The mountain was definitely out. Mt. McKinley - highest mountain in North America at 20,320 ft
Most of the people who ride the buses hardly get off all day - preferring to just sit and ride and look for the wildlife in the preserve. The buses also shuttle hikers into the park, drop them off pretty much anywhere they choose, then collect them on the return runs later in the afternoon...all you have to do is wave one down as they pass. That's what we wanted to do, and in fact were able to do from Eielson.
Though it's only 66 miles to the Visitor Center it takes the bus 4 hours to get there, which should tell you something about the condition of the road as well as the frequency of stops along the way. The etiquette is that if anyone sees a critter they're encouraged to call out "stop" to the driver, then direct everyone's attention to whatever the sighting is. We were hoping to see a few grizzlies on the trip. We actually saw 13 during the course of the long drive, including these two young ones who were foraging just below us.
Speculation was that these were a couple of yearling cubs - one blonde and one a darker brown. They were nosing around an area where several days earlier a wolfpack had downed a caribou. After a few hours the bears discovered the kill and it turned into a battle zone as the bears and the wolves vied for priority. Wasn't much left of the caribou by the time we passed by 4 days later, but the site was still a magnet for all the carnivores in the area.
As we looked on the two scrambled up the slope onto the road bed and emerged just in front of our bus, where one of them amused himself by chewing on a traffic cone for a while before taking a playful slap at the other just after this photo was taken. They then engaged in a mock combat for about 30 seconds before moving up the slope on the right.
We continued on and saw another 10 grizzlies along the way, sometimes in groups of 2 or 3, all drawn down to the lower elevations by the ripening berry crop.
After another 10 miles or so we topped a pass at about the 4,000 ft. level and were presented with the scenes below. We're told that the chances of seeing the mountain are about 30% in the summer, and that this was the first time it had been "out" for several weeks.
When we arrived at Eielson we walked around a corner on the lower level and saw this view of the American flag silhouetted against the mountain. Couldn't pass up the photo op.
There are several short hikes that radiate out from the Visitor Center, including this one that goes down the hill towards the riverbed below, eventually looping back up to the viewing platform. As you can see it was bundle up weather...the high temp for the day was only about 55 deg. - on August 8th.
The pretty views weren't restricted to just Mt. McKinley. This is looking down another valley towards the Northwest. Every direction you looked it was spectacular.
After eating lunch and wandering around the visitor center for a while we struck out on our own and walked along the park road for several miles beyond Eielson. Beautiful country all around us. Saw what I thought might have been a wolverine running up a hill in the distance but couldn't get the binoculars on him in time to confirm it. Later we arrived at a pretty little valley with a stream running thru it, and with several small ponds marking its progress thru the tundra - one of which was formed by a beaver who had dammed the stream with his lodge at one end. Saw a juvenile male moose too, but he had melted back into the trees by the time we had walked around to a better viewing area above the ponds. Wandered off into the tundra to peak over a hill and see if anything was grazing below but came up empty. We did find acres and acres of arctic blueberries, however, and stopped to sample a few. They were still pretty tart - not sure if that's just the way they taste or whether they still have a few weeks to ripen - but if we'd had a container we could have harvested a couple of quarts.
After trekking back up to the Visitor Center we arrived just in time to hop on a bus about to depart on its return trip to the entrance, so we quickly folded up the hiking poles and jumped aboard. Thought we might take a nap on the long ride home but there were plenty of creature sightings to keep us awake, starting with this beautiful red fox below, who emerged from a culvert next to the road as we passed by and proceed to start stalking something in the grass within yards of the bus...while 40 mesmerized tourists looked on.
He was a healthy looking little guy. Suspect he's been eating well this summer thanks to all of the snowshoe hares and ground squirrels in the vicinity.
Even saw a small grouping of Dall Sheep up on the hillside. Their preservation was actually the primary impetus for the establishment of the park about 100 years ago.
Also saw another half-dozen caribou, including this one (a female I think) who stopped to pose for a picture.
As we re-passed the area of the caribou kill a little drama unfolded right below us. About all that was left of the kill were the bones and the antlers, yet the scavengers continued to revisit the site to collect what they could. This grizzly was the one who had initially chased off the wolf pack and claimed the kill several days earlier. As he was nosing around he was approached by a lone grey wolf with the same idea. They proceeded to dance around each other - the wolf taking care to never get too close - until the bear physically laid down on top of the caribou remains and thus ended the debate.
This little ritual went on for about 10 minutes.
All in all it was a spectacular day in the park - one of the most enjoyable days we've experienced on any of our travels.
Finishing up with a couple of videos
Watching the caribou as it works its way up the hillside
The sweeping panorama of the Alaska Range and Mt. McKinley from Eielson.
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