Our Journey : June 25, 2009 – The Kantishna Experience

6/28/2009

June 25, 2009 – The Kantishna Experience

What an exciting day!! We booked a tour called the Kantishna Experience and at 7 AM we were ready to board our bus:

Just a little background. In Denali, you can only drive on the road for 15 miles. To go any further you need to be on a bus. There is an option to go to the Teklanika Campground that is 29 miles in but you must have a ticket and reservations. A few years ago, we took the Wonder Lake tour bus to mile 85 and this trip I wanted to go to the end of the road – mile 90 where there is the historic mining town of Kantishna.

The scenery and wildlife settings – WOW and more WOW!! Our bus driver Laura told us so much about the park and some of the people that shaped the park. We picked up a Ranger at Wonder Lake who gave us more information about the Lake, Kantishna and some of the historic buildings and stories of Kantishna. I took over 300 pictures and it was so hard to decide what to post and what order. Some of these pictures were taken thru the bus window so there is a slight reflection.

Come along with me for a short version (the tour was 13 hours long).

Our first view of Denali – notice how clear the skies are. (FYI – This is North America’s highest mountain and is growing 3/4 inch per year.) Because of it’s height, it produces it’s own weather and is visible only 30% of the time so today was a great day for us to see this.

This is the Teklanika River (notice the car on the bridge):

Our first Grizzly sighting:

Another view of Denali:

Most of the soil here is permafrost. When it melts the mountain falls off. This caving just happened 3 days ago.

How about this fox checking us out?

It is hard to describe the vastness of this land. Notice the bus about halfway up on the right side. Hopefully that will give you some perspective.

The road – Yikes!! This is heading toward Polychrome Mountain and the valley was a LONG way down. They also called this area Poison Pass – one drop will kill you.

The Toklat River:

Another good view of Denali. This mountain has two peaks – one is rounded and the other is sharp. The distance between the two is about 1.5 miles.

Another view of the Toklat River. Andy and I have decided to hike this river bed when we come back – it is just such a magical place.

In the center of the picture you will notice white specs on the mountain – they are a Dall sheep herd.

And another view of the mountain - notice the clouds coming in. This is from the Eielson Visitor Center Overlook.

More views from Eielson Overlook:

Andy and I – he just has a hard time smiling – :-((((

A MOOSE!!!

Reflection Pond with a swan:

Wonder Lake:

And this, my friends, is the end of the road – LOL and our bus!! Actually from Wonder Lake to here we did get off the bus twice and followed the Ranger thru a number of areas and heard all about the gold mining and history of Kantishna. I did take some pictures of the newer buildings in Kantishna, however, they were from the bus and did not come out very well. Most of this town is still privately owned with only a few sections leased by the park service.

And this is Fannie Quigley’s house. Fannie was a colorful character in Kantishna’s history. I need to get a book on her life – she is truly one of Alaska’s pioneers. (I don’t really remember all the ranger told us about her life – sorry…. short term memory loss has started – :-(()

More views on our way back:

Another Grizzly – the little brown dot to the left of her is a cub.

The next three pictures are of a wolf. The bus was stopped and we watched this wolf come up from the valley, go across the road, hang out a while there, then come back down on the road and go right past the bus. It was fascinating!!!