Have I mentioned how great the weather’s been this past week? After all I’ve heard about rain and cold and layers for Alaska, we’ve experienced the exact opposite. I worried about freezing, and instead, it’s been clear, sunny, and on the verge of being downright hot.
And we’ve appreciated every moment of the sunshine! Made it feel like a real summer vacation.
Today was a really early day – our tour left at 6:30 a.m., which was a little rough because a) we had to get up at 5:15, and b) we drank a lot of free beer and stayed up late last night. But we did it, and were in the lobby just as the bus pulled up.
But the bus had other plans. Notably, it did not want to go on the Natural History Tour, and refused to start. And unfortunately, the Denali bus mechanics are on strike, so that slowed the recovery process a bit. However, we are on vacation so it takes more than a broken bus to ruin our day.
Once we got a replacement bus, we were on our way for the Natural History Tour. This was a school-bus ride 15 miles into Denali park, and it was – yes, you guessed it – AMAZING. The trees and mountains provided a breath-taking background, and our guide was funny and easy-going. He would drive a few miles down the road, then stop and have us search for wildlife. We didn’t see much at first, but then we saw probably the most majestic thing you can possibly see in the park – The Mountain. Denali itself, dwarfing the other mountains and covered in snow. It really was awesome, and I mean that in the “awe-inspiring” not “cool, dude” kind of way.
An amazing view of Denali -- this made our whole trip!
We’d been warned many times that we might not see Denali (aka Mt. McKinley). It has its own weather system and is frequently shrouded in clouds. The next lodge we’re travelling to even has a wake-up call system so that if the mountain does come out late at night, they’ll call you so you can see it.
But as I mentioned, good fortune is our travel companion this week, and the weather was picture perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a more sunny, clear day. And maybe 45 minutes into the park, there she was in all her glory. Denali, or The Great One in Athabascan (an Alaskan native tribe).
I could hardly believe our luck. We bounded out of the bus and immediately snapped up tons of pictures. Our driver then guided us back onto the bus and congratulated us on being one of the 25% of the summer tourists who’d see it.
We resumed our bus trip. We stopped at a little cabin in the woods swarming with mosquitoes and a man named Happy Harry. Happy Harry told us how the cabin is a replenishing station for the park rangers, and pointed out the bear-proof windows. They were wooden windows with nails sticking out of them and all around the window sills.
Bear-proof windows
Walking back to our bus, we spotted our first wildlife – a little hare. It was enough to spark our excitement.
Next, our guide spotted a mountaintop full of Dall sheep. He set up a telescope so we could see them (they were hard to see even with binoculars).
He also spotted a coyote down in the riverbank. It was being chased by a couple of gulls, who kept divebombing it.
We drove on some more, until we got to Primrose Point, one of our last stops. It was very cool – Denali looming in the background, and a smiling Athabascan woman next to us. She told us about the five tribes indigenous to Alaska, and specifically about her tribe, the Athabascan people. She was very wise, and spiritual, and I was really moved by her history. And then, when I thought it couldn’t get any better, she serenaded us with an Athabascan song. It was really inspiring.
We loaded the bus one last time for our return trip. However, Bryan, our guide, told us to keep looking out for wildlife. He was right – not five minutes later, we came across a stopped car, and saw the coyote run in front of it. Some cars on the other side stopped, and the little coyote got confused on where to go next, and just kept running. He ran right past our bus, on the side I was on. Too cool!
Coyote running past our bus
We also saw a caribou lying in a dry riverbank. The animals of Denali (caribou, moose, even the sled dogs) are all built for cold weather, and the heat was really taking a toll on them. That caribou just sat there in his heavy coat, trying to cool down. (He was kinda dumb though, because he was right in the hot sun!) Our last sighting was a ptarmigan, the state bird, and a bunch of her little chicks running into the bush.
One hot caribou -- they're built for -40 degree weather, not 80 above. The animals were having a hard time with the heat.
We grabbed a quick lunch after the tour, and boarded another school bus bound for the visitor center. We disembarked, then immediately loaded onto another bus headed to the ranger station for a sled dog demo. The sled dogs are the main source of transportation during the winter months, so it was kinda cool to hear about that. We also got to see the dogs race for about 10 seconds. Those were the cool things. The rest of the demo was pretty boring.
Edra considers a new career as a musher
We returned to the visitor center, where Mark, Edra, Kaye and I watched a really beautiful film about Denali’s four seasons. Unfortunately, we’d all been up since 5 o’clock this morning, and when they dimmed the lights, we almost dozed off. Kaye said, “We haven’t seen dark in a few days, and my body just wanted to go to sleep!” Talk about instinctual behavior, ours really kicked in then.
After the movie, we enjoyed ice cream cones out on the patio. We had a surprise guest, a little squirrel. He came right up to us and started cussing us out in squirrel language, chirping and squeaking and finishing off with a mad little chatter. Kaye said he was chastising us, and it certainly felt like it! I’ve never been yelled at by a squirrel before.
We headed back to the hotel for some down time, probably the first I’ve had in five days (there’s just so much to do, and so much sunshine to do it in! We saw people rafting down the river last night at 9:30). The Wawerchaks and Stricklands recommended the fancy restaurant at the hotel, so I thought I’d have a special Mark and Mom dinner there. Unfortunately, the first question Mark had was, “Is Amber coming?” The second was, “Is Edra coming?” and the third was, “Why not?” He is having such a blast with his aunties. I thought he’d be lonely being the only kid, but he is reveling in all the attention.
We returned from dinner to find the whole group relaxing at a table on the deck. They looked like they were having fun, so we joined them and enjoyed the fresh air and beautiful river flowing below. It was just another gorgeous night in another gorgeous Alaskan city.
So that’s it…think we’re caught up so far. WiFi’s been a little spotty, and I really have been having too much fun to stop very often. But we are having a FANTASTIC time, and just want to say –- if you’ve ever thought about visiting Alaska, DO IT! And if you visit, don’t just do the cruise, tour the interior, too. You won’t regret it!
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