Parks Highway-Denali National Park!!!

**Warning** 

This post contains a TON of similar photos....many of the gorgeous Mt. McKinley!!

! ! Proceed with caution ! !

As I said in the previous post, we had reservations for a discovery hike at mile 64 on the park highway.  Basically the way the park highway works is that during the peak season 20 May to the thursday after Labor day the road is open to the buses.  On the shoulder season (prior to 20 May and into the fall), parts of the road may be closed/inaccessible due to snow, etc.  Every year there's a lottery that you can enter to drive your car in the weekend after it closes, otherwise, you're stuck to the bus system.  

It's a very curvy, non-paved road, and they're obviously trying to maintain a delicate balance between letting people explore the park, but also being able to maintain the natural beauty.  

Going out to mile 64 took the better part of 4 hours, but what a beautiful drive it was!!  

We were SOOOOOO lucky that Mt McKinley was "out" read visible and not behind clouds while we were there.  We have been told that it's only visible about 20% of the time.  We also chose the hike because it was literally right in front of Denali/Mt. McKinley.  Soooo awesome!!!

First views and vibrant colors (this was mid August and many of the leaves/grass, etc were already changing). 

I mean, just breathtakingly beautiful!!!

Stopping at mile 30 or so

Can you spot the wildlife?

Road to no where/Road to everywhere

LOVE!

Love this shot!!

First of many bear sightings!!!

Check out the "grizzled" look (white part by the head)

H.O.L.Y. C.O.W! ! ! 

Love this with the winding road and Denali in the background

Wayyy up close

Another favorite

So we finally made it to mile 64 and met up with our ranger, a retired school teacher from Ohio.  She was telling us stories about how she lived in Antarctica for three months as an lesson to bring back to her students....talk about dedication!   

Time for photo ops!

My main man . . . representin' the Yanks in the middle of no where

My lovely and adventurous parents!  

Christmas card 2012?! :)

The ranger was telling us that these squirrels were a favorite treat of the bears...they call them a squirrel burrito . . . the circle of life.  She also told us that the eyesight of the bears isn't so great and that sometimes they mistaken humans for squirrels (from a distance)....very scary, we are totally one with nature in the middle of the tundra here.  

The little stream we passed over...loved the water droplets on the moss

Some berries we ate on the way

Our view while we ate lunch

So after we ate lunch, we started to head back. . . 

but not without a few more pics. . . notice how much "less" visible Denali is just a few hours later?  That's Alaska for you, the weather changes on the drop of a dime.  

So as we are heading back to the road to be picked up by the bus, we saw a bear, literally running in our direction...not towards us, but in our direction.  So happy we were with an experienced ranger and in a group of 9, definitely strength in numbers.  So, at this point, we started to stay really close together and we were able to stop for a bit, while the bear stopped.  At this point, the bear was about 400 meters from us (the closest they recommend a bear to be).  

So, our ranger told us we should start going to the left, to avoid the bear, seems smart to me :). 

Well, then of course, to our left, there was another bear....

Umm, yea, at this point, we were a bear sandwich!  It really was scary that we were literally sandwiched between two bears!!  Luckily, we kept on making lots of noise, and I had 4 bear mace containers on me (no idea howI ended up with everything, but I did get some laughs from people) and got some ready to go, just in case.  We finally made it back to the road and our ranger had called the head ranger to see what we should do because she felt it was too dangerous to wait on the road so they ended up picking us up (all 9 of us (+the 2 of them) in a pick up truck!)and they drove us to the visitor center near by.  Phew, we had survived our bear encounter!!

A few photos from the visitor's center...

Tired, and relieved!

And another bear on the hill we found while waiting for the bus

My super 300 mm lens

I was never so glad to get back on the bus and drive 4 hours!!  By this point it was getting colder and we were all pooped!  

Can you spot the moose?

And another...

We made it back to the original visitors' center unharmed.   I think we were all ready for a drink at this point!

Alaska (and this trip specifically) really does make you appreciate all the modern conveniences that we have living in the "big" city of Anchorage.  You really do have to be so prepared out in nature for any situation.  

Back to the big city in the morning....one more sleep in our fun camper!

Thank you for an amazing trip Denali National Park...we will, for sure, be back!

My parents' trip, unfortunately, was coming to an end.  Thank you so much mom and dad for visiting us in the Last Frontier!  These are the types of memories that will last forever!