Does the Mountain Denali Really Exist?

Fireweed filled landscape through the
window of the moving bus!

I found it very confusing when I first came to Alaska and discussions occurred about the tallest mountain in Denali National Park, was it Mount McKinley or was it a mountain called Denali?  The Alaska Range runs through Denali National Park and has the highest peaks on the North American continent; Mount McKinley for those of us in the lower 48 or Denali if you are from Alaska.  Many people use the term interchangeably only adding to the confusion until you ask for clarification.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denali_naming_dispute  So once I figured out there was only one 20,320 foot mountain in Alaska, it just had two names, I then set about wondering if it really existed.  Denali-the mountain, is barely visible during the summer.  Like Mount Rainier, it makes its own weather.  While it might peek through the clouds at some point or another during the day, our waiter told us that they only saw it 20% of the time during the summer.  For the record, by now I have gotten over worrying about blue skies!  I know every morning is guaranteed to be overcast and potentially by the end of the day we may see sun.  The first two days we never saw a peek of the peak and with such bleak odds, I had written it off entirely for this trip.

Gerry, Tony & Phyllis as we browse
 through the shops at the
Denali Princess Lodge.

We arrived at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and ran into a couple from California that we had met on the cruise, Phyllis and Gerry.  After meeting them early in the cruise, we ate together a couple times.  Gerry reminded me of Eaton, my parent’s good friend, so we took to them immediately.  They were on the same tour as us the following day and we looked forward to visiting with them then.

Tony, Gina & Tony as we said our goodbyes.

 











The next day our Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour was to be a 9 hour wildlife viewing bus tour.  http://www.princesslodges.com/excursions/denali-tundra-wilderness-tour.htm  As we ate an early breakfast, we ran into Gina, Tony and Tony  from the cruise.  Gina had wanted to try my new 50-500 lens, so in the few minutes we had, she took some pictures and we exchanged email info.  I guess she got the bug, from an email I just received I know a bigger lens is on her Christmas list!  As we said our goodbyes, we met Phyllis and Gerry and waited in the wrong location for the tour bus. 
 

 

Last but at least not forgotten, we were discovered and treated to the last seats at the back of the bus.  Since both Phyllis and Gerry knew that I was constantly taking pictures, it worked out great as they didn’t get annoyed with me leaning into their space with my monster lens trying to take pictures out a school bus window! 

 



Milepost 53 Tolkat

Denali National Park is unlike any park we have ever been to; probably the least accessible of all the parks I have ever visited.    It was originally created to preserve Dall Sheep in their pristine wilderness environment.  They most certainly have achieved it.  The park consists of six million acres of untouched wilderness and there are no established trails within.  The only road in the park, the Denali Park Road parallels the Alaska Range for 92 miles, usually through the low valleys between the mountains.  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/national_parks/denali_park98.pdf  In its efforts to keep impacts to the park to a minimum, only tour busses are allowed past milepost 15.  The tour we took only covered the first 53 miles ending at Tolkat.  

Dall Sheep high on the mountain.

 

All the landscape pictures that I ever saw were mainly of Wonder Lake with reflections of Denali.  I didn’t do my homework very well when I booked the tour.  Wonder Lake was at milepost 85, an 11 hour round trip bus ride.  However, I’m not sure we would have wanted to be on a bus for 11 hours, so our 9 hour tour would have to do.

To be honest, the very beginning of the tour was a little boring.  We were on a supped up school bus, jostling around in the back of the bus on a dirt road and we didn’t see a lot of wildlife.  The skies had low ceilings so visibility was limited, some nice little ponds and fireweed whizzed past us, but the only places we could stop for pictures were predetermined rest stops which were usually the most non picturesque spots available!  I finally realized I am not a tour girl!  However, we had Phyllis and Gerry to keep us entertained and shortly past the 15 mile point, things picked up. 

We had a caribou sighting and then two,

 



A newly discovered species of Caribou!

then a moose, more caribou, more moose

 

and then the BEAR!  Like me, everyone wanted to see a bear! 

 

We even saw a sleeping bear right next to the road, of course he just looked like a lump of hay but it was a bear nonetheless, and we just let the sleeping bear lie. 

  

 In fact we saw 12 bears, of which there were 3 sows with 2 cubs each, 2 sets being yearlings and one set of “spring cubs” - cute little baby bears! 

 

  We even saw the spring cubs run to the mom as she then laid on her back and let them nurse, it was truly amazing! 

 

 These were the only bear we had seen at this point in our trip.  In addition we saw 5 moose-shouldn’t that be like 5 meece?; almost 10 caribou, 3 Dall Sheep, a couple ground squirrels,  a marmot, a fox trotting down the road right past our bus

 and a spruce grouse and with her three babies crossing the road in front of us.

 

 Our bus driver/tour guide was great and tried to accommodate the group, pulling off the road to watch the animals we spotted.  She even captured it on live video via a telephoto video camera which played on  drop down monitors throughout the bus.  With a little comment about the dirty windows, she even washed them at one of our stops, with the help of Tony and Gerry.  All in all, it was a good wildlife viewing day.  

Bear store at the Denali Princess Lodge complex.

Gerry , Phyllis and Tony at Tolkat rest stop

My favorite bear at the Denali NP Visitor Center

 

Sunset at midnight



On a clear day, Denali is in the middle
of the arch.

We were only at the Denali Lodge for two nights before we made our way by coach several hours south to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.  We still had hopes of seeing the mountain on the other side of the mountain range.  Arriving with rain in the morning, we had lunch with Phyllis and Gerry at the 20320 Grill.  We all were still questioning if there really was a mountain there or was it a hoax. 

Later Tony and I took a shuttle to Talkeetna to check out the little town.  The Mt. McKinley Lodge is really in the middle of nowhere, Talkeetna is where all the excursions leave from and it was a cute little town, a 50 minute ride from the Lodge.  They had lots of cute shops, places to eat and a brewery.  Of course we took time out to sample their brews.

Tony with the brewery sampler.

 

Pictures of Talkeetna

 

 

Also there was the West Rib Café and Pub that had been featured on Travel Channel’s, Man vs Food.  The 5 pounds of “gooey goodness” called Seward’s Follies couldn’t be finished by their host.  As we stopped by to check it out, I noticed someone had ordered it for their group.  As I said before, everything is big in Alaska!

It was beautiful in Talkeetna- sunny and warm, but as we made our way back to our lodge, it appeared it had rained all day and the skies were just clearing.  I took one last look out the window of the main lodge that supposedly was facing the infamous, invisible mountain and I thought I saw the sky starting to clear over the mountain range. 



Alaska Range at Sunset



  Of course, only time would tell, so with about 100 other people, Tony and I waited on the deck to see if the mountain would reveal itself.  Thirty minutes later… everyone cheered as the entire mountain silhouette was visible as the sun was beginning to set. 

 Unfortunately I found out later that Phyllis and Gerry hadn’t signed up for the “call me when the mountain is visible notification” and missed the show.  They didn’t believe it existed either, so my picture will have to substitute as proof. 
 


Close-up of Denali, I guess it does exist!

 

 

The next day we make our way to Anchorage, leaving all our friends from the cruise to go on a new adventure.  Crissy was coming to Anchorage the following day for our next excursion and we were anxious to see her.