Denali National Park, Day Three

   

This was a free day, there were no Fantasy activities planned so Beth and I planned to the time exploring on our own. The weather called for party sunny skies temperature in the mid 60's and no rain.

We drove to the visitors center, picked out a hiking trail and off we went. the trail led us through some heavily wooded areas and eventually down to a stream. The sun was in and out and the temps made for a very comfortable walk.
After about 45 minutes we came to this stream. I thought that was odd because the stream was not on my map where it was supposed to be.

Continuing down the path hoping to locate a sign or landmark to verify our location. Then the rain started, remembering the forecast we had left our raincoats in the car. the rain continued to increase as we continued our hike. eventually we found a sign and were able to match it to our location on the map. Beth claims we were lost, I disagreed we weren't lost we just weren't where I thought we should have been. The rain continued and we were getting pretty wet. We located a bus stop along a road leading to a campground and were able to shelter from the rain. It wasn't too long before a bus came along that would take us back to the visitors center.

At the visitor center we were able to warm up, dry out and have some lunch.
By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds. Next on our agenda was to drive into the park as far as the allowed private vehicles to go. The park allows private cars to drive 15 miles into the park before your turned around by a Ranger station.

Driving slowly along the park road enjoying the scenery and on the lookout for wildlife. As we approached one of the pullouts there were several cars stopped and the people were looking up one of the mountains. We stopped to check it out and were quickly directed to see a large bear moving along one of the ridges. In addition there were several moose moving in the same direction in front of the bear. These animal were very far away and binoculars were the only way to get a good look. Beth and I were the only ones with binoculars which we quickly passed around so everyone could get a good look. The animal soon disappeared over a ridge and it time to move on.

Continuing up the road we saw several ground squirrels and various birds but no more large animals.

Arriving at mile 15 and the Savage River we were ready to get out and stretch our
legs. It just so happened there was a hiking trail for us to explore.

It was a nice two mile walk with interesting rock formations and great scenery.

       

Returning down the mountain toward the visitors center Beth spotted this lovely lady along the road.
She was a long way away, this was the best I could get with my telephoto lens.






   

One last stop in the park before returning
to the campground. Denali has there own sled
dog kennel. Historically sled dogs have been the workhorses of the park from the very beginning. In the 1960's sled dogs were eliminated in favor of snow machines. In the late 1970's the new Park manager decided to bring the sled dogs back.

The two reasons he sited where the lack of reliability of snow machines. If a machine broke down 30 miles from base camp it was a long dangerous walk for the Ranger. The noise of the machines disrupting the wildlife was the second reason.

Since then the sled dogs are the only form of transportation used in the park during the winter.








 

As we were leaving Denali the next morning we stopped at a rest area @ 40 miles north of the park. We got out of the coach and looked directly south and there was Mt Denali bigger than life.

Alaska, No bad days!