Denali National Park

When my husband and I left the accommodations in Fairbanks, Alaska, that Princess Cruises provided after the fire at their Fairbanks Lodge had displaced all their guests, we had a two-hour bus ride south toward the Denali National Park area.   We passed beautiful scenery along the way and enjoyed the informational banter of our Princess Cruise Line bus driver who told us tales about his life in Alaska, the high price of goods (a quart of fresh milk can cost $12!), the sad story of Christopher McCandless, the nonfiction story "Into the Wild," who perished after camping in an abandoned bus 113 days in the Alaskan wilderness, and about "frosties,"  which are slight roller coaster type waves in a road formed by melting permafrost. As we passed Nenana, Alaska, we learned about the Nenana Ice Classic, which is a betting pool event in which individuals attempt to guess the exact time the Tanana River ice will break up at Nenana. Tickets are on sale from February 1 through April 5 of each year throughout Alaska. The Nenana Ice Classic is a non-profit charitable gaming organization. As such, the proceeds benefit many volunteer and non-profit organizations in the area.  It was a fun ride, and I have to say this bus driver earned a nice tip from all the riders that day!

The Denali Princess Lodge was beautifully situated only a mile away from the entrance to Denali National Park.  The Nenana River could be seen behind the hotel. It lived up to our expectations after the disappointing beginning to the land portion of our Alaska vacation in Fairbanks.  I think we were still exhausted and stressed from that experience, but we looked forward to seeing the national park and all its beauty that afternoon!

After checking into our room we had a little time to explore the lodge and watch river rafters from the expansive deck behind the lodge. I would have liked to stay here longer, but the tour we were on only had us scheduled here one night.

Please double-click on this photo to enlarge x2

I thought the facts on this placard on the grounds of the lodge about the challenges of constructing the lodge and about living in the extremely cold winters of Alaska were fascinating! Average winter temperatures can be minus 40 to 60 degrees below freezing.

That afternoon we boarded a regulated park green school bus to take our pre-scheduled Natural History Tour of Denali National Park!  Denali National Park is six million acres of wilderness, bisected by a 92-mile-long Denali Park Road that parallels the Alaska Range and travels through low valleys and high mountain passes. 

The Savage River and Mountian Vista

The park only allows cars and campers to travel a short fifteen miles into the park to the Savage River and Mountain Vista portion of the park and then all visitors must transfer onto one of the different green school buses for a paid tour or free buses for transportation that is used to travel the rest of the way.  This method was devised to help preserve the park's wilderness and wildlife.  In winter the rangers still use dog sled teams to traverse the park, keeping with the "no machines" rule in the wilderness.

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More information on a park placard about the George Parks Highway, the highway which mostly parallels the Alaska Railroad, is one of the most important roads in Alaska. It is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks (Alaska's two largest metropolitan areas), the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, and the main highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. The route's Interstate designation is not signed; rather, its entire length is signed as Alaska Route 3.  It also cites the reason the park restricts driving and uses shuttle buses inside the park.

Denali National Park has rare cloudless days in summer and the day we toured the park the weather was cloudy but the views inside the park were still mesmerizing!  The skinny black spruce trees of the relatively low-elevation taiga forest would give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, 20,310 foot ( 6190.488 meters) Mount Denali.  Unfortunately, we were not to be among the one-third of visitors who actually sees the great mountain.

Even so, the beauty of Denali National Park was a dream come true for us to see!

The Denali Natural History Tour we were on was a 4 ½ to 5-hour tour that would travel to the Teklanika Flats (mile 25) in the park and was narrated by our bus driver with interesting facts about the landscape, history, and geology of the park.

Most of my photos of the park had to be taken from the bus window up to this point, but I hope they still can convey the vastness of the six million miles of wilderness in the park.

There were several interpretive stops along the tour, with an hour of off-bus experience. We made a stop at the Savage Cabin, the original ranger’s cabin, built by road crews in 1924-25,  where a guide told us about the history of how the cabin was once used and how it continues to be used today.
At the Primrose Ridge stop, we listened to a memorable Alaskan Native presentation that narrated how the land has been used for nearly 10,000 years.

During the brief exits off the bus, I tried to walk around to experience the spongy permafrost ground.  It was an amazing experience! I wished I could spend much more time in the park, exploring trails and soaking in the silence and beauty. I definitely hope to do that someday.  My husband and I feel that now I've had an introduction to Alaska we would not hesitate to do a visit on our own.

Some of the wildflowers I was able to photograph while I was off the bus.

Some of the wildlife we saw in the park.  We saw quite a few Caribou (reindeer) and Snowshoe Hares (they have such big feet!), and a moose crossing the road in front of our bus. We missed seeing grizzly and black bears, wolves, foxes, Dall Sheep, wolverines, etc, You can see a beginning list of the wildlife that lives in the park--and a beautiful photo of Mt Denali--on this NPS link.  There is also an interesting video about what the rangers do if they encounter a bear, moose, wolf, etc, in the park while hiking, camping, or cooking food, and how to use bear spray effectively, on this link.

We really enjoyed all the spectacular vistas from the bus windows on our tour...

I just wish we had more time and days to explore more of the park by foot, and a chance to visit the Denali Visitor Center on our visit. I love National Parks and have visited many in my lifetime. You can see the ones I've blogged about on this link--keep scrolling through the pages to see them all!

There is an Alaska Railroad Depot Located less than 100 yards from the Denali Visitor Center, so perhaps someday we will make another visit on our own!  We did ride the train on a portion of our land visit to Alaska and it was a very comfortable ride--more about that in a future post.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner at the Princess Denali Lodge King Salmon Restaurant, where we enjoyed wild-caught Alaskan King salmon along with delicious appetizers and desserts.  The next morning we left for the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, and another chance to see Mt. Denali. Come back to see that in my next post!

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