Denali

---

Our big adventure today was the shuttle bus in Denali. Again, our boys were the only children aboard, but seemed to do well. Two couples travelling from Arizona told me that they saw our kids and hoped they wouldn’t be on the same bus, but were entertained nonetheless.

The mechanics are on strike here, and are picketing with signs that say “Is your bus safe?” Not 20 minutes into our trip, our driver started hitting things on the bus and opening panels. We eventually spent 30 minutes sitting around waiting for a replacement bus, because the fan clutch was going and would eventually have caused the bus to break down. Fortunately, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

There are five animals many people hope to see in Denali National Park—bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep and wolves. I have to admit that, yes, I was hoping to see all of them. Of those five, we have only seen moose on this trip, since our bears were black and Denali’s are mostly grizzlies. Ninety-two percent of people see bears on their trip to Denali. We were not among them. The wolf population is only about 100 on average. We did not see one. We also did not see moose. We saw a few caribou, which was nice. One was lounging on a snow bank and gave us a nice picture. We saw two Dall sheep, very high up on a mountain. Basically, they were white dots.

We did see smaller wildlife, though. We saw many snowshoe hares. We also saw many arctic ground squirrels. We saw a bald eagle and a golden eagle, as well as a number of unidentified birds. The big highlight was a red fox running down the side of the road.

Only 30% of people see Mt McKinley while in the park. Fortunately, despite the smoke, we did see the mountain, a lot of it. Our bus driver was quite surprised we could see it at all. It’s difficult to take a picture of and, unfortunately, our old camera (the one we have the wide-angle lens on) is now sprouting spots all over. We think it was our previous camera that had the spot issue, so this would make two.


Conversation of the Day (with the NPS Ranger who stepped on our bus briefly):

C: You’re a park ranger!
PR: Yes I am.
C: You’re a park ranger!
PR: Yes.
(repeat 3-4 more times)

License Plates Noticed: TN, IL, AK, MN, TX, ON, BC, FL, CA, SD, MT, NM, PA, WI

Animals Noticed (unique to the trip):
Willow ptarmigan
Red fox
Golden eagle
Caribou
Dall sheep

High Temperature: 89o (Denali National Park, AK)
Low Temperature: 51o (Denali National Park, AK)

Miles: 11.2

Total Time on the Road: 0:00

---

Photos

Broken bus
It's never a good sign when your mechanics are on strike. There were at least two other buses that needed replacement, too.

Comments

[Sandy]

Pictures
The pictures are just great. Fun to see all the beautiful scenery. We got the trailer home this morning. Now I can start filling it for Dad. Post card from day 12 came today. Grandma B called last night and was so delighted-they got 2 post cards yesterday and the boys were on the one. She can't figure out how you have a post card with them on it-tried to explain that it is a picture and not sure if she believes me or not. She could make postcards too if she wanted to with her printer-am I right? Enjoy your trip home. Mom and Dad.

[karen]

temperature
Hi, My husband and I are hikers. We prefer temperatures 60-70 degrees F. What kind of weather conditions can we find in August and september? Thanks

[kengelha]

No idea
The weather in Alaska was perfect as far as we were concerned. We're from Minnesota, though, so I have no idea what to expect for August and September.