Absolutely Amazing!

What a time we had!  One of the culminations of our entire trip was had in Denali National Park.  Months and months ago we made plans to take a 93 mile bus ride into the park and charter an airplane to fly the 3 of us back out along with our good friends from Atlanta, John and Diane.  So not only were all sorts of plans to be made by John and Diane to meet us there, but we needed, desperately needed, the weather to cooperate.

Jan and I made this same trip 9 years ago when we were here, and although the morning was crystal clear as we neared the end of the road, the wisps of clouds over the mountain got thicker and thicker so when we flew out we could not see the mountain at all.  So let me back up a bit.  Our plan called for meeting John and Diane at our motorhome for drinks and dinner friday evening.  They had flown into Anchorage 2 days before, rented a car, and drove up, amazingly they passed us on the road just as we were turning into our campground 7 miles south of the park entrance, and about 8 miles south of their hotel.  They came down and the 5 of us had a wonderful visit and a delicious dinner in preparation for our 0545 rendezvous for the bus in the morning.  Now we had been following the weather reports each day for weeks, and it was looking like we would have the best day of 3, but it still called for mostly cloudy and a 20% chance of rain.  Oh well, we'd have to take what we got.  Now on our drive down from Fairbanks, we had several views of the mountain, fantastic.  The mountain, Mt McKinley or Denali as you see fit, the highest peak in North America, 20,320'.  The base to peak rise is considered the largest of any mountain above sea level at 18,000'.  It is something to behold, and the chance of seeing it is only about 20-30%.

Now the morning came bright and early, somewhat cloudy, but not too bad, John and Diane pulled in right on time, and the 5 of us made our way to the bus stop a few miles away.  Got on the bus, got great seats, and settled in for our 6 hour, 93 mile trip on the only dirt road into the park headed for Kantishna, an old gold mining town at the end of the road.

John and Diane smiling even with the early hour

And so is Karen!

Denali National Park is 6 million acres, slightly bigger than the states of New Hampshire or Vermont, yeah an enormous park, with only one road, and essentially no trails, and the only way past the 15 mile point is by bus.  It is truly wilderness.  

Along the way

One of the goals for the trip is to see all 5 of the large animals, bear, moose, caribou, wolf, and Dall sheep.  We got 3 out of 5 with a kicker, we saw both a grizzly and a not often seen in the park, black bear, along with lots of caribou, and 3 Dall sheep.  

This beautiful male caribou was right near the road
Now that's a rack!

A big grizzly prowling along a river

Several females, yes they have horns too

A big healthy black bear

He is filling up with blueberries, winter is right around the corner

The Dall sheep were high up on a mountainside and hardly visible.  We were disappointed in not seeing any moose, but as you saw in my last post we were pretty lucky a few days ago, and we, having spent much time in Yellowstone, realize seeing wolves is very, very difficult.  But the scenery was spectacular, and the best news, the sky was clearing!!

A little hairy here and there

And a little narrow, I had my eyes shut through here

Gorgeous, the Polychrome Pass

We had our fingers crossed that the mountain would be visible from the bus, but especially from the airplane, and yes, it was really clearing!

It's peaking out

A little better

What a view!  Reflection and all

About as good as it gets!

We were flying high or would be pretty soon, looks like mother nature is cooperating, how lucky are we?  We view the Denali Backcountry Lodge at Kantishna, the end of our bus ride and our lunch stop.

Looking down from the road

A very nice place

We were feeling good, and anticipating our flight out.  We had a good lunch, walked around a bit and were shuttled over to the plane.  Now we have 3 pilots in our group, so the seating arrangements are somewhat important to us, the plane only holds 6 including the pilot so we know he's going to sit the left front seat, that leaves the "co-pilot" seat, 2 in the middle, and 2 in the back, so we decided the night before the only way to do it fairly was to draw for it, and that's what we did.  Jan drew last and got the co-pilot seat, Diane and I in the back, and John and Karen in the middle.  Now we all knew deep in our hearts that the pilot for weight and balance considerations might change it around.

We arrive and the pilot assigns the seats, and NOT the way we drew

And he did!  He put Jan and Karen in the back seat, told Diane and I to get in the middle, and John in the front.  Well my good buddy said he'd sit with his wife and for me to get in the front, and the pilot agreed it would be okay, so I was a big winner.

Lucky me

Diane and John in the middle

What a flight it was!  It was absolutely magnificent, the weather was superb, the mountain was superb, the scenery was superb, what else can I say.  The photos are terrific but they just can't do justice to the sensational experience we had!

One of the many glaciers

Another glacier

The knife edge on these ridge lines were amazing

Coming near the entrance to the park

The intrepid flyers

We had a wonderful day, a wonderful flight, and it was especially fun thinking about the folks on the bus ride out, bumping along for another 3 hours or so after we had landed.  We got cleaned up a bit, met back at John and Diane's hotel for a great evening of camaraderie, good food at the Base Camp Bistro, and maybe a few drinks to boot.  It was so fantastic to spend such a spectacular day with such good friends and family!