This morning started at about 4:30 for me... got up and took a hot shower and worked on my journal some before packing up and driving the 27 miles to the main information center within Denali National Park. Buses were already running and people were lined up for bus tours. The only access to Denali National Park is through bus service. Limited camping is available in the near region, but was booked up. Hiking can take place anywhere in the park but you have to take shuttle buses within the park to get to the area you want to go. Shuttle buses run every half hour throughout the park, and currently only go 66 miles to the Eielson Visitor Center. Trips to some farther areas 89 miles into the park were not open to bus travel yet.
I found an opening on the 8:30 bus to Eielson, which was an 8 hour round trip through the park. Cost was $21 plus a $5 park entrance fee. Commercial guided tours over the same route cost over twice as much, but they provided a box lunch. I signed up for the park bus trip and then ran down the road to buy a sandwich and some snacks to take along. This was the start of an exciting day...
Shortly into the park we spotted Caribou, and later would see small herds.. you need binoculars to really appreciate the wildlife in the park, and many of the passengers carried cameras with foot long lenses to zoom in close. We spotted several moose (big deal they are all over the place in Alaska), some real neat mountain sheep (see pictures), a red fox that walked right through the visitor center between tourists sitting on the ground eating their lunch (he seemed to be trying to find a ground squirrel in the area), and...... FIVE grizzly bears... magnificent animals and some strange encounters that I discuss below.
But.. the drive was an adventure in itself, as we went through several mountain passes at high elevations on rough gravel roads with long drops into the valley. Even Bruce, our experienced driver got nervous when he encountered another bus and they would creep by each other hugging as close to the edge as possible without going over.. This was "top of the world" highway all over again, but I believe even worse! But the views were magnificent, and Mt McKinley, although still over 30 miles away, offered several peeks at its peaks.. but very difficult to photograph with the haze in that distance.
The animals are the highlight of this trip, and we were not disappointed. Flocks of the mountain sheep sunning on the sides of rocks, some close and others distant on the side of the mountain... then the Grizzly's...
We came around a corner and saw two buses on the curve ahead of us stopped looking at something... Off to our left in the low bushes and valley floor two grizzlies were spotted.. they bolted and one ran after the other...straight at the buses ahead, coming out of the bushes onto the road and ran right past the buses down the road ahead.. we moved to catch up with the other buses and played leapfrog so each bus would get a view. One grizzly disappeared, and the other just wandered on down the road ahead of us, eventually going into the bushes...
Second sighting was further down the road, when someone noticed a big lump out in the tundra and binoculars showed that it was a grizzly sleeping there. We waited for several minutes hoping it would perform, but eventually went on... later we arrived at the Eielson Visitor Center for a half hour stop (we were now 66 miles into the park) before returning. While sitting around on the picnic tables and tundra eating our lunches, a big red fox crawled up off the side of the hill and leisurely just walked through the crowd past some very nervous folks sitting on the ground having a picnic... he wandered on past the buses and into a hilly section, only to return again walking through the parking lot. Our bus driver said he appeared to be looking for a ground squirrel that had been making some noise. Animals in Denali Park are protected and never threatened by humans so have tended to accept their presence and ignore them. In Denali, they have the right-away.
On the return trip we came around a corner and saw another bus stopped, and two more grizzlies, one on the road and one in the bush.. they were younger ones and likely siblings out on their own. Frequently they will stay together for the first year after they are kicked out of the nest until they build up confidence to go out on their own. Well... the second grizzly came up on the road, and the two walked directly toward us.. passing along side the bus so close you could reach out and touch them (see photos)... one woman put her window back up... others were hanging out taking pictures.. The bus driver said such close views are rare.. the passengers were really excited to have such a unique photo opportunity..
Then as we returned to the area of the "sleeping bear", and there he was... a big lump on the tundra.. another bus was stopped there watching and hoping he would wake and get up. Someone suggested making a noise or throwing a rock.. the bus driver said he thought it was best "to leave a sleeping bear lie"... we finally began to move on, but then.... the bear rolled over and big paws were sticking up in the air.. this was a BIG Grizzly... we watched as he scratched, and finally stood up, yawning and stretching and starting to walk... Cameras clicked, and videos were running as the passengers captured the moment... Then as the bear began to walk off, he "relieved" himself.... I think the lady next to me got it all on tape... Someone asked "I thought bears did that in the woods?"... someone replied "Grizzly bears do it anywhere they want...". so ended our day of bear watching.
It was sunny and warm here today... I heard on the news that Fairbanks to our north was at 72 degrees, while the ports to the south are still cool.. at least I know I am headed in the right direction.. This was a long day in the park, but well worth it. You can stop the bus anyplace you want and get off and go hiking.. then later catch another one (based on space available). We saw a number of young people doing that and hiking across the valley floor and over the hills. No trails exist, so they suggest that you follow a river bed or some other landmark and carry a compass if you stray very far from the road.. and then there are those grizzlies... the rules are to run from a moose, don't run from bears... I stayed close enough to the bus so that I did not have to memorize the rules...
