My, how time flies. I am way behind on my blogging. We had another great July 4th celebration. One of my previous blogs talked in detail about our July 4th celebration. This year was great! With the 4th falling in the middle of the week, I took most of the week off, and we had a great relaxing time. The 4th was busy, but the rest of the week slowed down and was very nice.

August was a full month. My wife, another couple and I went to Alaska the first part of the month, and Lisa and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary at the end of the month.

The Alaska trip started when our friends purchased a trout fishing excursion to Chelatna Lake Lodge in Alaska. We were attending a fund-raising event at Baylor School in Chattanooga, and one of the student’s parents had donated this trip as an auction item. Our friends were the winning bidders, so we talked to the people at the lodge and changed the trip from a trip for two to a trip for four. Then, we added a few side trips.

We flew into Anchorage. It is farther than you think. We flew from Chattanooga to Atlanta to Seattle to Anchorage. The flight from Seattle to Anchorage was about three hours, which is not that bad unless you have been traveling all day and expect it to be an hour and a half. 

Thankfully, our first night was very easy. We stayed with some friends. Houses are just more comfortable than hotels. Our friends live in Eagle River, which is somewhat north of Anchorage and actually on the way to our first destination.

We took our time driving to Denali National Park. Beautiful country! We stayed at one of the Princess Hotels. They had young college students as employees, and they were great. The service was good and the attitude of these young people made us feel welcomed. The next morning we boarded a bus to venture into the park. Mount McKinley, also called Denali, was the destination (we thought). In order to see a true wilderness, the bus trip was eight hours (four in and four out). The spot where we turned around was an area where you could view the mountain. It was beautiful, but it was actually 70 miles away. Our best view would come later.

On the way to and from the viewing area, we had fantastic opportunities to see wildlife. We saw dozens of sheep on mountainsides. Our instruction from the bus driver was to shout “stop” when we saw an animal.  That is hard to do at first when you are on a bus filled with strangers. We almost passed the first group of sheep because they were at some distance and it took a while for the word to get around to enough passengers for someone to shout “stop.” After that first time, we did much better stopping the bus to view wildlife. I think there were three large sets of sheep as we started the journey into the park. 

We saw 12 grizzly bears in all (or brown bears as some people call them). They are big animals. The first five were at a distance. Two large bears, one medium size and two small ones. They were just moving along across the base of a valley. We had binoculars and could see them fairly well. The driver of the bus had a camera. He would focus on them, and it televised the picture on a screen at each seat. He would zoom in for us to get a close look and then zoom back so those who had not seen the bears could get a perspective of the landscape and see the bears themselves.

The second group was much closer. There were three small bears (understand small is relative). Each of these three baby bears probably weighed 200 pounds or more. They were coming up the embankment by the road. I need to remind you we were in the middle of nowhere. The road was a well-kept gravel road (most of the time) through mountains, fields and valleys. In any direction you could see for 70 to 100 miles, unless there was a mountain in the way.

So, these three bears are spotted behind us and to the left coming up toward the road. Everyone kept yelling “stop” because we could see the bears as our driver started to back up. He continued to back at our protest until he stopped in the path the bears were headed. They could have cared less about this big silver box. The bears got on the road and walked around the bus to join their huge mother who appeared in the middle of some bushes. This was really great. We were up close and personal. 

Just minutes later the bus driver put on his brakes somewhat suddenly. I looked down the aisle, out the front of the bus and there is a bull moose 10 feet from the bus. He lumbered along to our right and through the scrub brush beside the bus. This animal is bigger than a large horse, and to say they are funny looking is an understatement. As he passed by the bus, he was about 30 yards away. He had a huge set of antlers; a beautiful animal.

We saw numerous caribou. Most of them were grazing or lying down. These animals are called reindeer by some folks. Some were reasonably close. Some were far away. All these animals were just going about their day where they live, and we just happened to drive by in this vast wilderness.

As I recall, our elevation along the drive in the park ranged from 2,000 to 4,000 feet. Denali (Mount McKinley) is 21,000 feet. Anchorage is a port at sea level. This is very interesting terrain.

Birds, rabbits (called snow hares) and a fox were among the smaller creatures we saw.

We had stopped so many times on the way into the park that we were traveling more quickly on the way out, but we did stop for two fabulous views. One was a second view of Mount McKinley. Our first view had been obscured by the clouds around the mountain. McKinley is so large it makes its own weather. As we were leaving, it came into full view. An even better view would be later in the trip.

Our second stop on the way out was to watch a very large grizzly eat berries. He was 40 yards from the road stripping blueberries off the bushes and eating them as fast as he could. He was close enough for us to easily see his eyes and watch him. He could have cared less that we were there. I don’t think he ever acknowledged the bus.

We were given a box lunch on the bus and we brought beverages. We were only allowed to eat on the bus (so no food is left in the park from the buses). The bus was a little crowded, but it is a great way to visit the park without disturbing it or the wildlife. I think the bus trip is the best way to let people see the park. There was a group cycling into the park. That was surprising. They were about 200 yards ahead of us when those three bears crossed the road. 

Our trip had started that morning about 5:30 and we returned at 2:30. There are shorter trips, an overnight trip and a 12-hour trip. I am sure they are all great. What you are able to see is subject to the luck of the draw. Only one-third of the visitors to the park actually get to see the mountain. The weather around the mountain obscures the view most of the time.

There is much more to tell about the opportunities available at Denali National Park, but you can learn more by going on-line at www.alaskatravel.com.    

We were pretty tired when we got back to the Grande Denali Lodge. Great place! Rooms were pretty standard, but the lodge was positioned on the side of a mountain with a great view. We relaxed on the deck enjoying the view, had dinner and went to bed.

Come back tomorror to read Part Two of our trip to Alaska.

Scottie