| There is only one road
into Denali. It is 90 miles long and only park coaches are allowed beyond
mile 15. There are several tours but the principle one takes 8 hours and
goes 66 miles in to the Eielson Visitor Centre. |  |
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We had some difficulty booking the tour because they usually book up a
couple of days in advance. We also decided we wanted to go on a Discovery
hike with a park ranger. Booking all this was quite disorganised. |
| The problem was solved
when they added a second bus because of demand. American school buses are
not my favourite form of transport, but the drivers are knowledgeable and
they stop on the gravel road if someone spots some wildlife. |  |
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The scenery is very rugged so wildlife is not easily seen. However some
people have eagle eyes and spotted some 'microdots' every now and then.
Eventually the bus driver said we weren't going to stop for microdot caribou
on the skyline any more. |
| This caribou was a bit
closer but I'm still on maximum zoom. Caribou suffer terribly with flies
which lay eggs in their nostrils, so they can often be found in patches of
snow trying to ease the irritation. At this time of year they are fairly
solitary. |  |
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There are several river crossings. I think this is the Teklanika River about
30 miles in. There is an unserviced campground here. |
| This is the Toklat River
where they were extracting gravel for road repairs. |  |
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Travelling onward we go over Highway Pass. At over 4000ft it is the highest
point on the road.. |
| The scenery is
spectacular but difficult to capture particularly when the weather starts to
close in. |  |
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The road is gravel but in good condition although it is very dusty. There
are the green tour buses with just a driver, and the cream ones with a guide
doing wilderness tours and which are usually full of tour people from the
big companies. The green bus drivers don't give a running commentary but do
impart a lot of information. |
| All of the mountains are
named but only one counts. That is Mt McKinley at 20320ft. It is only
visible on 60 days a year and then only early in the morning because it
creates its own clouds. |  |
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About 500 people attempt to climb it each year and about half succeed and a
few are killed each year. They usually fly in to a base camp at 14000ft and
the climb takes up to a month, depending on weather. |
| At Eielson it came over
all murky and eventually poured with rain for about an hour. We were going
on a ranger-led walk but this was curtailed, not by the rain, but by a
passing bear. We are not allowed within 300 yards of a bear. More microdots! |  |
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The park is most famous for its Dall sheep. These usually inhabit the high
places but can occasionally be seen from the road. |
| These are only a few
hundred yards away. The males have large curled horns. |  |
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We travel back along the same road, here going through Polychrome Overlook,
so named for the rock colorations. |
| The largest view we had
of wildlife all day was this ground squirrel. |  |
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We had good weather but even so visibility was not wonderful. This was
mainly moisture in the air. It is said to be better in the mornings very
early before the clouds form. |
| More Dall sheep in a more
typical landscape. I did have some binoculars which take pictures but they
failed completely and my ordinary camera is not really up to the job. There
were some amazing lenses on the bus but few people seemed to get anything
spectacular. |  |
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However we did go round a corner and find this Dall sheep in the middle of
the road. He wasn't in a hurry to leave either. |
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