Alaska: Day 3 - Denali Park

The ride yesterday was a great introduction to what was awaiting us today.  After that long train trip yesterday, Hilary and I wondered whether we should bother with the organized bus tour we had purchased. After all, this one was eight hours long... and tomorrow, we have a NINE hour bus ride back from Denali to Seward, to greet the cruise ship,  In the end, we did. Our guide, Dana, was a natural history expert, but she had a wonderful way of being able to explan complex concepts in an entertaining manner.  Her commentary, together with the wonderful scenery, made our journey today one of the highlights of our trip. 

The tour extended past Savage Creek, where we cycled to yesterday, to Stony Overlook, approximately 65 miles into Denali National Park.  Denali is huge. Created in 1917, it covers over six million acres, about the size of New Hampshire. It is also very remote, a remarkable testemant to the foresight of the early pioneers of Alaska to set aside this vast wilderness as a park for future generations.

<--Taiga forest

Our tour took us through low-lying Taiga forest which means“the land of little sticks”, dominated by Alaska Sitka and Black spruce trees. This area rests in what is known as “discontinuous permafrost”, which limits the extent tree roots can extend into the soil, stunting the forest to look rather like Christmas trees, no more than ten or twelve feet tall.  Moose and occasional Grizzley bears frequent it, feeding on lush vegetation, berries, and, for grizzlys, smaller wildlife.

From there, the bus took us into what is known as the “transition forest” region, around 2500 feet in elevation, characterized by dwarf spruce and willow trees, together with arctic fox, snoeshoe hares, moose and lynx.  Growing conditions is possible for only three months out of the year, limiting the amount of animals that can be supported.  Our guide alluded to "webs of life", linkages to living entities that depend on each other. Forces, she said, act to change these "webs of life".  As we drove through Denali were given many examples where flora and fauna are in careful balance.

We arrived again at Savage Creek, the place where Hilary and I had reached the day before. Looking out over the valley below, one could clearly see how glaciers up here acted like bulldozers, picking up rocks incorporating them into ice, creating u-Shaped valleys, as opposed to v-shaped valleys created by rivers.

We continued on through through Kantiskna, a site of early gold mining until he park took over the claims when the park was expanded from two million acres to over six million.  

Here, we found several herds of Cariboo on the mountain slopes across the roadway.  Cariboo, we were told, have distinctive habits, with calving near the Sanctuary River a few miles farther down the road. Remarkably, Cariboo are born within days of each other, on or around May 10th. Talk about Mother’s Day!  Four out of five young Cariboo do not live past the age of one, falling prey to wolves and grizzlies.  Rutting season is around mile 53, near Toklat.  

<--About this time, I was wishing I had brought a better camera.

Hilary to the rescue!  Much better photo, don't you think?-->

We learned about a number of other animals which inhibit the region, Snowshoe hares, for example. They are born above ground, opposed to rabbits which bear young in burrows.  Snowshoe hares eat willow bark, growing rapidly in numbers when it is in abundance.  However, clever for willow trees, when bark is damaged it secretes a sap that is unpalatable to rabbits.  

<--Snowshoe hare

So, as they are eaten, more and more willow trees become unavailable for future food, even as rabbits are multiplying.  The effect is a seven year cycle, where rabbits grow in population until they cannot find food, then die away leaving survivors that eat less, and let the willow trees heal... a "web of life", our guide called it, that is  intertwined with lynx, which are primary predators of snowshoe hares.  And so, lynx populations follow a similar seven year cycle as the hare, both of which are dependent on willow trees.

Along the way, we passed by the Teklanika River area.  Teklanika simply means "glacial river", typically carrying a high amount of sediment, through channels of water criss-crossing back and forth along a wide valley. These rivers cannot sustain large fish as plankton, which are food for larvae, cannot grow due to the cloudy glacial sediment. No fish, and therefore, no grizzly bears are in this region.

<--Now, step back a bit more...that's it... OK, looks like a good photo.... Oops!!!

Farther along, we  passed by Igloo forest, where, now higher in elevation, trees are short and robust. rather like Christmas trees.  Mountain sheep can be seen in June, during , which are seen in June in lower elevations, however they move higher as the snow recedes. In August, as we were travelling through, it is possible to see wolves, coyotes and bighorn sheep in this region, as well as some of the 160 species of birds in  the park. Most of these birds are migratory, however, the Blackill Magpie stays year round.

Suddenly, someone shouted and  the bus stopped. A golden grizzly bear with two young black haired cubs were spotted on a mountain slope near us. As we watvched, they moved across the ravine, then traveled down, closer to us, eventually crossing the river and into dense bush within a few hundred yards of the bus. 

Yes, we really saw a grizzly. Did I say something about my little camera already???-->

We waited for over a half hour to see if they would emerge, but it was not to be. The bear was obviously aware of us and was not terribly interested in showing off her children. The guide said, however, that this was the most visible this bear had been all summer.

Shortly after the bus started down the highway again, we found three caribou on a ridge, then a few minutes, two more, closer, in the valley across from the bus, then.. a moose, walking among the tall grass in the distance.  Our guide spoke of golden eagles, which are predators to the arctic ground squirrel, their major food source. As the snow and ice disappears, it burrows out of sight, but until then they must live a nervous existence.

