June 5 -- A Day in Denali National Park


A Day in Denali National Park
We woke up this morning to a gorgeous “sunrise” on the mountains that we could see from our room. 

After a quick buffet breakfast, we boarded our National Park tour bus for a day in Denali with gorgeous weather and fabulous views of everything – mountains, streams, animals, and Mt. Denali (McKinley).  We were one of the very fortunate few who could experience Denali with such weather.  Also, Denali National Park is 100 years old this year.
The map of Denali NP shows where we went in the park for a 60 mile trip on the NP road (gravel road) – directly through the wilderness.  
National Park Ranger Welcoming Us To Denali
We had a break after traveling about 1 hr at the Teklanika River overlook where we had good views of the braided river.   

Shortly after the Sable Pass area, we had some great views of Mt. Denali (20,020’ of snow-covered mountain with two summits).   
Ptarmigan, Alaska State Bird

Mt. Denali (Center, totally snow-covered)


Mt. Denali
Along the way, we saw several groups of caribou in the snow.   
We proceeded to climb and reached the Polychrome area with a road that snaked along dramatically and climbed the side of the mountain to the Polychrome Overlook at mile 46. 

The road was just perched on the side of the mountain with immense drop-offs into the valley below.  Dall sheep were spotted on the mountainside.  At the overlook, we had superb views again and saw a grizzly and her cub on a ridge about ½ mile away.   



We stopped briefly at the Toklat River rest stop and proceeded directly to the Stony Hill overlook for an unbelievable view of Mt. Denali.  Wow, it was spectacular.   

Mt. Denali, 20,020'




There we also saw caribou 

and a grizzly bear with two cubs on the road below.  This was our turnaround point.  On the return trip we saw more caribou, a moose with her calf, and more Dall sheep.   

We also picked up some rain before arriving back at the lodge at 3:30 pm.
We had dinner at the Denali Dinner Theater that included a musical about the 1913 ascent of Mt. Denali.   



Dinner consisted of tossed salad, succotash, BBQ brisket, baked salmon, mashed potatoes, and apple crisp.
Tomorrow is our last day in Denali with us departing on the Alaska Railroad for Fairbanks at 4 pm.

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