise. Rain was predicted. Of course rain was predicted for the past ten days and with the exception of one, we've had good weather.

As we entered the Visitor's Center there was a young girl, perhaps eleven years old, taking the oath of a Junior Ranger. Everything was going fine and it sounded great but the I think the Ranger giving the oath went a little overboard when he made her swear that she would brussel sprouts everyday, clean her room everyday and a few other things. It was all in fun and those of listening got a big kick out of this made up on the spot oath.

We checked out the animal exhibit and took Dianne's picture next to a moose.

At eleven thirty we got in line for the bus. I checked at the desk just beforehand and the bus was not full. We were hoping for this because we could each have our own seat without making some couple sit apart from each other because there wasn't enough space if we did this. We are on the down side of the season now and the majority of Alaska visitors are already into Canada on their way to the lower forty eight. At this point in time we are probably considered stragglers and that's ok with us.

We had about ten college aged Denali workers on board with us and they were all wearing the same t-shirt. I'll tell you more about them later.

We got all settled, cooler stashed, , tote bag handy but out of the way, jackets in overhead bins, cameras at the ready and binoculars poised, ready for action. Lets get this bus rollin'! We've got wildlife to see!

Our bus driver, John Allen, was absolutely the best we could have asked for. Since we are on a shuttle bus versus a tour bus the drivers are not required to give narration as they drive about what we're seeing or passing. This was not the case with John. A biologist by degree, a historian by curiosity and a poet with just plain old natural ability and talent, he was a joy to spend the day with. He was funny, informative, interesting and an all around nice guy. And experienced. Did I mention his experience? He was on his last shuttle run of the season, his twenty fifth season. Originally from Minnesota, he and his wife both work at Denali in the summer season and then travel extensively in the winter. This year they are going to Russia, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria and ending their trip on the Marrakech Express. On top of all this, he's a published writer and published poet.

While the wildlife in Denali National Park is certainly a draw, the natural beauty of the park should not be overshadowed by this.

We weren't too far into our bus trip when he pulled over. We were all straining to see out in the meadow and up the mountain for the wildlife he surely saw. Well, were looking in the wrong place, we should have been looking on the ground just outside the bus, just below our windows. We had a good view of ptarmigan, (tar-ma-gin) Alaska's state bird.

Off in the distance, we were getting our first view of "the mountain".

(this was taken with a zoom lens)

It wasn't too much further into the park when we saw our first caribou.

Not too long after that we got our first glimpse, and hopefully not our only, of grizzlies. We were also hoping we could get a better view too.

So far we're not doing too bad, 40 minutes into our 8 hour trip and we've seen the state bird, a caribou, grizzly bears, a bunch of rabbits, several ground squirrels and we're just beginning!

And the scenery just kept coming.

One of the many glaciers we saw today.

We hit the jackpot with a caribou! One was close to the roadside and he seemed to pose for us.

We were really glad we were with such an experienced bus driver. Now keep in mind that we are on nothing more than school buses. The seats aren't all that comfortable to begin with and it doesn't help with roadways like this, when you are sitting on the edge of your seat, gripping, white-knuckled on the seat in front of you until you are around the bend while you are up on a MOUNTAIN! A single lane road no less! You can see how high up we are, look at the floor of the valley below.

.....and NO GUARDRAILS! Not that it would matter.

This was our view at one of the rest stops we made.

It was breezy up here on the mountain as evidenced by Dianne's windswept hair.

We could see the beginnings of fall colors. (Missouri reader: I don't even want a comment from you about that!)

And Denali looks even closer. See that little strip of road in the lower right corner? That's still a ways for us to go yet to even get there. This was taken with a zoom lens.

As we were coming down the mountain John announced that there were bear on the road below. We were envious of those people in the car down there because they were getting a real close up view. Or so we thought, turns out the car was empty, its occupants were out hiking somewhere. They missed this!

I changed lenses again so that I could get these shots before the bears moved into the fields. Mama Bear and her cub.

There was another bus on the road with us and when we got down to the road where the bears were we saw that they were stopped. The bears were STILL on the roadway. The other bus driver pulled further over so that we could pass. Back to my regular lens again I got these shots.

The baby kept looking back at us and we imagined it saying, "Mommy, do you see that big green thing following us?"

We kept playing leap frog with the other bus and each driver would park their bus diagonally across the road so that each side of the bus had a chance for pictures. For instance when we were in front John would park the bus so that the front end was at the right hand side of the road and the back end was at the left hand side. Kinda like this... l/l only at more of an angle. They were very accommodating for the photographers on the bus.

The baby was getting used to us and it would actually stop, look at us and run to catch up to its mother.

These bears stayed on the roadway a good 12 to 15 minutes. And we were thrilled.

Grizzly bears with Denali in the background, does it get any better than this?

They finally decided to leave the roadway, we were sorry but glad at the same time. The longer it took to get to the Eielson Visitor Center the less time we would have there and Dianne had lots to see in this location, not to mention this is where we were going to have lunch and tummies were rumbling.

John, our driver, gave us all something to think about. He told us that it is estimated that only 1% of the world's population,,,,1%.....get to see a grizzly bear in its natural habitat. And today, we saw a total of six. We are so fortunate to have these experiences and yes, we know just how blessed we are.

And the scenery just kept coming.

When we got to the Eielson Center, the haze cleared, the sun was out bright, a few clouds parted and Denali stood there in all her glory with our Glory waving proudly.

Do you know Denali means? It means Great One or Tall One. That it certainly is as it is the highest mountain in North America. Now I've called it Denali through this whole post but the "official" name is Mount McKinley, named of course for President McKinley. Several years ago a vote was taken within Alaska as to whether this great mountain should be called Mount McKinley or Denali. The Native Americans and the state residents voted overwhelmingly to have it called DENALI. However, our boys in Washington D.C. didn't listen to the Alaskan residents request and kept its name Mt. McKinley, its a political thing. (So much for for the people)

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the center but it was time to get back on the bus. And we still had a moose to find.

I tried to get one last picture and had the, excuse me, CRAP scared out of me when this flew past my lens.

Before we pulled out Dianne was recruited to take a dozen pictures of this group. With a dozen different cameras no less. The group of college aged workers I mentioned in the beginning of the post, well here they are. They are posing with our bus driver, John, far left. We have the feeling John was a mentor for these young people this summer. You could tell they are very fond of him and they wanted to take his last shuttle with him. You see, MRS. Allen says they are NOT returning next year, but John says she says that every year.

You can see some of the brown T-shirts in this shot. There was a John Allen Clean Up the Park day here in Denali and they were all a part of it. Denali will miss Mr. John Allen if he doesn't come back.

So we headed back and I took lots of scenery pictures.

The ONLY road in Denali.

It looks like a painting doesn't it? God's paintbrush for sure!

We saw some Dall sheep. I enlarged this as much as I could.

On the way back, John stopped the bus on a high hairpin turn, the kind that you are sorry you are on that side of bus which is very close to the edge looking straight down,,,,many hundreds of feet. Straight down. It was at this point John decided to recite one of his poems. Can you say captive audience? It was about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Very good by the way. Very touching and just the right poem for THIS scenery.

Well, we never did get to see the moose we were after, but it was an EXCELLENT day anyway!