We found ourselves travelling along the Alaska Ridge of mountains, past Sable Mountain, a major habitat for grizzly.  Unlike coastal grizzlies, where salmon are plentiful, the major diet for these grizzlys tends to be berries, supplemented with wolf kills. Wolfs may take down a caribou, however, they are quickly displaced by grizzlies, who eat their fill, then move on, allowing the wolf to move back in to continue its dinner.

As Dana was telling this story, someone spotted another grizzly near Polychrome Mountain, with two cubs play-fighting together in the river below the bus. It was too far away from my camera, however, the bus had a high-quality videocamera that displayed, real-time, the cubs pawing at eachother and tumbling playfully.  Out here, in the vast wilderness, it was an unforgettable sight.

Along the side of the mountain, and just beyond Toklat Rest area, where we stopped for photos, is a breathtakingly high mountain ridge, along which we found three bighorn sheep, grazing on the side of the mountain. 

<--As we moved closer, the sheep came up the mountain to the roadside. 

Nearby, we saw a golden eagle flying overhead.  There is so much wildlife here!  What is remarkable is that we are not in a zoo or a fenced game reserve.  We’re visiting their home, carefully kept as free as possible from human disruption.

“Denali” is an Athabascan name meaning "the great one", or “the high one”, and is the name increasingly being used when referring to Mount McKinley, hidden to us in the clouds but towering over the park at 20,320 feet, the highest mountain in North America.  The history of it's original name, McKinley, is interesting.  William Dickey first discovered it while he traveled with two companions, sharing the same cabin. This proved to be a factor in why the mountain was named, because at the time an intense debate was taking place in Washington as to whether the US should go with a gold or silver standard for currency.  His two cabin mates favoured the silver standard. Dickey didn’t.  No dout they debated this for weeks, if not months during that ling winter they lived together.  This may have been one of the reasons Dickey later said he and his two cabin mates didn’t get along very well.  Perhaps, just to spite his fellow cabin mates, Dickey decided to name the mountain after William McKinley, who was nominated to be president and happened to favour the gold standard.  Dickey named the mountain after him. 


Finally, we reached Stony Overlook, a place where our guide hoped we would get a good glimpse of McKinley.  Alas, it was not to be; it was too overcast. Apparently there is only a 30% chance of seeing the mountain, so I guess we could not be too disappointed.

OK. everyone, this is where McKinley is supposed to be!! -->

The lurching drive back to our resort was rather sleepy, until we reached the precipice ledges opposite Polychrome mountain.  Our driver very carefully negotiated the narrow gravel road clinging to the edge of the mountain, joking that only a few buses have gone off the cliff in recent years. That kept us awake.  But even more so, at the sight of an artic fox, that trotted up the road until it passed directly under our bus window.  Minutes later, yet another caribou was found on a sunny slope just above us.

Our guide gave us another example of the many "webs of life" link plant and animal species in this park.  This one involved a mosquito, humans, blueberries and Mosquitos.  Blueberries she explained, are pollinated by the lowly mosquito.  And the mosquito lives on warm blooded animals, including us. Grizzlies here in Denali eat blueberries, which, unlike their cousins in fish-rich coastal regions, is a major food source for them. As Grizzlies move across the countryside, they leave bear dung.  Because bears eat blueberries, bear dung contains blueberry seeds. This helps them to spread across the countryside, and since blueberries enjoy acidic soil, it's a great fertilizer for them as well. So, the seeds grow into blueberries, mosquitoes pollinate them, and the web of life keeps them in balance. So, what happens if there are fewer mosquitoes?  There will be fewer blueberries, and this has a measurable effect on grizzly bears.  Since they can eat other things, it's not as devastating as when willow bark is in short supply and snowshoe hares die off. However, when there are fewer mosquitoes due to seasonal changes, the effect is significant.

Shortly afterward, we came across a group of artists, painting landscapes in the brilliant sunshine. 

<--What a wonderful location for an artist!

Along the way home, we found another golden eagle, almost impossible to photograph (with my little
camera, anyway), and, a few minutes later, the grizzly and her cubs that we encountered earlier this morning. She had crossed the road now, and was further away than when we saw her. We were pretty fortunate to see her so close.

Eight hours later, we arrived back at our resort, filled with an appreciation of this vast and beautiful national park.  Nothing, we learned, takes place here except nature. Man is not allowed to interfere here, so life goes on as it has for thousands of years. In parting, our guide told us that, if nothing else, she hoped she had been able to leave us with a sence of wonder, a sense of awe, and a desire to preserve this wilderness or

generations to come. I think she succeeded.

On returning, Hilary and I were anxious to do something active.  And so we headed off again, renting bikes to re-enter Denali Park for a last time, where we did a short evening hike to a nearby lake before a late dinner. 

By the time we returned, cycling along the Nenana River flowing past our resort, we were ready to face yet another long bus ride tomorrow... this tine to our cruise ship in Seward!

<--Hilary, looking out over the Nenana River. The Nenana flows from the Nenana Glacier, on the south side of the Alaska Range. At the park entrance, the river forms a narrow channel, making it a challenging course for white water river rafters and kayakers.

Sunset in Denali -->