Denali National Park

We arrived at Denali RV Park & Motel around 1PM on Wednesday, July 1st, driving through rain most of the way. We went to “glitter gulch”, an area just outside the park with several lodges, restaurants, and shops, for dinner at The Salmon Bake. After dinner, we drove into Denali National Park about 15-miles to the Savage River lookout point. It’s the furthest you can drive private vehicles into the park. We spotted several mew gulls, one with two baby birds alongside the river. We also spotted two caribou on a nearby hillside. 

Today we went on an 8-hour, 62-mile “Tundra Wilderness Tour” bus trip into Denali National Park and Nature Preserve. It rained hard overnight and was still raining this morning. We got on the bus and didn’t really expect to see much wildlife with the weather conditions. However, it did let up and we saw more caribou and Dall sheep.

The scenery was spectacular, with the mountains, valleys, tundra, braided rivers and many streams.

 

At the end of the 62-mile trip the bus turned around at a viewpoint of Mt. McKinley, with a 20,230-foot elevation and the highest mountain in North America. We learned that only about 30% of Denali visitors actually get to see the mountain because most of the time it is covered by clouds. Here is what we saw at the viewpoint today...and the photo of the mountain in the booklet the tour guide gave us. We’re hoping it will clear off some overnight so we can see Denali tomorrow morning when we leave.



Steve & Julie Cornelius