August 22nd - Day 25 - Denali National Park

Yesterday, when we were in Denali National Park, we booked for a ride on the shuttle bus that goes 53 miles into the park, to the Toklat River. The shuttle leaves at 12 noon for the six and a half hour round trip ride.

With most of the morning free, I decided to give the car a clear out and start to get it ready for the shipping back to Tacoma, Washington. I sorted out all the maps and travel information we have accumulated and threw away old food and rubbish that has piled up. After an hour the car was more or less finished and now, when we get to Anchorage, the only thing left to take out of the car will be the personal items that we want to take back with us to the UK.

At 11am we drove the six miles to the park entrance and checked in for our shuttle bus.

The drive into park was along the road we drove yesterday afternoon. At mile 15 we entered the area in the park where private vehicles are prohibited. We crossed several rivers that flow down from the Alaskan Range. They are typical braided rivers.

The scenery is magnificent with snowed capped mountains all around.

One particularly beautiful spot is Polychrome Mountain, so-called because of the differing colours of the rocks on the mountain flanks.

Wendy took this photo of me enjoying the view at the Polychrome Mountain overlook.

There are many shuttle buses operating in the park and you can get off your bus, go for a hike, and hop on another bus to continue your journey or return to the park entrance. Here is a bus approaching us with towering mountains behind it.

When we reached the 53 mile point, at Toklat River, we had a thirty minute break. There were caribou antlers on display that you could handle, to see how heavy they were. Here is a photo of a new species of deer, our 'deer' friend, Bob!!

Up to this point in the trip, apart from some caribou, we had seen little wildlife. This all changed on our drive back. Within a few minutes we saw our first grizzly walking alongside a river. Unfortunately within a few seconds it went out of view. We were very disappointed but then over the next hour we saw six more grizzlies, four adults and two cubs.

All the sightings were at quite a distance from the bus, but with full zoom we were able to take some reasonable photos. It was wonderful to watch them foraging for food in the tundra.


A mother grizzly and her two cubs. Apparently she had three but one has died.

A lone bear on the hillside below us.

We spent nearly half an hour watching the bears. The shuttle bus had a schedule to keep to, so we had to move on. Within a few minutes another highlight, a lone wolf running close to the bus!

Within a few minutes the wolf moved out of sight, so on we went. Our next encounter with Denali wildlife was a beautiful red fox. It moved so quickly that we were only able to take one reasonable photo as it climbed on a hill above us, with another bus between us and it.

What a great day it has turned out to be! With only 300 grizzlies in the 6 million acre Denali National Park, we have seen seven! How incredibly fortunate we have been.

We returned to the entrance park to collect our cars. We saw a German registered Landrover that we had seen yesterday in the Park. We went over to the driver, Stefan, who told us he has been on the road for 18 months, having travelled through New Zealand, Australia and now the US. We wished him safe driving and drove to Denali Village for an evening meal at a restaurant overlooking the Nenana River, the same river that flows by the cabins where we are staying again tonight. Tomorrow we drive the final 240 miles of the tour to our finish point, Anchorage. How can four weeks have flown by so quickly!

Finally, I will have to change the heading of the blog to accurately reflect the actual mileage of the trip. We have now driven over 4,300 miles and, with another 250 tomorrow, the heading should read 4,500 miles and not 4,000!