Monday August 5th
This morning we woke up a little later than we had been since we had an 8:00 start today. We had breakfast at the Sourdough restaurant on site. They had handkerchiefs for napkins and tin coffee cups and tin plates. You could get a buffet which Conrad and Cody had, or just order omelets which Mom and I did.
We headed off on an old school bus for the national park. Our driver had been working here in Alaska for 38 years and goes into the park 5-6 days a week. He warned us that most days Denali is obscured by clouds and that we might not see it. Denali is the Athabaskan people’s name for Mt. McKinley, and we learned that a law was just passed to officially call it Denali instead of Mt. McKinley. Denali is the tallest mountain in North America at 20,300 feet and is only visible about 30% of the time.
We saw a short movie at the park entrance that showed some of the history of the park, including the building of the road into the park. The workers lived in tents but there were cabins built along the way that served as food storage and dining places for the road builders. As the road progressed deeper into the park new cabins would be built to serve that purpose and they are all now cabins where the park rangers can stop as they patrol in the winter. They can cook a meal and have a warm place to sleep.
As we went into the park we spotted several Moose. This was a female or Cow Moose.
We stopped to view one of the cabins.
The outside windows of the cabin have nails facing outward to deter the bears
Here is a view of the inside of the cabin. I am sure that the wood burning stove is a welcome sight to the rangers who can be out all day in temperatures well below zero while patrolling the park.
Right next to it was a house for the dog teams
Next up we spotted two Caribou eating along a dry riverbed.
The ranger who was driving us said that he had only seen Denali 15 times this year but as we started to approach it appeared out if the clouds. We were able to get some good pictures.
Here are some pictures of us in front of Denali – you can just make out the snow covered peak in the distance in these. Also a picture of me changing lenses while taking pictures at Denali.
While we were there an Athabaskan woman Carol talked to us about the area. Her great grandfather, grandfather and father before her had all lived on the land. She lives nearby now. She volunteers her time to keep the memories and culture alive.
On the way back out of the park we spotted a Lynx, which is a rare sighting. He was right by the side of the road but disappeared quickly when. The bus pulled up so I didn’t get a picture.
This afternoon we leave Denali for Fairbanks, despite the cancelled Glacier landing on the mountain, we had a wonderful time in an extremely beautiful place.