Day 3 - Denali Park & TWT

Teklanika River Overlook

Warning - Risk of Photo Overload! (I took advantage of my 32Gb of memory card space)
The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast in the King Salmon restaurant on the property. It was probably the best meal we’d had at one of the lodges. Our Tundra Wilderness Tour didn’t start until 2:00p, so we headed over to the shops across the street for some more shopping and to get sandwiches for lunch and dinner, since we wouldn’t be back until late in the evening. We opted for the afternoon tour mainly because we are not morning people, but also because the morning tours have to be back in time for guests who are leaving on the afternoon train. We didn’t want to have to worry about deadlines. The hotel lobby was very busy with motor coaches leaving and the Natural History Tours and TWT leaving all at about the same time. Our tour was called and we headed out to the park with an almost full bus.  We picked up 5 more passengers at the Wilderness Access Center in the park.

Denali Park - I believe we went as far as the Toklat River

I’m glad we chose the TWT over the NHT or the shuttle buses. It was the right decision for us. The NHT didn’t go as far into the park, and some of the other guests that we got to know said that it was okay, but they would like to have gone further into the park. I don’t know if the shuttle buses have a naturalist on board, but our guide Tom was fantastic. He kept up a running commentary from the time we left at 2:00 until we returned to the lodge at 10:45. He was interesting and funny. 

Teklanika River - a braided river which changes paths often

We saw some Dall sheep several times high up on the mountain sides; he called them Dall dots. At our stop at Polychrome mountain, we realized there was a Dall sheep right there on the hillside below our bus.  We all had to take photos, but the moment we were all back onboard, about a dozen rams started heading up the steep hillside to check us out. They walked right alongside the bus. Tom said that was pretty unusual and that we were lucky to see sheep down as low as we were.

These are Dall Dots - those tiny white dots on the ridge are Dall Sheep!

These guys came right up to the road and decided to walk alongside the bus.

Denali was interesting for its vastness and the wildlife, but the scenery cannot compare to a Yosemite or some of the other national parks; that's not why you come here. You come to be overwhelmed by the space, the huge mountains and to spot wildlife. Permafrost prevents the trees from growing very tall, and for quite a bit of the time we were above the timberline. We were able to spot some caribou way off in the distance. At one point, a red fox ran alongside the road with an Arctic Ground Squirrel in its jaws; he disappeared under the highway and reappeared on the other side.  He/she disappeared behind some bushes then reappeared without the squirrel; we figured she left it in her den for her babies.

Can you spot the caribou?

It was this hard to spot them on the tour...

Mama Fox looks pretty intense after dropping off dinner in the den.

Rainbow near Polychrome Pass

We made it to our turnaround spot without seeing a bear, a moose or a wolf, and we were feeling pretty defeated. We were about halfway back when Tom spotted a grizzly up on the hillside, about 200 yards away.  We backed up the bus, since she appeared to be heading opposite the direction we were headed.  Sure enough, she came out of the underbrush with a yearling cub and we got to watch the two of them for about 15 minutes. We were almost back to the paved road when we spotted a moose off in the distance.  He was a big one with a huge rack.  Yeah, we got to see most of the big five! 

Mama Grizzly with year old cub

There's a Moose in the Meadow!

But it got even better. We had dropped off our non-Princess passengers at the WAC and were headed down by Riley Creek on the way out of the park when a mother moose and her calf suddenly appeared on the side of the road.  The baby was the cutest thing; he kept peeking out from under his mama at us. We stayed there a little while and then continued on.  We saw four more moose along the road.  I guess they wait until the park guests are gone and then they use the roads for themselves; we were really late so we got lucky.

Mama Moose and Curious Baby.

The view from Sable Pass - huge, vast, you name it.

Where's Denali?

Our only disappointment was not seeing the Big One - Denali. But we would have another opportunity the next day when we boarded the train for Talkeetna. And what an opportunity it was!