The Tundra Tour

We had to get started early for this day -- up by 5:30, breakfast, and then board the National Parks Tundra Tour Bus with driver and guide Rick Miller for a sixty-mile, eight hour drive deep into the 6 million acres that is Denali National Park. We hoped for sightings of Denali’s “big five”: caribou, grizzly bear, moose, Dall sheep, and gray wolves. First prize, though, would be a glimpse at Mt. McKinley, known as “Denali” (the great one) to the native Alaskan people.

Denali must have been a mysterious entity to those ancient people. It rises to more than 20,000 feet, bright white and cloud-like always. But this largest mountain in North America has the capacity to disappear. So much moisture accumulates on its slopes that it creates its own weather, forming clouds that cloak its very presence. Now you see it; now you don’t. Four of five visitors to the park never get to see the giant. And only three or four days of the summer is it completely visible. Today was one of those days.

We were only a half hour into our drive when Rick, our guide said, “It is going to be a good day today. You’ll be able to see Mt. McKinley. I know that because I can see it now.” He pulled the bus over for us to look. From eighty miles away its two peaks towered over the closer range. Even uncovered the mountain was deceptive. It would have been easy to have missed it, taking it for a large white cloud bank on the horizon.

Later in the day, from a perspective many miles closer, we could see nothing. The giant had shrouded itself in a cloak of invisibility and was no longer willing to be seen.

Along the way we paused to see caribou grazing on the tundra, to observe golden eagles in flight just beside us on the mountain, to watch a cow moose gathering leaves from a willow, to notice blond grizzlies sun bathing on the side of a mountain, to witness two Dall rams butting heads while others perched on a mountainside looked on, to see wolf pups wrestling on the gravel of a braided river bed, and to attend to a gray wolf hunting ground squirrels or snowshoe hare right beside us on the road. We saw the big five.

Roadways were littered with Alaska’s wildflowers in their prime -- red Arctic Roses, Bluebells, yellow Cinquefoil, purple Lupine, red Eskimo Potato, white Dwarf Dogwood, and pink Fireweed. Until we passed the 3000 foot tree line, we saw the thick forests of spruce, alder, and birch. Above the tree line we entered the low vegetation of the tundra.

We returned to the Visitors’ Center for a dog sled demonstration. DNP is the only national park with a kennel. They have twenty-nine sled dogs that work hard during the winter patrolling the park and hauling materials in an -30 degree Fahrenheit environment unfriendly to both humans and machines. The demo run the dogs made included a “lead dog in training” who is not quite there yet. Almost back to the finish line she had a fight with a dog behind her and brought the sled to a temporary halt.

We got back just in time for our scheduled 6:09 PM dinner reservation (the restaurant manager run his reservation schedule like golf tee times). Wonderful food -- sea salt seared salmon with a delicious sauce over risotto (Melinda) and Asiago-crusted halibut over risotto (Robert), followed by homemade blue berry ice cream and coffee.

Tomorrow is a leisurely morning that will probably involve an early hike around Horseshoe Lake, followed by a two hour coach ride to McKinley Wilderness Lodge for a couple of days. I’m forgetting what the real world is like. I’ll probably need to be retrained.