Our first full day in Denali was everything that we had hoped. When we were here 9 years ago we took a tour into the park and didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife and we were supposed to take a flight to land on a glacier which was cancelled. In contrast this time our Tundra wildlife tour was full of wildlife sightings and our Glacier landing in Denali did happen and was spectacular!
The morning started on a small school bus like tour bus into the park. We climbed the steep set of stairs up to the main lodge in order to meet the bus. We decided never to take the property shuttle but instead to take these stairs when we needed to get to the lodge, which we did several times a day.
We boarded the bus and met our tour guide Jason who had left a job in engineering 12 years before and never looked back. He was knowledgeable and handled the crown on the bus very well.
We saw some Ptarmigans and an Arctic Hare on the way into the park as well as Caribou. Then at the first rest area we encountered our first brown bear out on the riverbed. The Brown bears here in Denali also called Grizzlies are smaller than the ones that you see near the coastal towns because they don’t have the easy source of protein in the Salmon but they need to work harder for their food. We also learned that their coats can vary from very blonde to almost black but you can tell them from the large hump between their shoulders.
Caribou from the bus
Some views of the mountains at a stop – Denalis is visible very far in the distance
Ptarmigans – the state bird of Alaska
Brown Bear from the Rest Area
Brown Bear from the rest area
As we travelled farther into the park we encountered some Dall Sheep
Dall Sheep
We went as far into the park as we could due to a road collapse and turned around. On the way back out we saw 2 more bear. Conrad spotted then and we stopped to see them.
Once back from the Tundra Wilderness tour we had something to eat and got ready for our Flight Landing on Denali hoping that it wouldn’t be cancelled and it was not.
We were picked up by a Fly Denali Shuttle at the hotel and driven to their airfield in Healy. We met our Co-Pilot Mike and they got us glacier overboots. We then met our Pilot Eric who was the head pilot for Fly Denali. They loaded us and 6 other passengers aboard according to weight to balance and then we were off. Each passenger had a window and Eric made sure to get good views for everyone.
He was very experienced and we heard him communicating with other pilots in the area to make sure that they all knew where each other were located and what routes they were taking.
Conrad at the airfield beside the plane that we took
Flying over to land on the glacier
Once we got to the glacier Eric set the plan down easily and smoothly and we had about 20 minutes with spectacular views of Denali and other mountains
Denali is the furthest and highest
Granite rock face where we landed
Conrad on the Glacier
Once everyone had had a chance to enjoy the area nad take lots of pictures we took off again for home. The flight was over lots of additional mountains and glaciers and was really beautiful. We were thrilled to have been able to finally complete the journey that we had wanted to take 9 years ago and couldn’t due to a weather cancellation
Flying back to the airfield.