Friday, 8/4 – Denali

Today we took the bus tour into the park. We purchased tickets yesterday for the 9 a.m. un-narrated tour. (The narrated tours were sold out.) It was a chilly, clear morning. We went to the bus Depot early and were able to get on the 8:30 a.m. bus that had some empty seats.

While this was supposed to be an un-narrated tour, our bus driver, Omar, talked the entire 2-1/2 hours to our turn-around point at mile-43. He didn’t say much on the way back. I guess he had said it all.

What he did talk about was park history. He talked about the man who lobbied in Washington, D.C. to get the park created, the Alaska Railroad, the hunting of Dall sheep, expansion of the park boundaries and lots of interesting facts.

He explained that the first spelling of the name of the sheep was “Dahl.” Later it was changed to “Dalls,” and again it was changed to the current spelling, “Dall.”

We did see some wildlife along the way. First, we saw a moose looking the other way.

Next, we saw a family of ptarmigans by the side of the road.

We saw some Dall sheep, but they were just some white specs far up on a mountain. On the way back we saw two caribou. I discovered the zoom on my camera (model) could zoom a great deal and I could get this shot.

We didn’t see a bear or a wolf, the two animals that round out the “big five” at Denali. Omar did mention the number of species of mammals and birds, but I can’t remember those facts.

After the tour we ate our picnic lunch on a bench at the bus depot, then rode over to the Visitors’ Center to watch a movie and to see the wildlife exhibits. The exhibits are extremely well done, and it looked like they were designed for school field trips, but did not insult an adult’s intelligence.

While we were at the park, Mike made a reservation for dinner at the Alpenglow to celebrate Lynne’s birthday.

The restaurant is high on the hill above Denali Village.

The road to the restaurant makes several switchbacks. There are several silly signs along the way. We took pictures of a few of them.

Our waitress was from Daytona and very talkative. She was delightful.

The food was excellent. Lynne got a bottle of red wine from Montepulciano. It was not dry and not sweet – just right. We split a chocolate mousse for dessert. The waitress put a birthday candle in it as we sang Happy Birthday to Lynne.

We made our way back down the mountain and headed for bed.