August 18th, 2024 The End of the Road in Denali

Today's adventure...The shuttle bus to East Fork!

From yesterday:

"The Denali Park Road goes 92 miles into the park.  Near the end is Wonder Lake and at the end is Kantishna.  Sadly, there was a landslide at MP 45 and nothing is allowed past MP 43 (East Fork).  Private vehicles can only go to MP 14 so a bus is needed to go beyond that."

We were blessed..In 2007 we made the shuttle bus trip to Wonder Lake.  Those iconic pictures that you see of Denali and the reflection on a lake is done on a clear day at Wonder Lake.  That trip is here: 

https://thehitzels.blogspot.com/2007/07/july-19-2007-denali-and-wildlife.html

In 2009, we were able to take the trip to Kantishna.  That trip is here:

https://thehitzels.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-25-2009-kantishna-experience.html

Sadly, we can only go to MP 43 because of the landslide.  BUT!!  That is okay since we saw wildlife.

They have a saying that everyone should see the Big 5 Wildlife in Denali: Caribou, Moose, Wolf, Bear, and Dall Sheep.  Well, we were blessed to see all but the Wolf!

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The nice thing about taking the shuttle is that you can see a lot.

The not so nice is that you are taking pictures thru the bus windows OR the siting is on the side that you are not sitting on.. LOL

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Our bus stop pickup... (Side note. If you come here in 2027, go to Eielson.  Great visitor center, great trails, and if the weather Gods are good.. great view of Denali!).  Roaming around the Eielson Center is still on my bucket list!

The mountains are in the clouds:

Our first sighting... CARIBOU!   Just losing the velvet from his antlers which is why it is so bloody.

Not too far away, we saw this guy (Sorry the pictures are a little blurry - he was far away1):

Scenes along the way!:

We made a stop at the Teklanika Rest Area.  WOW! What a difference from 2009!  This is the Teklanika River - a braided river.  So what is a braided river?:

"A braided river is a river with a network of channels that branch and merge to create a braided pattern. The channels are separated by small islands called braid bars, aits, or eyots, which are often temporary. The bars form, are consumed, and re-form continuously, making braided channels very dynamic. "

The bridge across the river into the wilderness of Denali:

The Teklanika River:

The Road:

The views and those white spots are Dall Sheep:

If you look close, there are caribou on the ridge:

We made our way to the end of this road at the East Fork of the Toklat River:

Fall is coming!:

So... we were able to get off the bus and take pictures.  The shuttle bus is a hop on, hop off bus, meaning that if you want to hike, you can hop off the bus and when you are done, you can hop on another shuttle bus. (Depending on the time of day, they come thru every 20 - 30 minutes.)  A few folks left our bus and a few got a ride back.

Heading back:

It is raining out there:

Incredible country - the pictures do not show how grand it is.  That "hill" on the left is over five miles away (and look how huge it looks - WOW!)

Dall Sheep:

This caribou came down in front of the bus and then walked up the road - too funny.  This is the best picture I could get - LOL!:

Love the fireweed color!  As we get into the fall, the fireweed leaves turn a beautiful shade of mauve/red:

Another view along the way:

How beautiful!  Look at those antlers!:

And our last treat of the day!:

Isn't he beautiful!

Moose rutting season is starting so hopefully we will see more of these guys before we leave.

Another great day!  (But I really want some sun and no rain - LOL!)

Enjoy today!

May 7, 2009 – Happy Anniversary and Geocaching

Happy Anniversary to us!!! – 21 years – WOW!   And we both surprised the other with a card.  (Let me tell you how hard it is to go shopping alone – :-))

We decided to try our hand at geocaching.  I checked the internet for sites close to us and we found both – Yippee!!!   In the process we found that our GPS unit is pretty accurate.  So we signed our names but didn’t leave or take anything.  Looking forward to doing more of this in the places we go.

On our way to and from, we came across a caribou herd.  How about this:

 

Did you know that both female and male caribou have antlers?  The males start growing theirs in the spring and lose in the late fall.  The females start to grow late spring and lose in the winter.  And did you know that reindeer are actually domesticated caribou?   So given that info, most of Santa’s reindeer were female – :-)  (Maybe Rudolph was a late bloomer – LOL!!)

The one you see in the above picture is male (look closer and you can tell – LOL).  The females in the group are just starting to grow their antlers.  Hard to see in the pictures but close up, the little knobs are there.

One of the things we did see and wish we did not was on the paths to both finds -caribou carcasses all torn apart.  The one looked real old but the other still had some meat on it – gruesome I know – so we hurried out of there!!!

To celebrate our anniversary, we had some great buffalo steaks on the grill – MMMMMMMM.

Tomorrow we head to Fairbanks so stay tuned…