Day 12   To Denali National Park 1^st Sept









 We woke up to a fine but cloudy day and set off up the Parks Highway for Denali, hoping for good views of the mountains but knowing we had a very slim chance of seeing Mt McKinley in view of the weather. The first place we stopped was at the Alaska Veterans Memorial – a very impressive monument to all the armed services, coastguard, Alaska National Guard & Merchant Marine.


 It is a beautiful place, full of poignant stories of heroism & bravery and well worth a visit. We read the historical panels then had coffee in the small visitor centre, where we admired a great photo of the mountain hanging behind the desk – sadly this was the best view we were going to get as the cloud was still completely obscuring anything beyond the car park!

On through Brooks Pass, we were delighted to see the Fall colours increasing: we were both teachers until we retired so have never had the chance to see Fall anywhere except in the UK. The edges of the highway got more & more beautiful as we headed north and my camera was never away. We entered the park and stopped to check in for our stay at Savage Campground – I was really glad I’d reserved a site as the couple in front of us were turned away. The drive into the park finally showed us views of the mountains and some lovely foliage, and we came to a halt as several vehicles had pulled over, obviously for a wildlife sighting – our first! It was a male moose, and we took lots of pictures of his wonderful headgear. We drove on to the end of the public road at mile 16, admiring the scenery all the way, then turned round to find our "home".  

  After lots of information from the experts on Tripadvisor, we had decided Savage was the place for us, and what a beautiful place it turned out to be; our pitch was one of the few with mountain views. It was BBQ tea – the first of the trip – then we made our sandwiches and packed our bags for tomorrow, our long awaited journey into the park.

Day 13 Denali 2^nd Sept

Along with the campsite I had booked the shuttle to the visitor centre at Eielson, taking advice from the forum to use this method of travel and not a tour, and how right they all were. Our bus should have arrived at 8am, and we stood at the bus stop from 7.50 but none came. A camper bus went past plus several tours crammed full of people, then at 8.25 the bus for Kantishna (end of the road at mile 92) stopped. The driver kindly let us on when we explained and we were so glad he did – only 17 people on here. We eventually discovered the 7.30 bus had had a mechanical problem and didn’t leave until 8.40.

This was the best bus we could have been on, as we could move to whichever side of the bus each time some wildlife was spotted – and we saw some beauties. On this trip I discovered a new love: tundra in the fall. I could not get over how colourful it was, and just gazed in fascination as we travelled through the park. We had great views of the mountain ranges, albeit slightly misty, and increasing amounts of snow on the tops, then at Sable Pass we saw our first 2 grizzlies high up on the mountain.





 I tried on the elk antlers at Toklat rest stop – I couldn’t believe how heavy they were, and as it was really windy there I found it almost impossible to lift them onto my head. How do they move with antlers of that weight? And even more, how on earth do moose ever lift their heads? The Polychrome overlook was amazing, with stupendous views of the mountains in shades of rust, cream & browns of every hue and the river looking like silver threads down in the bottom. I found I couldn’t look down very much: 700ft of almost sheer drop.... .

Our driver was great at spotting animals & he found our next grizzly up on the right on a huge patch of gravel. We watched him make his (or her) way across it, leaving a diagonal track to the tundra below, then a little further on we found Mr & Mrs Moose in the bushes, and while we were parked a pair of willow ptarmigans grubbed about right next to the bus. The state bird was one I didn’t expect to see, and we felt very lucky to have seen them so close; we also saw our first Dall sheep high up on the tops. What a day this was turning out to be.

We arrived at Eielson Visitor Centre and immediately went to upgrade our tickets to go further on – the bus was going to Kantishna and so were we – Wonder Lake would have been great but the mountain wasn’t out and hubby’s knee wasn’t good enough for a hike so we decided to stay on our nearly empty bus. We ate our sandwiches sitting outside in a sheltered spot whilst gazing in awe across the valley at the autumn tints below snow-capped mountains.







 The trail from the visitor centre was temporarily closed as a grizzly was foraging very close to it, so we got some great pictures before we got back on the bus. Continuing on we saw caribou and more moose, plus another grizzly high up – many photos were taken.

