Denali National Park

 

Fairbanks to Denali  Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Left Fairbanks for Denali National Park and traveled the 150 miles in about 3 hours. Checked into the campground (back to the gravel pit type campground) and drove to the park to see a sled-dog demonstration.  They use sleds here in the park to get to distant areas (no mechanized vehicles are allowed in the remote areas of the park).  Stopped at the visitor center and saw an introductory video about wildlife. 

 Denali  Thursday, July 24, 2003

We took a shuttle bus trip (only way you can get into the park – no private cars allowed) about 60 miles into the park on a gravel road with no shoulders or guardrails and very deep precipices on one side.  The weather is cloudy, so we couldn’t see Mt. McKinley at all – glad we saw it on the drive up on the highway.     We saw quite a bit of wildlife – herds of wild caribou, two grizzlies, one black bear, two marmots and a couple of moose, but almost all were a good distance away.  You have to do major backcountry backpacking in order to really appreciate the wildlife and isolation of this park.  The scenery was not as impressive as we expected - but the cloudy weather certainly affected that because we couldn't see The Mountain.  We had wanted to take a hike at the far end of the park, but the wind was blowing about 20-30 mph with gusts to 40 mph and it was only about 55 degrees, but it felt like the 30s. Uhhhh, skipped the hike.

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