Today we will be starting our 13 hour tour through the Denali National Park. We are to meet our bus at the Denali Chalet Resort, about ten miles south of Healy. We had a wake up call at 5:00 a.m., and by 6:00 a.m. we were loading ourselves into the van for the short ride to the hotel for pickup.
We loaded the bus, but because they had several pickups prior to picking us up, we were forced to sit in the back of a converted school bus. I knew we were in trouble once we passed through about 12 miles of paved road, and then hit the gravel for the next 78 miles. The bus bounced and shook. I finally had to move to a more comfortable seat (I use comfortable loosely???)
About five miles into the park someone spotted about five moose. They were just ambling along, with no cares in the world. We waited until they crossed the road. They were huge. We then spotted some pheasants, golden eagles, and a few dall sheep on the mountainside. Someone then spotted a brown female bear with her cub. So finally we have seen the two animals that we have been waiting for about two weeks to see. What a treat!!!
We all couldn't believe how beautiful the landscape was. The colors were gorgeous, and we have never seen such spectacular colors in our lives. It was like someone just used brush strokes with red, orange and yellow hues. We were all stunned as to how the mountains and terrain were so outstanding.
We had a rest stop along the way, and we were treated to some coffee, tea, hot cider or hot chocolate. Our guide, Kevin Hay, was a seasoned guide of the park, and we enjoyed him immensely.
We continued on our travels. We spotted caribou, hares, ravens, beavers, and quite a few more moose and some black bears and grizzlies.
We did see Wonder Lake. Not quite sure why they call it "Wonder", but Kevin said it was a wonder it was there. Our bus then stopped at the Kantishna Inn for lunch of homemade bean soup, chicken wrap, potato salad, chocolate chip cookie and lemonade or ice tea. After this hearty lunch we had the option of hearing a presentation about the Iditarod Race or panning for gold.
We opted to hear a presentation from the son of one of the most prolific winners of many races in the past, Emmitt Peters. He explained how his father made his dog sled out of the birch trees outside their home in Ruby, while the other mushers used synthetics. They use 14 dogs to start the race, and must finish the race with at least five dogs. The race covers approximately 1,149 miles of tundra, ice, snow, blizzards, (you get the picture). We then went outside and saw a demonstration of how they harness up the dogs to the sled. They use the female dogs as the leads, because they are the "smart" dogs of course. We really enjoyed this demonstration, and now it was time to get back on the road for another animal sighting.
Sam did have a run in with his seat mate in front of him who did not appreciate the fact that every time we stopped they would both push back their windows, and she was a little annoyed with him and told him so. Sam said something "appropriate" and he left for the back of the bus where he would be free to take pictures whenever he wanted.
On the return trip there were still a lot of animals that we saw, but not many new species were identified. It was close to the 8:00 p.m. time of our drop off to the hotel. We were hungry for dinner after such a long safari trip.
Our guide had recommended a restaurant by the name of The Crow's Nest, which sat up on a hill overlooking the Denali strip. They only had burgers to serve at that late hour, so guess what we all had. We all agreed they were the best burgers we had had in a long time. (Hopefully they were beef burgers and not reindeer.)
We had thought we would do a little shopping prior to returning to our accommodations, but at the last minute we decided we were all too tired, and would wait until tomorrow.
Well it's getting late here in the wild, and I will close for now. Praise the Lord that we finally saw all the animals that we wanted to see on this trip. Good night from the Denali National Park.
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