Denali - the great one - the high one
What a place. There is something very unique about Denali as compared to all the other national parks. You can't drive in, you have to board one of the big school buses to get into the park. The road in is only open from June to September. As a result, the place is actually wild. The bears don't know the sound of human voices, the low rumbling of the buses diesel rarely even raises a head. Truely wild.
I have to start with the greatest moment of our time in Denali. A brown bear crossed the road just ahead of us and dissapeared into the adjacent brush. (It's startling how something that big can slip so easily into the brush and dissappear. We waited just as silently and then he popped up on his hind legs not mroe the twenty yards in front of my window. It was the first time all trip that I'd had the camera in the right place at the right time. I can't wait to share this image with you.
I had thought that an 8 hour round trip bus ride would have bounced and bored me to death, but I sat on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire time. We saw bear and moose and caribou and wolves and eagles and dall sheep. The bus bounces along until someone sees something and hollers out. The driver pulls over to the side and shuts down the engine. The green bus leans heavily to one side while the occupants clamour over. Everyone goes silent. (The brief you on this before you leave, they don't want the animals to hear human voices.) We watch. and watch. There was a film we later saw in the visitor center that had no narration. The point was that you were supposed to listen to the park and it would tell you everything you needed to know about it. That what it was like in those moments when the bus goes silent and we watched and listened.
The bus lets you off anytime you want and you can jump on the next one that comes by. There are very few trails in the park. They just encourage you to set off across the tundra then find your way back to the road. We got out a couple of times in order to be alone for a bit. With 6 million acres and limited access, it is pretty easy to find a quiet spot.
Our campsite was about 14 miles into the park in the sparse black spruce forest. We camped for both nights, but the frost on the tent this morning told me that last night was about the coldest that we would be able to handle. I'm not sure what the temperature got down to, I just still haven't completly warmed up.
This morning we drove out of the park to an adjacent ranch and took a 2 hour hourseback ride across the tundra. The clouds hung low this morning and our horses sloshed through the soggy tundra. I know I learned about it in fourth grade, but the ground underneath the tundra never thaws, so you have this soggy ground that won't drain because of the permafrost. What was most remarkable about the horse ride was the colors we saw. Turns out that it's really fall up here. The trees and shrubs across the tundra are a remarkable splash of reds and yellows. And I've never really known that there are so many shades of green. Crayola still has a way to go if you want to draw this landscape.
We did get a glimpse of about half of Mt. McKinely. Frommer's guidebook says don't bother comming here if you want to see the mountian. I think it's only visible about 8 days a year. The clouds hang over it most of the time. The cold ice prevents any warm arm from pushing the weather systems up, so they just hang there. We still have a chance on the drive back to Anchorage though.
There is plenty more to share, but it's time for us to get on the road and coffeeshop folks are hanging close over my shoulder.
What a place. There is something very unique about Denali as compared to all the other national parks. You can't drive in, you have to board one of the big school buses to get into the park. The road in is only open from June to September. As a result, the place is actually wild. The bears don't know the sound of human voices, the low rumbling of the buses diesel rarely even raises a head. Truely wild.
I have to start with the greatest moment of our time in Denali. A brown bear crossed the road just ahead of us and dissapeared into the adjacent brush. (It's startling how something that big can slip so easily into the brush and dissappear. We waited just as silently and then he popped up on his hind legs not mroe the twenty yards in front of my window. It was the first time all trip that I'd had the camera in the right place at the right time. I can't wait to share this image with you.
I had thought that an 8 hour round trip bus ride would have bounced and bored me to death, but I sat on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire time. We saw bear and moose and caribou and wolves and eagles and dall sheep. The bus bounces along until someone sees something and hollers out. The driver pulls over to the side and shuts down the engine. The green bus leans heavily to one side while the occupants clamour over. Everyone goes silent. (The brief you on this before you leave, they don't want the animals to hear human voices.) We watch. and watch. There was a film we later saw in the visitor center that had no narration. The point was that you were supposed to listen to the park and it would tell you everything you needed to know about it. That what it was like in those moments when the bus goes silent and we watched and listened.
The bus lets you off anytime you want and you can jump on the next one that comes by. There are very few trails in the park. They just encourage you to set off across the tundra then find your way back to the road. We got out a couple of times in order to be alone for a bit. With 6 million acres and limited access, it is pretty easy to find a quiet spot.
Our campsite was about 14 miles into the park in the sparse black spruce forest. We camped for both nights, but the frost on the tent this morning told me that last night was about the coldest that we would be able to handle. I'm not sure what the temperature got down to, I just still haven't completly warmed up.
This morning we drove out of the park to an adjacent ranch and took a 2 hour hourseback ride across the tundra. The clouds hung low this morning and our horses sloshed through the soggy tundra. I know I learned about it in fourth grade, but the ground underneath the tundra never thaws, so you have this soggy ground that won't drain because of the permafrost. What was most remarkable about the horse ride was the colors we saw. Turns out that it's really fall up here. The trees and shrubs across the tundra are a remarkable splash of reds and yellows. And I've never really known that there are so many shades of green. Crayola still has a way to go if you want to draw this landscape.
We did get a glimpse of about half of Mt. McKinely. Frommer's guidebook says don't bother comming here if you want to see the mountian. I think it's only visible about 8 days a year. The clouds hang over it most of the time. The cold ice prevents any warm arm from pushing the weather systems up, so they just hang there. We still have a chance on the drive back to Anchorage though.
There is plenty more to share, but it's time for us to get on the road and coffeeshop folks are hanging close over my shoulder.
posted by Doug at
3:01 PM
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