National Parks Tour: The Alaska Leg: Denali and Fairbanks

Two days in Denali with digs at a B&B in Healey, followed by a night at Chena Hot Springs, did not prepare us for the steel drum band in Fairbanks. This group of locals seem bound and determined to celebrate the sounds and spirit of summer in spite of the temps in the 40s and 50s.

In Denali, we took the Wilderness Access bus 66 miles into the park to the Eielson Visitor Center. The next day, we took the rig in as far as they permit and took a short hike along the Savage River. On the bus trip, we experienced many critter sightings, but the walk was more exhilarating: as Robin said, "It was like being in a painting."

Robin in the paining that was the Savage River ridge

A mother brown bear with two mature cubs seemed comfortable with us peering at them and shooting photos from the bus. On the way up, they were close to the road, on our way back, we saw them again but they had moved on across the road and were a few hundred yards up a hill.

This herd of Dall Sheep were unusually close to the road. Sightings this close are rare and a sheep sighting was high on our list so we felt pretty lucky.

I admire the quote but was especially drawn to the photo of the McKinley climber with his Little Martin guitar.

This model of the McKinley range was useful to see the scale of McKinley compared to the surrounding peaks. The glaciers leading up to the base was the route we flew from Talkeetna.

Interesting markings on this moose we say from the road on our ride up to Eielson.

Wolves are the one critter these sheep need to watch out for.

One hiking path Robin and I spent some time on

As we pulled into the Eielson parking area, this fox casually strolled about. At home, sightings this close might raise questions about rabies. But this guy was not sick, he was hungry and the ground squirrels had learned to hang out near the visitor center and all the humans who dro0p food. The fox saw this situation as an opportunity and he ignored us favoring the easy hunting presented by numerous dumb squirrels.

The NP Service has about 70 sled dogs that they use during the winter to patrol and service Denali during the winter. Hotels in the park are gone, vehicle use is minimized, and ATV/snow machine use is prohibited.

Noble pose

Less noble but a good pose nevertheless

Amazing cloud formation. Were this a painting, I would think it overdone.

These two ducks were out for a fun float. We walked along with them for twenty minutes and watched them ride the rapids, take rest breaks, and generally muck around. What fun.

In Healey, there is a great bar/pub called the 49th State Brewery. They don't actually brew anything but they sure do serve a broad mix of other people's brew. Outside the front door, is this bus, the model used in the film, "Into the Wild". The original, about twenty miles from Healey, was where
Chris Mecandless spent some months fending for himself before he died, probably of poisening having mistakenly eaten a wild root he thought was edible. The movie set bus was placed here isn the hope that this model would be sufficient to satisfy admirers of the story. Just last year, a swiss girl died trying to find here way to the actual bus.