otoh

Continuing the story I started here:

We had a reservation for three nights in Denali National Park. Denali is the local Athabaskan name (meaning “the great one”) for what most of us call Mt. McKinley and there is a strong trend toward restoring its traditional name (yeah!). We made a rest stop along the way at a point with a view of the mountain range. While the skies were clear where we stood, most of the mountains [and the great peaks in particular] were clouded over. Fortuitously, by the time we got just a few miles further up the road to another viewing area at Hurricane Gulch the clouds had cleared enough that we got our first really good glimpse of Denali:

The park has only one main road and traffic is restricted along most of it. Visitors can ride buses (for additional fees) deeper into the park. There are a few maintained trails near the entrance to the park but hiking is allowed off-trail in many areas.

Here’s something I’ve learned in my travels:

Mountains are natural cloud-makers. Clouds are natural rain-makers. Therefore, when you visit mountains you should plan on getting wet.

We had a couple decent hikes around our campsite and we spent some time at the visitor center, but our plans for a hike deep in the park got rained out. That was very disappointing, but goes with the territory [pun intended]. Between the frequent clouds and other peaks in the range obscuring the view, only about 30% of visitors actually see Denali from inside the park. [I am a thirty-percenter, which out of context doesn't sound like anything to brag about....]

While we were on the bus we did get a glimpse of a grizzly bear with two cubs [about a mile away], several caribou [also about a mile away], and Dall sheep [relatively close]. By far the most common form of wildlife we saw throughout the park was snowshoe rabbits.

A large rabbit population supports a large lynx population. We were told by the campground host that a lynx and a wolf had actually been in the campground in recent nights. I had really hoped to see such creatures even though I knew the odds were against it. [I had hoped for a closer look at a grizzly too.]

There is another creature I wanted to see and we got a really good close encounter. Stay tuned….