There seemed to be a pattern in the weather so far in Alaska – our days started mostly with cloudy sky, and then the sky cleared up in the afternoon. Showers were pretty common throughout the day. Our backpack carried some layers of clothing, rain gear, mosquito repeller, hand sanitizer, some snack bars, and a bottle of tap water.
Denali National Park is a beautiful place of vastness and wilderness.
With only one day to spare, we took the 6-hour Tundra bus tour to get deeper into the park.
The bus driver gave us an overview of the landscape, as we drove the first few miles into the park. There were wolves, grizzly bears, moose, caribou, dall sheep hidden behind the bushes and the shrubs. In our role as tourists, we got excited every time someone spotted an animal. Spotting animals needed some getting used to – how far were they? Which side to look at? What angle to look? What color to spot? It was exciting to see one, and even more so, to take pictures to earn the bragging rights. It was frustrating when everyone saw the animal but you, and we missed the moose. It still made the day as we spotted a couple of grizzly bears, quite a few caribou and scores of dall sheeps. Our closest encounter was a grizzly bear, which strolled hundreds of feet towards our bus, and sat on the road in front of our bus for quite some time, before the sound of bus engines sent it back to the bushes. It had no fear of the bus nor the passengers in the bus; and gave us enough time to take pictures.
WInnie the Pooh looks to be a grizzly bear. Behind its cute look, Grizzly bears are unpredictable and are often more dangerous and brutal than the black bears.
Denali Peak, at an altitude over 20,000 feet, is so high up in the sky that its face often gets hidden in the clouds. We saw its majestic faces a couple of times from afar, as the bus took us deep into the narrower gravel road of the park.
As much as we appreciated the wilderness, the wildlife caught our attention more. For the next few days, I got used to looking around and searching everywhere for wildlife. That was such a contrast from watching the computer monitor all day long.
Our next stop was Chickaloon, where the Matanuska Glacier is. We drove through miles and miles of wilderness, as we got hungrier and hungrier, with no restaurants, no fast food to be seen, no gas station nor grocery stores for food. We had to take a detour back to Talkeetna to get food. The restaurants were again busy with an average wait of an hour, we got some halibut tacos from a food truck. For the remainder of the trip, we were more prepared that the next food supply could be more than a couple of hours aways, and made sure that we filled our belly with whatever was available.
Just as if it made up for not seeing a moose in Denali, we saw a female moose right next to our car along the way. The road to Chickaloon was winding. We were rewarded with beautiful mountainous landscape. The Matanuska Glacier showed up first as a thin strip of ice glacier, then started to expand to show its magnitude. That was where our ice trek tour would be the next day.
We stayed at a very beautiful cabin in the Sheep Mountain Lodge. which had a good long history in itself. Years ago, the owner was a nurse and the place acted as a medical station for the neighborhood. In this glacier view area, the air was so fresh, the scenery was so inviting. There was a helicopter right at the Lodge, getting ready to take tourists for a helicopter ride. With an award winning restaurant, it was yet another upgrade from Denali Park Village.
We looked forward to breakfast and the chance to walk on the Matanuska glacier the next day.
Coming up Ice Trekking Tour (Day 4)
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