Denali Alaska

Monday 6th September...Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

This morning we joined up with a coach full of enthusiastic tourists with high expectations of seeing some wild animals as we commenced the Tundra Wilderness Tour with our tour leader Peter, and Heather. Tundra is a Finish word meaning "treeless land"we were in the Denali National Park.
Our expectations were met fairly quickly as we had just began our tour we saw an Alpha Wolf, even Peter was excitied as its a very rare sighting, next came a moose, shortly after we passed Savage River and Savage Rock an elevation of 2780 feet ! then we saw a caribou which is a reindeer that is not domesticated. We crossed Sanctuary River, and entered the Teklenika River Valley on the Alaska Range, then Igloo Forest in the Athabasca Territory, over Sable Pass @ 3900 feet, Tek Glacier was beautiful. Over the East Fork River we went, Kettle Ponds and then we had an encounter with Dahl sheep, they are very regal looking animals with curly horns ! Polycrom Pass next, oh what a fantastic tour this is ! Carlsons Ridge (thank heavens Warren is taking notes for me, as I am flat our remembering my own name, let alone these names !)Toklats River Valley, Highway Pass then Peters Dome. Lo and behold our first grizzly bear sighting had us all snapping away like mad things, Peter was so pleased for us, as we were ticking off so many boxes today, someone asked if we could arrange to see bear cubs, some people are never happy ! OK so the next corner mumma bear and her 3 cubs performed for us beautifully !Stoney Point was our vantage spot for a view of Mount McKinley and Mount Hayes, We got blown away by the fact that only 5 per cent of people ever see the mountain "out" how lucky are we, It was a sight to take our breath away, and will post some of the photos I got of this amazing sight. It was time to turn around and go back, have I mentioned the roads we travelled along are fairly hair raising to say the least, I was packing my self, and we had to travel back...holy smoke not again. Peter reassured us if we were a bit antsy we are not alone, many people cannot cope and have to return on the shuttle. It was no fun that bit of the day, but all part of the experience on this day of suprises ! We also saw a Golden Eagle, snow shoe hares, and we didnt see one but heard about the wood frog, its an amazing critter that freezes over winter and then creates chemicals to come back to life (google it, I cant remember all the details !) how nifty hey !
At 40 degrees below which is very common in winter water freezes before it hits the ground, hmm think you would need more than thermals here. Our weather was gorgeous today, what else is new !! Peter nexplained to us about a "drunken forest" Richard called out the correct answer ! On ya Richard, the trees did look drunk, its because of permafrost, where the ground stays frozen all year round for more than 2 years. The trees looked very sad ! Alaska has at least 700 earthquakes a year, handy info on a road that should be called hell highway ! We met up at the Base Camp bar and grill where, after 37 changes of plans, we were informed that Janette John Lorraine & Ross had planned a suprise tour for us, we dragged Heather along for our last informal night together. We boarded a bus that cost $1 and headed down the road to our destination of Bar 49 at Healy, a locals pub it was an awesome place, and we were greatful to our mates for organising it, I dont think the locals knew what was hsppening an invasion of mad Aussies, we left a few $$$$ and a pizza or 2 and came on home. A really eventful night..what happens in Alaska stays in Alaska, isnt that right !