Day 12 Journey to the Center

Reflection of Denali in a pond along the park road.

Only 54 miles today; not counting the 85 mile, 11 hour bus ride to Wonder Lake. What a long glorious, tiring, dusty day! The alarm goes off at 5:30am, ugh. My anxiety for the day leaves me unable to shove more than a few bites of oatmeal down my throat. Good thing I packed a lot of healthy munchies. Templeton took to pouting and refused to eat his breakfast. How he knew I was leaving him behind I’ll never know. I give him a kiss and off I go, right after I scrape the ice off of my windshield! No cars on the road and I find myself hitting 70 (the speed limit is 65). Have I mentioned how fun these frost heaves and dips are on this stretch of highway? I arrive 20 minutes early for my bus (they ask that you are there 15 minutes prior to departure) and join the frenzy. People and lines of people are everywhere. There are so many buses cruising on the road it feels crowded. Of course, if we were all in cars it would be gridlock on the park road (think Yellowstone). So we’re all scrambling for the bathroom or coffee or last minute snacks, find your ticket, listen for the call, and get in line and wait in the cold.

wow- the park road as it winds through the wilderness

Omar from Pennsylvania is our driver. The drivers are not required to talk but I think Omar likes to hear himself talk so we get a narrated tour. I just wish he was more of a naturalist. We still got cultural history, geology, miscellaneous park facts, mountain names, and a bit of natural history.

Here are some- This park is so large that if one explored 1,000 acres a day it would take 16 years to see it all. We crossed up and over four passes. There are 48 wolves in 5 packs in the park. He did mention the only threat to these wolves is being hunted and trapped at the edge of the park boundaries. Toklat means “headwaters”. 200,000 berries are eaten by a bear in one day. The park receives an average of 15” of rain annually- they received 16” in July of this year alone (everybody talks about all of the rain they received last month). Only 10% of visitors are gifted with the spectacular sight of the entirety of Denali mountain. 10%! There are on average 4 days in August that one can see the entire mountain. I am so blessed.

The park road and tundra

At one of our first stops I discovered that in my early morning haste and haze I had put my new shirt on backwards! I fixed that issue because I wanted the front to show in the photo taken of me. It has the same John Muir saying on it that I wrote on my trailer window before I left on the trip. Coincidence? You decide.

Patch o' yellow in a sea of dark green.

Much of the landscape feels like we’re at 10,000’ but it doesn’t get any higher than 3,700’ or so on the road. In these higher latitudes tree line is at around 3,700’ elevation.

The bus ride was fine although for those of us attempting to take good photos with 500mm lenses, it’s pretty tough. No tripod because you’re pretty packed in and I don’t know where you’d set it up anyway. The animals were always on the other side of the bus so I had to jockey my way in to get a photo- often hand-holding my huge lens. This means that many of my photos are soft and/or blurry. The grizzly bear is the best. The soft caribou photo is kind of cool. The fact that I had the privilege to see these critters is enough.

Perspective on just how small we are.

4 days in August average for seeing all of Denali. Only 10% of visitors ever see the entire mountain.

I stayed on the bus the whole way. We made several stops to take in scenic views and restrooms. I didn't feel comfortable walking out into the tundra alone so I didn't get off. You really need two days for the bus. One to just ride it and scope out areas you'd like to spend more time in and figure out how the "jump on another bus later" method works; and the second day to get off and on the bus to explore areas. The reason for this- you may have a very long wait for another bus with room for you. I also did not wander to Reflection Pond because there was a pretty stiff breeze at Wonder Lake. Knowing how tough it can be to get back on a bus and that there would likely be no reflection of Denali, I skipped it. It's a photo you've seen many times if you've seen photos of Denali's reflection in water.

Wonder Lake

Lots of buses run this road.

My bus

Let me give you some advice on the bus ride. If you get car sick- take something for nausea and don’t sit in the back of the bus. Don’t sit over the wheel, there’s nowhere for your feet. If heights bother you sit on the left coming back down the road. Layer clothes. I started out with a down jacket, fleece vest, stocking cap, gloves, and long underwear under my long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans. Most layers were peeled off as the day wore on. Bring food, there is none available. Bring at least one water bottle. There are 2 stops where the bottle can be refilled. ALWAYS wear your seatbelt- especially if Omar is your driver. Sudden hard stops when someone yells "stop" are common. Did I mention it’s dusty? If you have sinus issues, bring whatever you need to keep your sinuses happy. With my necked turned the same way for 11 hours, thank gawd for bio-freeze. And always keep your hands and elbows in the bus and whisper when at a stop for a critter. The idea is to keep the wildlife from habituating to human voices or flailing arms. Plus, Omar will politely yell at you.

Caribou skull at Eielson Visitor Center

Two moose skulls with antlers locked in death.

I was able to see barren ground caribou! It was so cool- we saw one near the road munching, then a big beautiful bull above the Savage River station. Later there were three down in a draw. What beautiful animals. I’ve only ever seen them on nature shows and in my books. I am so grateful to have finally seen them in person.

barren ground caribou

I finally saw some moose; both bulls and cows. Now I know they really do exist up here (LOL). They were doing what moose do, laying around or munching on dwarf birch and the 20 species of willow. The Dall sheep were spots on a mountain side seen best with binoculars. The first grizzly could barely be seen with binoculars let alone the naked eye high up on a ridge. The second grizzly was chowing down; big ol’ grizzly coat shiny in the sun. I could have watched all of these animals for hours but the bus is on a schedule so off we go.

Grizzly

moose

I think the best and most interesting sighting was the enormous grizzly bear lying in a creek bed. I hope he was okay. He just laid there and ignored everything. Nothing seem to bother him. Even when buses started their engines he ignored it. Every once in a while something would catch his interest and he’d look to the side. It was pretty warm and he was quite fat so maybe it was the best way to cool off. It was hilarious!  So were we. Every time the bear moved its head 40 cameras went click-click-click. I finally put mine down and just laughed at us and the bear. This photo will go along with my photo of a mama black bear draped over a giant boulder on a hot day with baby bear at the base looking up at her. Just.like.us.

Grizzly

By the time the trip was ¾ of the way done the energy on the bus had died down significantly. We had also picked up some passengers so we were really crammed together. I had my own seat for most of the trip so I had to rearrange everything. Trying to get up to take a photo was near impossible with someone sitting next to me. I suspect this cramming is how the entire summer goes.

After all of this I decide to stay up for the Aurora Borealis. But that’s a separate blog post.

Bear paw sunset

Templeton had a great time with Eileen, her husband, and Mollie their dog. They went for adventures up the Denali Highway. He was quite happy when I returned late in the evening.

Templeton got his own special card after being taken care of by Eileen at Cantwell RV Park.

Wildlife- barren ground caribou (5), grizzly bears (3), moose (5), Dall sheep (5), northern goshawk, common loon, heard a collared pika, hoary marmots, arctic ground squirrels, northern shrike, magpie, and the ubiquitous raven, always every day my ravens.

Lesson #12 Even bears need to chill out once in a while. Be a bear.