I am writing about Thursday, 9/6
Fall Colors
I have to explain. There are two Denali Parks. The state park is to the south. It is only 30 miles from Talkeetna as the crow flies; 60 miles following the roads. To the north is the federal park It’s a 3-hour drive from our hotel. Today, when I say “Denali”, I mean the federal park. Three hours in, three hours out, plus time at the park makes for a long day. We decided that one long day was better than a hotel here plus a hotel there. With one day at Denali, we had to drive the miles in either case. Still, it was a long day. We got up at 4 and got to bed at 11.
Before we left on vacation, Mark wrote about how he saw 5 moose on his travels out west this summer, so that was the number to beat. Beat it we did, thanks to the excellent Denali buss drivers. So far on our trip we saw:
- 1 marmot
- 2 ground squirrels
- several salmon spawning
- 3 grouse
- several loons
- 2 golden eagles
- 3 willow ptarmigan (Alaska state bird)
- over a dozen Dale sheep
- 8 bears
- 5 caribou
- 6 moose
Bear
That’s quite a list. Everything from the eagles down we saw in one day at Denali. We had perfect weather when we wanted it. It rained on the drive out. It rained on the drive back. Once we arrived in Denali the weather was clearing up. It got sunny. The temperature rose to the mid-50s. And the weather stayed nice until we got in the car to go home. As an additional bonus, we were in Denali for the peak of the fall colors. It’s not fall foliage. Most of Denali is above the tree line. Those few areas that have trees are 90% evergreens. But the scrub (ground cover) has riot of reds, yellows, browns, and greens in the fall. The color change lasts only two weeks, and totally by accident we were right smack dab in the middle of it.
Moose
Private cars are banned from most of Denali. Most of our day was spent riding a tourist bus to the Eielson visitor center. It’s about 60 miles. With the slow driving, stops for animal sightings, and rest stops it takes about 9 hours. Think of a school bus, but with good heat. There’s no A/C for the summer time. But the scenery is fabulous and everybody is in a good mood (even the drivers).We got off the bus near the end of the day and did a little hiking. It just wouldn’t be possible to have a better day than this.
Hike