DENALI NATIONAL PARK

August 1 through 6, 2016

Denali National Park Scenery and Animals

 The park maintains about 30 sled dogs, for transporting cargo in the winter.  There are no motorized vehicles allowed in the wilderness areas of the park, so the dogs are necessary.  We attended a demonstration of how they train and care for the dogs.

  Private vehicles are only allowed to travel 15 miles out on the only road in the National Park.  Buses will take you up to 90 miles out and back - about a 12 hour trip.  We took the "Green bus" out about 66 miles, to Eielson Visitor Center, an 8 hour excursion.  The scenery was spectactular, even though the day was overcast, and lots of animals accommodated us.  We saw 20 grizzlies (11 were cubs), 30+ caribou, 5 moose, a dozen or so Dall sheep.

Natures camo - see the 2 Ptarmigan?

Nice of this guy to pose for us.

 

Mom and 1 of 2 cubs

 This grizzly held up traffic for 20 minutes as he ambled his way down the road.  

Yup, that's the road.  Fun when another bus is coming
the other way.

The rivers are called "braided rivers".  This is not a dry season
riverbed, there is seldom more water than this in it.  The braiding
is caused by the changing of its courses.