7 June was a wildly anticipated day for the Gusinsky tribe. This is the day we venture back into Denali National Park. The park is vast, with over 6 million acres or nearly 7400 square miles, it is larger than Massachusetts. Think I’m kiddin? Look it up! There is also only one road that goes back into the park, it travels back 92 miles to Kantishna which was a gold mining camp back in the day. Our tour will not go that far back, as the road will not allow it at this time of year.

Our tour started at 6am so it was an up and at em early morning for everyone because we had to get up and ready, eat breakfast and drive to the pick up point at a local lodge near the park entrance which was about 11 miles away from where we were staying in Healy.

The day started off great other than the threat of rain which almost guarranteed that the mountain would not be out on this day either but maybe we would get lucky and it would clear up. Denali creates its own weather which is why it is usually socked in but the 600 mile Alaska range can push some winds through it and push that weather away as well. I am hopeful but not to optimistic everyone will get to see the mountain.

Although Denali is tall, the tallest in North America, it is not “biggest”. Denali has many peaks within the range where a mountain that is actually bigger,like Washington’s Mount Rainier, has a much larger footprint as it is not in the middle of the Cascade range, it has been described as being in the middle of a field since it is along the edge of the range. Rainier is a massive mountain all by it’s self, nearly seperated from the main part of the range.

Okay, this is suppose to be about the Alaska experience so on with the tour back into the park! After getting on the tour bus and meeting our guide, Matt, for the day and our box lunch, we got settled in and under way.

Turns out Matt was an outstanding guide, this was to be his 9th year as a driver/guide at Denali and it showed. He was experienced at driving the trecherous road and spotting wildlife which is what we paid the big bucks to get way back into the park for.

We saw nearly every animal that is common to the park which included Ptarmgan, snow shoe hare, artic ground squirrel, golden eagles (there are no bald eagles that far north in the interior, most folks mistake golden eagles for immature bald eagles. Common mistake), moose, caribou, mountain goats, marmots, dall sheep, grizzly bears and wolf.The only animal we did not see was the artic fox.

We made our way back into the park with Matt pointing out points of interest and sights all while everyone searched for wildlife. He mentioned that until we get back aways we probably wouldn’t see a lot.
You can only drive in your own personal vehicle 17 miles back to the Savage river where there is a ranger station you have to stop at where they will either open the gate and let you pass or turn you around to head back. We got to continue on of course. And the wildlfe started to come out of the woods for us.

As we traveled along everyone was straining to spot grizzley’s. If you spotted something you were to yell out “STOP! Moose at 11 o’clock” and this would give the direction of the animal and would cue Matt to stop the bus. So what does Nik do a few miles in? He yells “STOP”! No wildlife, just trees and rocks, so I called out false alarm to the great disappointment of about 50 people straining to see something with really big teeth. It was funny after the fact.

But it wasn’t to much longer when our driver spotted two Grizzleys between two mountains and stopped the bus and started to call out directions on where they were at. They were hard to spot since they were quite a ways away but eventually everyone got a glimps and that is about the time the driver whipped out this mini movie camera of very high quality that had the ability to zoom in and still make a nice picture. This allowed people to get a better look on the video monitors positioned around the bus. The two bears were playful and everyone was happy to see some grizzly bears. After a short time we got back under way crossing the Santuary river and then ran along the Teklanika river for quite a ways until we came to a rest stop and everyone was let off the bus to stretch their legs, get some coffee or hot chocolate in Nik’s case and go out onto a nice balcony over look of the Teklanika river surrounded by mountains.

After the potty break and refreshments we piled back on the bus and got back under way traveling along at a nice steady pace so you had plenty of time to see all you could and possibly spot something. We saw assorted animals along this leg. Soon after crossing the East Fork of the Toklat river we started a climb up a mountain. The road hugged the side without much room to spare for the bus let alone if another one was to appear coming from the other direction. There were pull outs but they were spaced out. After a short time we were quite aways up and we sat on the driver’s side which gave us quite a view of the long way down off the cliff into an old river bed………a long way down!

We were almost to our next stop at the Polychrome overlook when our driver spotted something white way off in the distance on a ledge sticking out off the mountain. He tried to spy it with his binoculars but it was still to far off to make out. He said he knew it wasn’t a rock cause it has never been there before. The area had some green grass to it so he then thought it was a camping hiker.

We continued to climb Polychrome mountain, winding along it’s circumference. Polychrome is so named for all the spectacular colored rocks. The mountain is pretty much yellow and was quite a site to look at. All the exposed rock was nothing like we had seen before, very cool.

As we neared the rest stop Matt the driver realized the white spot was in fact a Dall sheep ram! This is what I really wanted to see on my trip, Dall sheep, especially a ram. I just hoped he would still be there when we got close.

