Denali Bus Tour
We started early next morning at 5:30 to take a bus tour of Denali. Yes 5:30am! We were not feeling tired, very well rested, just rushing with the breakfast and to top it someone at the hotel informed us, that you don't get food in the park. You have to pack and take it for day trip. The restaurant had a facility to preorder lunchbox had we known and requested the night earlier. Since,we did not have that option, we rushed to our hotel vending corner and picked up whatever fruits and dry sandwiches we could get. 2 turkey sandwiches, juices and cookies and apples. There were no veggie options other than a plain bagel. I am a vegetarian, unless there arises a dire need to eat anything else and today was one such day. Later in the day we realized there was a subway 1 mile around that area, but it would not have been open that early. Nevermind! we were already running to catch our park bus.
As we entered the park, it hit me that it was only 5:30 in the morning, the sun was up and behind the dark clouds, it looked like its going to rain crazily any moment but it dint and the whole atmosphere was so cool and calm as opposed to being windy the earlier day. The morning light lit up the forest in yellow and orange colors. The expanse of the forest made me feel so little and lost but at the same time happy to be away from everything. I felt content. I wish we had come a little before time and could have sit around the visitor center to enjoy the morning. Me and my husband ran to the bus and heard a few groans from the ranger about being nearly late, but all was good. We were on the bus now :) The ranger was awesome, very polite and very informative. And to top it did I mention these bus tours are free and a must do by everyone! Just book the tour online prior to the trip. We took the wonder lake trip but went only till Eilson center. There was a complete 12 hour tour which went to Katishna, the last road accessible point in park and back.
Our ranger had been working in Denali park for about 20 years and knew every tiny detail. And so our journey started with our awesome ranger on the 90 mile road of the park. She told us private vehicles were only allowed in first 15 miles of the park and there were many trails in that area, which set a plan for us for the next day. You could probably do bike from there, because I remember seeing a few bikers area beyond first 15 miles and you could definitely hop off a bus and hike and get back onto any another bus from anywhere on the road.
On our way in we first came across the dense vegetated Tiaga region, where we did have most of our moose sightings. Moose sightings are like deer sightings there. There are signs on road all over Alaska.
Followed by vast expanse of the grassy Tundra region were the grand mountains. The ranger spotted caribou, bears and most difficult to spot Dall sheep on the way. The daal sheep was perched so high up in the mountains, it was hard to see. Many tourists had binoculars or a powerful camera to view beers and Daal sheep. Since Tundra is a region of tiny grassland vegetation and no tall trees, we could see as far as the eyes could take us. We came across an area called the polychrome pass which was the most picturesque part in the park, with so many colors! The bus stopped at all the scenic areas giving us enough time to take in the beauty.
Range led hike
Next we reached the Eilson center. We were planning to go to the Wonderlake reflection pond next on our bus.The reflection pond at wonder lake is famous for the beautiful reflection of Mckinley it offers on a clear day. But since Mt Mckinley was not visible again that day, we decided against it. Instead we decided to do the 3 hour ranger led hike which started behind the Eilson center. It was about 2000 ft steep, and 2 mile long hike. It may not sound like a lot, but I was huffing and puffing all the way up. The ranger stopped every 10 minutes and explained to us about flaura and fauna, adaptation of animals to that habitat, animal safety protocols and even let us touch a lazy squirrel!. He said those were the laziest animals and easy food source in Denali. The hollow hooved animals like the dall sheep, caribou, moose etc adapted quickly to snow and did not need to go into hibernation. While animals such as the squirrel and bear go into a long winter hibernation. He explained that since there is ice just 3 feet below the ground even in summer in Denali, the tundra region does not sport tall tress but only shrubs that grow near to ground and have spread out roots. The bears ate nearly a million berries each day in summer and lived on squirrels for other times. He explained how you never run from a bear or fox because they would attack you considering you predator. But you can run as fast as you can from a moose or caribou :) He also talked about how far is a safe distance from animals. After that we were hoping we din't encounter any animal because with the steepness of hike, running was absolutely not an option.
As he explained to us about all this we reached the top. Even with all the excercise, swimming, cardio and weights I do all through the year, I was the last to reach the top huffing and panting. So its better never to overestimate your capacity. The view from above was gorgeous. Gorgeous is an understatement. Imagine climbing one of the mountains and getting a clear view on all sides of it. I also thought we might encounter a dall sheep because they lived so high up. But we din't!, maybe this mountain was just not high enough for them to escape from bears. Though the ranger did say that the dall sheep do wander to lower terrain once a while, but thats not very frequent. Check out the photos from the top.
After a few minutes of taking in the picturesque beauty of the place, we started our decent. Steep decents are also not easy, if you think, it would be a piece of cake as compared to the climb. They put too much pressure on the knees, so you have to stop once in a while to give your painful knees a break. To top it we saw a bear approaching towards us from the road after about half way through decent. The ranger explained that it will not take the bear more than a few minutes to reach us if he decides to charge. We waited patiently while the bear made his decision. Then the ranger asked us to start climbing back to the top as the bear started his uphill climb. The ranger said that since its the bears natural habitat, they try not to interfere in its natural habitat and shove it away unless they definitely know its closing in. And he asked us to keep quite since animals can hear from far away and he assured us the bear definitely knew we were near!.... So much for distance and steepness of climb, nothing seemed to be too difficult for the bear. He also contacted the visitor center below to inform them and other visitors and also asked them to keep an eye on the bear. Thankfully after about an hour, the bear decided to take a turn away from the trail and as we watched him disappear we started our decent. The ranger remained on radio call throughout to know if the bear changed direction again. In that little time of the hike, the weather changed from sunny to cold to rainy and back to sunny. As they say weather is quite unpredictable in most of Alaska.
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