TRAVELOGUES – DAY ELEVEN – JULY 10th – DENALI NATIONAL PARK
TUNDRA WILDERNESS TOUR
HOLLAND AMERICA MS VOLENDAM
13 DAY CRUISE/TOUR
“NORTH TO ALASKA”
Did you know that wildlife seekers are far more certain to see animals than baseball fans are to see home runs? This is true – and our Tundra Wilderness Tour into Denali National Park today was actually a grand slam.,
McKinley National Park was established as a game refuge in 1917. In 1980, Congress more than tripled the size of the park and renamed the area Denali National Park and Preserve. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) enlarged the park by an additional four million acres of wilderness frontier.
This expansive area is habitat to caribou, moose and grizzly bears, along with wolves, Dall sheep, Ptarmigan, eagles, ravens and countless other species of animals and birds. There are more than 650 species of flowering plants along with mosses, fungi, algae and lichens that cover the slopes inside the park.
In 1972 the National Park Service started a bus system to protect visitors and reduce threats to the wildlife. The buses used for our Tundra Wilderness Tour look much like old school buses painted a light tan color to blend in with the landscape – but on the inside, the interiors are plush and comfortable like the motor coaches we have been traveling on during this tour.
The alpine tundra covers the ground in Denali and provides a fast food supply for the resident wildlife. Our first wildlife sighting for the day was a caribou feeding on the top of a hill to the right side of our bus. When someone on the bus spots an animal, they are to yell out and give an approximate location based on the face of a clock. So, this first sighting of the caribou, someone yelled out “CARIBOU! 10:00!!” Then, everyone tried to get a place at the window to click off their pictures before the animal moved on or went behind the bushes.
The bus has drop-down video screens that display the real-time video the bus driver is filming of the animal spotting. What we did not know, but were not surprised either, is that the DVD is available to us to purchase once our tour was over. Ours will be mailed within 2-3 weeks.
The road into Denali is not paved, but is compacted bedrock. Though the windows on the bus can be opened when animals are spotted, they are generally closed to minimize the dust coming back into the bus while the bus is traveling.
Our tour today began at the McKinley Chalet where we were picked up and traveled to the park entrance. We passed the Stony Overlook and stopped for a photo opp and continued on our way for 62 miles into the park. The scenery is as dramatic and colorful as the Grand Canyon with every color imaginable in the mountains and valleys. As the clouds moved overhead and cast shadows down below, the colors changed. It was simply breathtaking.
There is a very nice Visitors Center near the entrance along with a great book store offering a wide variety of books on the animals and history of the park.
As we traveled into the park, we passed several mountain peaks – Mt. Margaret at 5,509 ft. – Double Mountain at 5,899 ft. – Igloo Mountain at 4,800 ft. – Sable Mountain at 6,002 feet – Divide Mountain at 5,195 ft. and Polychrome Mountain at 5,790 ft. Polychrome Mountain was by far the most magnificent of them all with its multi-colored rock of Rhyolite and basalt. It is a dramatic pointed mounted with every color of brown and red tones imaginable.
After our first caribou sighting, we saw several herds of Dall sheep high on the rugged cliffs of the mountains, strategically located to protect themselves from their predators, the wolves.
While golden eagles soared above us, black ravens were also spotted along with one bird that actually had some small animal clinched tight in its talons – probably flying back to enjoy it for dinner. Though the wolves remained elusive and out of sight today, I did get a picture of a den on the side of a mountain. There are three packs of wolves that inhabit this portion of the park but dozens more packs throughout the entire 6,000 acres.
The animal that most everyone hopes to see when they enter Denali is the phenomenal Grizzly Bear. Though its fur is actually a light golden color, the grizzly is also known as the brown bear. We had three separate sightings of grizzlies today; but, by far, the one where we spotted two bears as they ate their way down the hill next to our bus was a definite grand slam!
With their fur of light golden brown, these two bears were easily spotted amongst the green grasses and tundra on the hill. They were enjoying several plant roots along their way down. As they got closer and closer to the bus, the more spectacular each picture was. We were told to be quiet as them came closer and closer to the bus so as no5t to frighten them or disturb them. But even though “we” were being quiet as told, our cameras were constantly clicking those shutters in hopes of getting one phenomenal picture. After we drove away and the windows again were closed, everyone sat back down in their seats and had a huge smile on his or her face. It was truly splendiferous!
We had two other grizzly sightings¸ but they were farther off in the distance. Some smaller animals were sighted as well including the pika (a small bunny), squirrels and a beaver; a gyrfalcon was perched on the top of a rock outcropping but was far enough away that our pictures could not pull it in close enough; and many birds.
The breathtaking scenery was everywhere you looked; and we couldn’t take our eyes off of it – even though we could have used a little cat nap as this was a 7 hour tour. We didn’t want to miss a thing – and we didn’t. It was a glorious day. While the skies above us were overcast, it did not hurt our experience in Denali National Park.
After our tour, a group of us headed over to the Alaska Salmon Bake for dinner and put our glasses together with much delight for such a fabulous day.
Tomorrow we will head south on the Alaska Railroad and McKinley Express as we end our tour of this “great land” in Anchorage.
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