Wow! Denali Nat'l Park!

Monday July 19, A day to remember in Denali: Denali National Park is huge – 6 million acres. There is just one road leading into its interior and cars aren’t allowed to go more than a few miles from the entrance. So we bought tickets for a shuttle bus ride, a day long journey to Eielson, a visitor center with trailheads about 60 miles in. The dark green painted old school buses that serve as shuttles are ubiquitous along the road, and the drivers are friendly and knowledgeable. Little did I realize that we would spend the day identifying and stopping to photograph all the fauna we could spot. And there were lots of animals to see! It was amazing to drive through this vast wilderness where the animal populations live as they always have, while humans are just occasional visitors. Here’s the list: We saw more caribou, moose, bears, wolves, Dall sheep, a golden eagle sitting on the ground, a marmot sunning on a rock and numerous inquisitive arctic ground squirrels looking for handouts.

The road is steep, narrow and curvy and I’m glad I didn’t have to drive. We enjoyed the incredible vistas. Polychrome Pass with its many colored rock layers, a multitude of glaciers and snow capped peaks, and the always present braided rivers in every valley below us. In the distance, mountains that make our Colorado 14ers look wimpy appeared in glimpses through the clouds, snowy and massive.

We ate our sandwiches outside at Eielson, on the roof that’s furnished with interpretive signs, native plants and benches to sit and absorb the views. Then, we headed up a steep trail to a mountaintop above the visitor center. The 360 degree views were dizzying and the rocky summit at our feet was covered with the tiniest of arctic berries, wild flowers, mosses and lichens. We settled into the soft plants and gazed off to the west at the Alaska Range and within it, Denali, the Great One. The entire range was shrouded in clouds, which moved and cleared briefly hear and there. They lifted somewhat as we watched, and the long glacier along the foothills was clear. But the summits did not clear that day.

It was 10 PM before our bus dropped us off back at camp. It had been a long, eventful day and everyone was tired. But, getting off the bus with my camera full of beautiful photos and my mind, too, filled with the visions from the day, I felt a sense of peaceful contentment. It is a privilege to be able to see a place like Denali, and I’m a lucky woman.