We packed a backpack with some bottles of water and food bars, since no food or drinks are available out in the park. We packed a few bottles of water and some food bars in my backpack to have on our bus trip. We put on a couple layers of shirts and wore our windbreakers since it was so cool this morning.
After feeding Tinker an early lunch and putting him in his crate for a "nap", we walked up to the bus stop at the campground entrance to wait for our bus. Our "Tek Pass" for today guarantees that we would have seats on the bus.
According to the information on the National Park website, shuttle bus drivers aren't tour guides and may or may not comment on things in the park. Our driver was great and she talked about the history of the park and the wildlife what we might see today.
After riding for about 40 minutes our bus driver stopped to point out some Dall Sheep high up on the hillsides and gave everyone time to take photos. The Dall Sheep were so high up, they looked like white specks.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
Shortly after that a passenger on the bus spotted 3 grizzly bears - a mother and her 2 cubs that are about 2 years old. We stopped again for everyone to take photos.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
A few minutes after taking that photo, we saw a female moose (cow) and her calf. Our driver even turned off the bus engine so it wouldn't spook them. The moose kept an eye on the bus as she led her calf through the brush and away from the road. Besides getting some photos of them, Mike even shot a short movie of them.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
The Park Road winds through the mountains and valleys with great views almost around every turn
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
and there are no guard rails on the outside edge of the road.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
Our next stop was at Polychrome Pass and it was quite windy.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
We stopped next at the Toklat River Rest Area which was the turnaround point of our trip. Our driver said if anyone wanted to continue on to the Eielson Visitor Center on another bus, they could upgrade their ticket for $7. We checked the bus schedule to see what time we would get back to the campground (4:30) and decided to go on. Our driver checked with the bus driver who was going on to Eielson to be sure there were seats available for us. We didn't get to spend anytime at the rest area, since the bus to Eielson was leaving right then. Our bus driver on this portion of the drive didn't make any comments on the drive, so different from our first bus driver.
On our way out to the visitor center we drove by the Stony Point Lookout and Mike was able to get a photo of Mt. McKinley (Denali) which was partially covered by clouds.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
We arrived at the Eielson Visitor Center a little before 1:30 and we were only able to see part of Mt. McKinley because of the clouds.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
We saw these 2 bull moose skulls with their antlers that had locked together in battle were unable to free themselves. Their skulls were found out on the tundra.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
While we were there the clouds started to cover up more of Mt. McKinley.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
We left the Visitor Center at 2:00 to head back east through the park. On our return trip we saw this red fox running on the road
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
and he ran alongside the bus for a little bit before he got off the road. Everyone was taking photos of him and he stopped just off the road and "posed" for the cameras for a few minutes, or so it seemed. Or maybe he was just catching his breath.
 |
| From Denali Shuttle Bus Ride |
On our return trip the bus driver stopped a couple of times to pick up people who had been hiking in the park and to let some off who wanted to walk. We saw this speck way up on the road and when we got closer, we could see that it was a woman walking on the road. The driver stopped and we picked her up. You can get off and on the shuttle buses to go walking or hiking and just catch a ride on any shuttle as long as there is a vacant seat.
We arrived back at the campground a little after 4:30 and we had been gone about 6 hours. Tinker was happy to see us and I think he forgot he had had an early lunch. Because after we fed him dinner, he kept acting like he should have another meal coming.
We had a great day today and enjoyed seeing the Dall Sheep, moose, red fox and especially the grizzly bears. We didn't see any of the wolf pack or any caribou, but we were happy with the wildlife we did see.
No comments:
Post a Comment