2 On the Road: Denali National Park

We were provided with a brochure about the park. Pictured above is the main road of the park. It is currently blocked by a landslide at Polychrome Pass, about halfway into the park

Double click on the photo to enlarge it for reading.

The McKinley Chalet property owned by Princess. We were in building K of the McKinley Chalet.

The Denali Visitor Center. At the bottom is the railroad depot where we got off the train.

Our excursion for the day.

The NPS uses school buses on the park roads because they are lighter and cause less damage than the tour buses. But it also means things are not made for adults. The gal entering the bus before me tripped over the gearbox hump and the windows were extremely hard to operate (but at least we could put them down for clearer photos on this rainy day). Most importantly for tall people, the leg room is non-existent. This is Nolan's knees extending into the aisleway.

Whoa, this moose just strolled out in front of our bus.

Next were a couple of caribou. Just look at that rack!

The second caribou's rack was shedding its velvet. This thick velvet is filled with blood vessels and spongy in texture. In late autumn or early winter after the rut, males lose their antlers, growing a new pair the next summer with a larger rack than the previous year. Females keep their antlers until they calve. Does this mean that Santa's reindeer were female?

Just after the bridge we stopped at the ranger station.

Willow Ptarmigan. Reminds me of a story I heard when I lived in Alaska in the 80's. Do you know why the Alaska town is named Chicken? Because they couldn't spell ptarmigan.

We stopped at the Teklanika River rest area to stretch our legs and take a potty break. These were the unisex restrooms.

Each door had a hole that was either green - unoccupied or red - occupied.

It was simply done when you went inside the restroom and moved the board into the catch to lock the door. Green and red paint on the other side of the board.

It's late in the year so there's not much water in the Teklanika River.

Our school bus

Since we were out over four hours, we were given bottles of water and a snack pack. This shows the contents of the snack pack. The meat stick was universally abhorred. The bus driver said his girlfriend's sled dogs like them, so he got mine.

If you look closely, you can see Mt Denali peeking through the clouds.

Just a small rock outcropping, right?

Not so small.

Humorous sign at another lodge.

View west of the Main Lodge and cabins.

So did you notice the burnt area on the mountain west of the lodge?

At the end of June, the Riley Fire burned around the main entrance of Denali National Park and Preserve. The lodges were shut down as the electricity was out. It was all out by the 15th, but we were watching it closely as we were there little more than a month later.