Denali National Park

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LYN CHRYSTAL:
Denali the “High One” is the name Athabascan native people gave to the massive peak of Mount McKinley. McKinley National Park was established as a game refuge in 1917 and was named for former senator – later President – William McKinley. The name of Denali National Park and Preserve came into being in 1980 when the boundary enlarged by 4 million acres, bringing the total area covered by the park to 6 million acres. Larger than Massachusetts. North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley, (20,320’,) is part of Denali National Park and is just one peak in the spectacular Alaska Range. Denali sprawling 6 million acres and is home to grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose. We were very lucky and saw all four, although I didn't manage to get a shot of the wolf or the Dall sheep.
We started on our 8 hour trip at 8:30 a.m. under cloudy skies. There is no food or drink for sale inside the park so we had to pack a lunch and plenty of water (could include beer and wine if so desired.)
Our driver was Len who is also an RVer spending his winters mainly in Texas. He has also been a guide in Yellowstone National Park, and was very knowledgeable about Denali – he certainly was a good driver because I wouldn’t have wanted to take on the responsibility of a bus load of people on some of the roads he had to navigate.

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Photos

Grizzly Bears
We saw about 8 grizzly bears. According to one of the National Park Ranger's we spoke to the animals are usually more active on cloudy cool days......so we were lucky

Caribou
Our first sighting of caribou was early in the morning. On subsequent sightings the animals were further away.

Moose
We hadn't seen a moose at all until we were almost back at the campround. This female was just grazing away.

Mt. McKinley
The photo shows what was visible and what and where the peaks of the mountain are

Scenery
In spite of the mainly cloudy day I know we would all agree that it was well spent. The scenery is beautiful

Comments

[Dottie]

Thinking about you
Beautiful pictures Lyn, sounds like things are going well. Learned something today. I always thought our Mt Logan was the highest in North American. Looks like Denali beat us by around 400 ft. had to google it to be sure. Have fun

[Dottie]

Thinking about you
Beautiful pictures Lyn, sounds like things are going well. Learned something today. I always thought our Mt Logan was the highest in North American. Looks like Denali beat us by around 400 ft. had to google it to be sure. Have fun