Denali Airport AK06 - Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Blair Swing

Our trip to Denali, was part of a long awaited trip up to Alaska with my wife, sister, brother in law, cousin and her family, to see my Uncle who has lived up near Palmer for nearly 50 years, and was absolutely fabulous! We were a bit late getting out of the gate that morning, but managed to catch the 9:30 a.m. bus for an approximately 8 hr tour, 66 miles one way, $35/PP + a $10 park admission fee good for 7 days. Busses leave from the Wilderness Access Center (not the Denali Visitors Center), traveling out (in our case) to the Eielson Visitors Center. The late start turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as our bus driver was fabulous, and being used to giving the more expensive tours, (he was a last minute substitute for the regular driver), just didn't know any other way but to enlighten us with stories the whole way out and back, so saved a few bucks there. For you sea voyagers arriving in Seward, you might be better off renting a car and driving up north than taking the package tour, although I do understand the convenience is worth something. Well only the first 14 miles are paved, and then you go on a well maintained, but still gravely road for the remaining miles, (which brought back fond memories of the washboard type gravel roads I grew up driving around on in Nebraska, except without the towering mountains around you!)

The weather the whole trip had been just perfect, and that day was no exception, we had seen the mountain driving up the day before, so were already members of the 30% club, the average that gets to see the mountain that is, and we were blessed with another sighting of the majestic peak again at our first chance to see it. As you pass the forest and start to drive out onto he tundra it is hard to not be in total awe of the beauty that surrounds you and at our first stop, we spotted a lone Caribou down in the river, the first of the big five you are looking for. It wasn't very long after that that we caught a glimpse of our first Grizzly Bear, or rather first three as it was a mother and her two cubs, so already we had a truly successful day, with the mountain, caribou and bear, in baseball that would be batting .500 if we didn't see anything else the rest of the day However, the fun was just beginning, and we soon had two more grizzly sightings, albeit, even with my telephoto lens, was still a challenge to see, not that I was overly anxious to get much closer to a 600 pound behemoth! Suddenly, there were several buses that were stopped just ahead of us, and usually a good sign that there is an animal of some sorts nearby.Then we saw him in all his glory, walking about 20 feet away from us on the low side of the road through the bramble breaking branches, and making a powerful statement, he stayed just out of picture view due to the brush for a couple seconds, and then he decided to cross the road right behind our bus! Got a few great shots and was actually having trouble getting the whole bear in the picture with the lens I had on the camera! He just ignored us, and was more interested in the vegetation around him, and eating up the sweet grasses and berries in monstrous gulps, and I managed to catch a couple more great "shots" before he sauntered off into the tall grass and was gone from our view, only to live on forever in the minds (& photos) of the people with us that day, simply breathtaking!

We ended up seeing 3 of the big 5, a total of 8 bears in all, (2.5% +/-of the 300 there), including another one that sauntered in front of our bus about 25 feet away, a few more single caribou and about 15 Dall Sheep way up on the mountain side, although the mountain was gone by the time we got to Eielson, but to use another baseball term, we truly felt like we hit one out of Denali National Park!

We saw the dog sled demonstration the next morning, back to Anchorage, and on to Whittier the next day for an exciting afternoon of glacial viewing before arriving at the airport with a whole hour to spare, feeling we managed to pack a lifetime of memories into our short time in Alaska!

Truong Truong Minh

Khi Rừng Quốc gia Mỹ tăng tốc để kỉ niệm 100 năm hình thành vào năm 2016, không ai có thể phủ nhận rằng Alaska là một trong những nơi tốt nhất thế giới để chào mừng điều này. Đây là một trong 10 công viên quốc gia lớn nhất thế giới, nhiều bờ biển hơn phần còn lại trên lục địa Mỹ cộng lại, và là nhà của chó sói, gấu xám Bắc Mỹ, đại bàng đầu trắng, chưa kể đến ngọn núi cao nhất đất nước Denali. Hãy đi để khám phá dòng sông băng đầy đe dọa, hay sự đa dạng hóa của các nền văn hóa tại tiểu bang này. Alaska xứng đáng là một trong những nơi đẹp nhất thế giới đối với ai yêu các mảnh đất hoang dã.