Denali National Park and Reserve

Denali is the tallest mountain in North America

Saturday May 30,2015……   Today we had the pleasure of visiting a very special place.  We had no idea that Denali National Park was so beautiful.  The park road goes back into the 6 million acre park a distance of 92 miles.  The public can only drive in the first 15 miles, so if you want to see the good stuff you need to ride a shuttle bus or tour bus. The reason for the buses is to keep the impact of all the visitors to a minimum.   We boarded our bus at 7:00 am for the 53 mile, 6 1/2 hour  trek to see the sights.  And we really saw some sights.

Not exactly a luxury coach

 We had perfect weather and Denali showed itself all day long.  The road follows the mountain side most of the way, gravel, and  just barely enough room for the buses to pass each other.  We were  so close to the side and so high up that I had to look away several times.

North face of Denali

A tourist checking out the view

A much different look further back into the park

We saw:  moose, caribou, wolf, grizzly bears, big horn sheep, ptarmigan, and arctic squirrels.  Everyone needs to put this on their bucket list of places to see.  I hope these pictures can do it justice.

Give these big boys lots of room!!

We saw lots of caribou on this trip

Update on the arctic circle trip:  We started out to drive to the arctic circle but aborted the trip only after 25 miles.  The road was the worst we have seen to date.  We weren't even off the paved portion and the pot holes and frost heaves were terrible.  Several times we had to cross clear over to the opposite lane to miss the bigger pot holes.  It just wasn't worth the wear and tear on the equipment.

Mother moose

We stayed at a campground in Denali Park where a mother moose with two calves has taken up residence.   She was extremely defensive and sent one woman to the hospital and another woman she knocked down while we were there.  These can be very dangerous animals.