The tundra up here was even better than earlier and I just couldn’t get enough of the colours: all shades of pink, red, yellow, russet, orange, just like Joseph’s coat of many colours – I have so many pictures of tundra nobody is ever going to sit through them without complaining! The sun was now showing in some places and the vistas were incredible (running out of superlatives here), with shining glaciers, dark brooding mountains, green trees and that tundra.....my slideshow of Fall colours is at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-07dd-575e-9546?ln

  Wonder Lake had great reflections of all the above, as did Reflection Pond – the only thing missing was McKinley itself, and sadly it hid itself all day. But there was more fabulous tundra all the way to Kantishna, where thick cloud suspended itself halfway up the mountains and prevented the air taxi from taking off. We had our picture taken at the End of the Road sign and did a short walk up the road, then it was back on the bus for the return journey.   







We stopped at Wonder Lake campground to pick the few remaining blueberries, called in at the Visitor Centre to look at the very interesting McKinley First Ascent exhibition, then overdosed on the wonderful views all the way back, when the sinking sun threw wonderful shadows & lit up the Polychrome in spectacular fashion

It was a totally fabulous day.



 
Day 14   Denali 3^rd September

The morning dawned bright but cloudy yet again, and as we’d had an 11 hour day on the bus yesterday, we decided to walk the Mountain Vista Trail accessible from the campground. The sun came out as we set off so we enjoyed the views plus the info board pictures of Savage Camp, a tourist resort in 1923 and one which conveyed the visitors into the park in horse-drawn carriages. It would have taken them a very long time to reach Kantishna!  
 
Shuttle bus trips back to the facilities at the entrance to the park are free for Savage River campers, but as they only go every 2 hours, we took our RV down to the Visitor Centre and had a nice lunch of fish & chips for seniors – a manageable (for me) portion size. We wanted to go to the free sled dog demonstration and tour the husky kennels, so we got the shuttle to the kennels. The dogs are in sort of open kennels and there is a museum of old sleds and equipment to browse round, then the rangers do a demonstration run on a specially adapted grass sled.  


I have had a lifelong fear of dogs, but actually managed to pet one of the beautiful huskies – as the photo proves. The ranger gave us an interesting talk about the running of the dogs then drove the sled round the track – it was great to watch the team in motion, and imagine what a wonderful sight they would be running in the snow  
 

 We returned to the visitor centre to watch a lovely film of the 4 seasons in the life of the park, then browsed the excellent displays of wildlife & history. It was by now 5pm & pouring down, so we decided that rather than driving back 12 miles to the campground to sit in the rain for the evening we would start the drive back down the Parks Highway. The night was spent at Trapper Creek RV where we seemed to be the only visitors – this gave us the clue that although we hadn’t booked anywhere for the next week, we might not have too much trouble finding somewhere to stay.



 Day 15 To the Kenai 4^th Sept

Just for a change, it was raining virtually all the way down the highway....we stopped in Wasilla at Fred Meyer (raining), sped through Anchorage (still raining) & stopped for lunch at Potter Marsh Bird Sanctuary (more rain) then decided, blow it, we’ll walk the boardwalks in the rain! So we did, but there was not much birdlife to admire – perhaps they weren’t too keen on the rain? We did see some teal though, and were delighted to spot a green kingfisher on a post.







 As we drove down Turnagain Arm, the weather gradually cleared up so we could see at the viewpoints - it was still very misty, but we could appreciate some of the beauty that was hiding behind it. Reading from Milepost, we learned that the Arm was an extension of the Cook Inlet, named for Captain James Cook (a very famous Briton) during his hunt for the northwest passage, and that the Arm was named Turnagain by his sailing master William Bligh (an infamous Briton of the mutiny on the Bounty) when he discovered that there was no outlet and he had to turn round.

At Bird Point there are some sculptures of Beluga whales with bits of them emerging from the concrete just like the real thing. I took several photos, knowing we wouldn’t see whales, but to our amazement we did – the tide was coming in which is apparently the best time, and there were 5 Belugas, emerging from the grey waves just like the sculptures; we missed the tidal bore, but the Belugas more than made up for it.

We had hoped to stop at Girdwood and ride the Alyeska Tram up the mountain to admire the views over the Arm, but it was raining again with attendant mist/cloud so we drove on towards Seward, where we stopped at Stony Creek RV park – at $36 it was our most expensive site to date, tucked away in a residential area on the banks of a creek, but it looked very nice surrounded by huge pines & mountains. There were only 6 units here so the facilities weren’t exactly stretched & we enjoyed our stay.