2019, Our Year Traveling by Ship, Train, Plane, Car and Barge: Glitter Gulch and Denali National Park & Preserve

Glitter Gulch, the name that the locals call this ugly area where most of the hotels, shops and restaurants are located. There is no such town as Denali. Nor, there are no salmon in Denali National Park and Preserve because of all the glacier waters in the rivers around here. We had a steady rain from the time we woke up until we climbed in our bus for the park. It turns out there is only one packed dirt road in the entire park.

I was so grateful to see that the school bus actually had padded seats since it was a 4 1/2-5 hour bus tour. Monte immediately told us that we had bathroom and interpretative stops. Hallelujah!!!

This park was established in 1917. However, people couldn’t get here until the railroad came and more came when the road was built. The park is open 120 days now from May until Sept. In that time period they will have app. 700,000+ people.

The Savage Cabin was built in 1925 for the work crews. It was the cook cabin. The park rangers still use this cabin in the winter, but they mush in with dogs. No cars/ trucks allowed.

If you look closely, you can see the bear spikes under the windows to discourage the bears.

The highway workers slept in tents and worked 6-7 days a week from May - Sept. They had to build this one lane dirt road with pick, shovel and a team of horses. They finished the Denali highway in 1938.

Eskimo potato is essential for grizzly bears to get their intestines moving again. Grizzlies go into hibernation for 6 months. It takes awhile for them to start walking again without looking drunk since their muscles haven’t been used in so long. (They have a great sense of smell better than a dog.) The bears here are mostly vegetarians, so they are much lighter and smaller than the coastal Grizzlies who are eating salmon and other types of protein.

Second largest world ecosystems is the Boreal Forest that takes up most of AK, Canada and Russia. Twenty five percent of oxygen comes from these forests. The quaking Aspens are just starting to change colors.

Actually, this area is a desert, but the moss and lichen keep the ground wet and green. Many of these trees are old growth, but they grow short and squatty, so they can survive.

When there is a dip or depression that creates a wind block; the trees grow larger.

“Little aspects of nature touch all our lives.” stated Monte, our park guide.

When we walked back to the cabin, we stepped on the moss and lichen...and saw all these varieties of mushrooms

Teklanika River is where we start our History Tour. This river can take you all the way to Siberia. The Athabaskan found an obsidian type stone in the Western part of this valley that they could use to make tools.

Primrose Point

Chyanne is a Athabaskan Native. She explained that you must always introduce yourself with your parents and grandparents, so other natives understand your history. They lived a nomadic lifestyle in the interior. They respect the land, people and animals above all. At potlaches the younger serve the elder the best treats as a sign of respect.

Her she is with Monte our tour guide and driver

Moose are mainly solitaire except during the fall mating season. It’s called “yarding up.” They are huge with their antlers weighing as much as 300 lbs. Here we see a female.

Willows are a favorite food of moose, but during the winter they have to live on wood. (Willow tips). It slows their metabolism down, so in the winter their fat is actually keeping them alive. Willow is really important to the Natives too. They build with it, and cooked with it.

Arctic ground squirrels can turn itself off and on all winter long. Crazy adaptation!

Snowshoe Hare

Ptarmigan turn completely white to camouflage themselves in snow; just like the Snowshoe Hares

The rest of the family...Can you spot all four of them?

Waking up from his siesta

We came back to see our one grizzly who was up feeding. So cool!!! Thankfully, Mike had his long distance lens

This young grizzly woke up and went back to eating berries

They call his head's movement, up & down; "berry bobbing"

Mike estimated we were in our bus about 150 yards from them and the caribou were there as well

They are lighter in weight and color than their coastal cousins

It turns out Denali can only be seen about thirty per cent of the time. One of the only places to find Dall sheep is here. Charles Sheldon fought for eleven years to get this park set aside to save the Dall Sheep that were being decimated by market hunters. At first it was two million acres, but President Jimmy Carter later expanded it to six and renamed it to Denali, or “Great One or High One”

Here you are seeing ripe lingonberries. Thankfully, the mosquitoes are pretty much gone by now, but they are necessary for the bears. The bears here eat blueberries/lingonberries and pesky flies and mosquitoes are pollinators for those.

Our bus came upon two massive bull caribou just moseying down the road. They conserve energy by using the dirt road. They finally got off the road.

No trails in this park, so primitive campers love its back country. The caribou move to the McKinley River valley where it doesn’t snow. and they can live on caribou moss.

A bit fuzzy, but got love a magpie

At the end of our tour, we were given this memory book that is lovely! As we were leaving the park, the mists started returning. Monte said they have had rain, mists or overcast for the past eleven days. Once again we have been blessed!