Denali NationalPark
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2006
1
10
16
Trip End
Ongoing
Denali National Park, Alaska
Friday, July 14, 2006
Once again it is raining this morning. I have had some rain each day here. It usually does not last long but I would love to see some more sunshine.
Anyhow I arrived Sunday afternoon and went straight to Denali National Park(DNP) to try to get a campsite in one of their campground. By the time I got there they were all full so I ended up about 5 miles away from DNP in a nice campground. I'm glad I stayed here because they have electric hook ups and it comes in handy when my only source of heat in the camper is a small electric heater which I have needed for a couple of evenings and early in the morning.
On Monday I went for a drive into DNP. I found out the private cars can only 15 miles into the park. The rest of the way you need to take one of their bus trips. It was a nice drive with great views of lots of mountains. I belive I saw a little bit of the peak of Mt. McKinnley through the cloud coverage. After my drive I went to book a bus trip for the next day.
Tuesday morning I got up early (7am is early for me) to take an 8 hour bus tour of DNP. This was the first place I have been on a bus tour that I was disappointed with the driver. He wasn't too informative for the most part. I don't know if it was him or if that is the way all of their drivers are here. Other than that the tour was fun. We started seeing animals pretty early in the trip. the first were caribou which were well off in the distance. Later were saw some grizzly bears, but again they were off in the distance. We did get one clear view of Mt. McKinnley but that only lasted a couple of minutes. The driver did tell us that only 1/3 of the visitors to DNP get to see Mt. Mckinnely due to its own weather patterns. We continue on for a short while and then turned around to head back.
When stopped at a rest area were they have a small visitor center. This is where it got exciting. Just as I was getting back on the bus. They rushed everybody back onto their buses. There was a grizzly bear headed for the parking lot. So while we were all in the bus, the grizzly bear calmly walked through the parking lot and passed the center. I did get a few pictures in the parking lot. We then headed out and stop just outside the parking lot for another great view of the grizzly bear. We stayed there for a few minutes getting lots of pictures and some video. Seeing the bear that close made everybody trip. We then continued our way back. Close to the end we saw some more caribou and this time they were close up and I got some good pictures of them. We also did see some wolves but the were in the distance and very hard to see.
Tuesday I took it easy. I did make another drive into DNP and then did make reservations to go river rafting he next day.
Wednesday I went river rafting. It was an 11 mile trip on the Nenana River. The water temperature is between 36-38 degrees (brrrrrr) so they put you in dry suits and they work. The river itself is made up of several class III and class IV rapids. After a instructions on what to do if you fall out or the boat flips over and how to paddle we were off. I sat in the front of the boat, which I think is the best place to be because you get to see the most and you get the wettest. I was able to see the water headed to us so I could brace myself for being hit with a big wave. One time it hit me directly and push me back almost into the person behind me. Had he been in front of me I think he would have ended up in the water(he was only about 12 years old). We did get once spot where the water was calm. While it was calm our guide said that if you wanted to go into the water that this was the place. So one by one we all got into the water. The dry suits work. They keep you dry in the water. It was an interest feeling, the suit gets a little tight as the air in the suit gets pushed out. After floating for a while in the water one by one our guide pulled us back into the raft. We finished by going through a few more rapids and had a great time. I am looking forward to the chance on doing some more rafting on my trip.
Thursday I went for one more drive in DNP, didn't see much of anything. After the drive I went to a dog sled demonstration. This was cool. DNP has about 30 sled dogs for getting around the park in the winter. Before the demonstration we were able to pet the dogs. Some of the dogs we could go right up to, other we had to wait for them to come to us and a few were actually in pens. They were in the pens because they tend to eat the gravel so they are put in a pen with a cement pad. They then had us wait in a viewing area while they hooked up the doogs to the sled. they only hooked up 5 dogs, but htat was plenty. When they took off, they went fast. They pulled the sled around the track and came up to the viewing area. It was very interesting to see. I could tell that they really love what they do. When they were hooking them up to the sled they all started barking and were ready to go.
That conclude my stay n DNP and I am now headed for Anchorage.
Comments
Hi Rog from cousin Keith
We got about 10 minutes to see Denali before the clouds covered it up. Never saw grizzly tho. Isn't Alaska an awsome place? Make sure you get to Ketchikan and do some fishing. It was hot when we were there.
GREETZCUZ
YES, DO STOP IN KETCHIKAN AND FISH !! YOU CAN HAVE THEM PROCESS YOUR CATCH, THEN SHIP HOME. OH, YOU ARE TRAVELING....SEND THEM TO MY HOUSE AND I WILL HOLD THEM FOR YOU !! (NOTE TO DAD - DINNER SCHEDULED!!C'MON OVER !)
ROGER, LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME.SO GLAD YOU DECIDED TO DO THIS FOR YOURSELF!!
WE TOOK A DOG SLED RIDE ON A GLACIER IN JUNEAU...WHAT A BLAST!