My luck was more than just that the ram stayed put but he was right near our rest stop! As soon as I got off the bus I back tracked down the road about 40 yards so I could get a good look at this ram laying on some nice green grass on a ledge over looking the valley below. I took some pictures that came out okay but he was still quite a distance away. Through the binoculars he was a magnifcent ram and my trip was made at that point. I took many pictures, of course, and loads of video, of course. It was fantastic.

So we loaded back up and kept treking back into the park, all the while we would see some sort of wildlife along the way. As we approached the Toklat river rest stop we got a surprise we were going to be allowed to go back an additional 8 miles which would put us at Stoney Hill, 62 miles back into the park. And Stoney Hill was in fact……….a stoney hill, imagine that! Matt turned us around and we made our way back to the Toklat river stop where they have a bookstore in a large shelter, displays of antlers and horns, spotting scopes and refreshments.

The mountain overlooking the stop had a few dozen mountain goats grazing on grass quite away up it. Those spotting scopes sure came in handy at that point. The weather was still holding at this point. Mostly overcast with some wind. It drizzled a couple times but overall it was fine.

So now it was time to start heading back to the park entrance. At this point it felt like we had seen all we could see and it was just a matter of the slow ride back. Little did we know there were a few big things still in store for us.

As we traveled along somebody spotted a moose in the brush, not that big of a deal since you see moose along the road what seems like every mile or so. But this moose had twin calves. Matt said one of the twins probably would not make it as they are one of the grizzly’s favorite meal. And a lot of cow moose can fend off a bear and protect a calf but when there are two……..well one is supper so the other can escape. That got a few gasps outa the folks.

As we rounded a corner Matt came to a quick stop, he had spotted two grizzlys. A sow and her cub and they were within 20 yards of the road. He told us he was shutting down the engine and for us to hold still and not make any noises. If we did this the bears may not spook and run off.

So true to human nature, people were scurrying around the bus, gasping, talking and making a general racket, lol. Everyone wanted to get that picture no matter if it scared the bears off.

But as luck would have it, they seemed to not really have a care we were there. The sow would take a look at us quite often but would continue about her merry way. She obliged everyone on the bus by keeping active and moving. She started on the right side of the bus but moved up onto the road, which Nik had a bird’s ete view of as he snuck his way up next to the driver with the huge front windows to see out of. After some time on the road they went to the left side which is the side we were seated on.

It was great and the show lasted well over 35 minutes. There were times when mama would take her cub onto the road and take off at a run to get away from the bus. We would creep up closer each time and at this point she could care less that we were there.

Two of the best moments of this interlude was when she was lazily walking along the road with us putting along behind and giving a glance back every so often. At one point she turned and stood on her hind legs to let us know she knew we were there.

The funniest moment was when she and cub were up on the road and took off running away. They went around a corner and disappeared. A few seconds later you could see her peering around the corner to see if we were following. It was great fun.

I mentioned our driver was a good one, at times during this sighting other buses would come up behind us. He would allow them to move up to the lead for a quick close up of “our” bears. This allowed many other folks to see Grizzleys up close. after a short while the other buses would fall back and let us take our lead position back.

After what seemed like a few short minutes but was probably 40 plus fun filled minutes, we moved on heading towards the park entarnce. Everyone was happy to see some bears up close.

We continued on thinking we had our last big sighting but as we came down of a mountain, rounding bend between two mountains where a river ran through. We could see across the valley there was a line of 6 to 8 buses stopped on the other side in a line. Matt stopped our bus and wanted everyone to look about to spot what they had stopped for. After awhile it was discovered by some eagle eyed riders that there were 3 wolves running around in the vicenity of the road.

We were told there are wolves in the park but there just are not that many and when they have the run of an area bigger than Massachusetts…….not good odds we would see any. But our group had divine intervention or something along those lines because we had many sightings of so many animals and in close at time as well.

There were two grey wolves and one dark one, they were quite far away but we could make them out and saw them running along the road. As they ran down the road, towards us and a bridge, we noticed there were some people on foot near the bridge. I had my video camera ready for whatever might happen but the wolves decided to get off the road and hit the brush and make a get away. It wasn’t long before they were totally outa sight and into the berry bushes.

The rest of the way was uneventful but we were all happy. Needless to say Matt our driver got a big tip delivered from Nik once he dropped us back off at the lodge. He got a kick outa gettin cash from a 5 year old, lol.

We decided to head back into the park and swing by the ranger station for the interactive displays and the bookstore. After spending some time around the station we went into the tourist trap town there by the park entrance and looked for souvieniers to bring home. We came up with all kinds of jewels to bring home with us!

Denali was fantastic and we can’t wait to get back in the near future. Next time I hope the mountain is out and we can take a flight seeing tour around the peaks of the Alaska Range, with a landing on a glacier and the finale of circling “Big Mountain” or Bolshaya Gora.

To see the pictures attached to this day find the link on the Gus.net home page to the left that is labeled North to Alaska Day 14-Denali National Park under photo sets.