Day 03 - 06/30/22 - Denali Tundra & Wilderness Tour

 On this first full day in Denali, we caught the 9:40am TWT014 tour.  I had heard stories of how the tours were done using old school buses, and this was no exception.  However, the seats were covered in a comfortable fabric and there was air conditioning.  It turned out to be a very comfortable ride for the day.  Our driver and guide was Mary Jane.  She was excellent with lots of background information from her over 20 years of doing this.  

 

We had no sooner passed the visitor center when there was a mama moose along side the road.  Mary brought the bus to a quick stop and trained her video camera on the moose and broadcast her video on drop down screens located throughout the bus.  

 

The road is paved to a river crossing just past the Savage River Ranger station. The remainder of the road is compact gravel and very smooth with the last 20 ish miles one lane.

 

Along the way we saw ptarmigans, ravens squirrels, and one bull moose.  At our turn around point at milepost 42 (one mile short of the official closure point), the forest fire haze cleared enough that we got a peek a boo view of Denali.

 

On the drive back, our driver spotted a caribou cooling itself in a patch of snow. It was about 1.5 miles away, but my zoom lense brought it into full view. A little while later, Dall sheep were spotted and they were probably 2 miles from us high on a rocky mountain side.

 

As we approached the visitor center, mama moose was still grazing.  Back at McKinley chalet, our granddaughter got to pet sled dog puppies, so we cancelled plans for the puppy excursion.  We caught a shuttle to the nearby Princess lodge to confirm our Covid testing appointment for Friday.  We also cruised through the property and found it to be a bit more upscale than the HAL property.  I'm not saying the HAL property is bad; just that Princess appeared nicer.

 

From the Princess Lodge we caught yet another shuttle to the Denali National Park Visitor Center.  The Center is virtually entirely from locally sourced materials. It's got many dioramas and displays about the park, its history, animals, etc.  The theater shows two excellent short videos: one about the park and another about the park's sled dogs. The visitor center was definitely granddaughter approved.

 

We caught a shuttle back to the Princess Lodge, and walked across the highway to enjoy a Subway sandwich dinner followed with ice cream for our granddaughter.  We walked back to our room where we left our granddaughter while we walked over to the nearby Denali Square to listen to the country musician sing.  He was really good.

 

Back at the room, we chatted with our next door neighbors before retiring for the night. It was another good day.  Updating my blog would have to wait until tomorrow.