Blogs from Denali National Park, Alaska, United States, North America - page 3

Advertisement


Alaska by Land for 7 Days DAY 4 & 5: Thursday & Friday - Anchorage/Talkeetna/Denali Today we boarded your motorcoach and travel north to the rail depot of Talkeetna. The train arrived on time from Seward (11.00am) where we all loaded into the top level of the carriage. We really enjoy traveling along the rails of the Alaska Railroad to Denali National Park while taking in the 360-degree views from our deluxe dome railcar seat. We saw incredible mountain views, spruce, pine and birch forests and spectacular river crossings. It certainly competed with the Canadian Rockies. On the train, as the gorgeous scenery of Alaska rolled past, be watched for wildlife and glimpses of Mt. McKinley (now converted back to the native name of Mt Denali), or, as local Alaskans and the Athabascan Indians call it, ... read more
Daneli National Park landscape (29)
Daneli National Park landscape (22)
Daneli National Park landscape - check out one of the park rangers on her day off


As the day came to an end and the bus rolled downhill to the parking area I looked at Michelle and said, “What an amazing day.” She stared out the window for a few moments, turned back toward me, “After this, how can you ever say anything else is beautiful.” She was absolutely right, nothing else we have seen or could possibly see would be more beautiful then Denali National Park. You can visit and drive yourself for the first 13 paved miles but the real guts of the park is restricted to approved bus travel only. We booked an afternoon bus that would take us to Eielson Visitors Center at Mile 65.9 with stops at two rest areas along the way. This is an 8 hour Shuttle that allows for departure and reboard anywhere along ... read more
Stunning photo of Mother Moose not 20 minutes into trip
Baby watches Mom eat lunch from a safe place
We spot a Dall Sheep way up on the rcoks, our first but not our last sheep of the day

North America » United States » Alaska » Denali National Park September 16th 2015

We awoke on Wednesday morning, while still dark, to the thrum of heavy rain upon our plywood roof. After a scratch breakfast of yet more cornflakes, we drove the 15 miles north to the Denali National Park and Preserve. Denali was one of the first things that we had booked, opting for the hop-on hop-off shuttle service that would carry us 92 miles into the park, almost to the base of Denali itself, the tallest mountain in North America. You cant drive further than the first 15 miles in your own car, so if you didn't feel like hiking the bus was the only alternative. (There are also very few set hiking trails in the park so you pretty much have free reign to walk any of the 6 million(!) acres that you like, which is ... read more


Photos from this time in Denali National Park Denali, an excellent choice. (I can’t wait to expound on these “excellent choice” repetitions when the time comes, and I hope you stay with me at least until then.) We were among the last to visit Denali National Park when the mountain was still named McKinley. If we could have arranged (had we known) to visit the park this first afternoon of our visit instead of the second, we would have been able to see it. We boarded the bus at Princess Lodge in Fairbanks around 10 in the morning, and headed south for the Princess Lodge in Denali, just outside the third largest national park in the US. The drive is just over 2 hours, but it took us just over 3 because of the mandatory gift-shop ... read more
1st moose
Denali National Park


We got an early start on Friday for our trip to Denali. The clouds were hanging over the mountain tops, so we figured our first views of Mt McKinley would not be good. However, as the morning went on, the clouds lifted and the sun was shining. We were able to pull of and get some pretty good pictures, even though the mountain was quite far away. At least we got the snow capped top of the tallest mountain in North America. Once in and set up, we had a bus picking us up for a dinner and entertainment. On Saturday, we all went on the Husky Homestead Tour. This was a great stop to see and hear how the dogs are trained for the Iditarod. Jeff King gave a great presentation on preparing himself and ... read more
Traveling
Mt McKinley
Traveling Scene


Hiking in Denali is very freeform. In general, visitors are encouraged to just explore and create their own paths but there are a few marked trails. Near Wonder Lake, there is a hike to the McKinley River and a separate short path to the southern edge of Wonder Lake. Both were pretty underwhelming. Walking to Wonder Lake from the camp puts the mountain at your back. The best views are from the north offering reflections of Denali as seen in the previous blog entry. The trail to the McKinley River is an easy meander through a forest and over many small streams before reaching the McKinley River. Normally, hikers can walk along the McKinley Bar but when we reached the end of the trail, the river was very high and blocked any further passage. An amusing ... read more
Becky on alpine trail to Thorofare Ridge
Yosemite Sam, Terry and pistol on McKinley River hike
End of McKinley River hike


It was another summer full of wondrous travel! After a quick week home to Denver in mid-June, my family set off for an Alaskan cruise and land adventure. Though I usually write blogs not long after a trip, the impressions made by Alaska are of such a grand scale that I hope I’ll be able to share some of the magic and wonder with you all even though it was over a month ago! My dad and I have had Alaska on our radar for a few years now, since we each had visited the 48 continental states, it only made sense to see America’s 49th and 50th state, too! Armed with impassioned recommendations from friends, my mom bit the bullet and booked the trip for us from June 18-July 3. As not all of us ... read more
Vancouver Seaplanes
Vancouver
Totem Poles in Stanley Park


Today started with a misunderstanding. The phone in our cabin rang at 6:05 AM. It was the front desk saying the tour bus was waiting for us! And I was sure it was scheduled to leave at 9! In fact, I asked at the front desk yesterday evening and they said yes. So, we all got up in a rush and one of the Denali Cabin employees drove us to the bus, so it all ended up ok. We got on the bus, again an old school bus, and our driver, Becky drove us into the park. Becky likes to talk. Really. Non stop stories about the history of the park, the animals, the rivers, Mt. McKinley/Denali (depends who you ask) and so on. A bit tiring but very informative. Along the way she told us ... read more
Mr. Moose
Caribou
Grizzly


We once again awoke to another beautiful day, in fact clearer than the day before. We all slept like the dead last night, and didn't get up until 7:00 am. As Bud and Jan had never been here before, they decided to take the bus excursion with John and Diane, up the Denali Park road. This is a 6 1/2 hour trip. Sandy and I had decided that we were going to unhook the RV, drive up the Denali Road as far as Savage River (12 miles) and see if Mt. McKinley was visible today. After that we were going to do some fishing. After a nice breakfast, and getting our fishing gear all sorted, we headed off for the Denali Road. The climb up the mountain is quite spectacular, with drop offs, and snow banks ... read more
Denali Park Road
Scenery on park road


After a good nights sleep once again, we awoke to another beautiful day. We have been blessed with the weather thus far on this trip. We've had rain twice, once in the Dakota's and a short rain in Skagway, neither of which has affected our trip. They're calling for rain later in the week, when we're supposed to be down on the Kenai Peninsula, so we are hoping they are wrong. After breakfast, we gassed up and filled the propane tank, as it was getting a little low, and headed out for Fairbanks. I have to say, the drive to Fairbanks was the most boring route we've been on this whole trip. It was miles upon miles of forests, with very little animal activity. There was a mountain range on our south side most of the ... read more
Getting near the end of the AlCan
The road to Delta Junction
The end of the Alcan - Delta Junction, AK




Tot: 0.194s; Tpl: 0.008s; cc: 13; qc: 77; dbt: 0.0985s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb