Day 61 - Denali National Park

To Wonder Lake

We caught the first bus out this morning. Actually,we had reservations for it. If you by a ticket for one bus into the park, you are allowed to ride them from Teklanika westward during your entire stay, but you have to reserve your first ride.

We left the campground at 6:30am on our way to Wonder Lake, almost the end of the road. The road goes about 10 miles further, but the first bus to Kantishna, the end of the road wasn't until 8am. There's not much to see there except a few private lodges, so Wonder Lake was our choice. It is a five hour drive.

In addition to the rest stops at Toklat and Eilson Visitor Center, we stopped often along the way for looks at the vistas and the wildlife. There wasn't much to look at this morning as it was quite cloudy. The Mountain was not to be seen today. Wildlife, on the other hand, was in abundance, stating with a pair of wolves walking along a drainage beside the road. This was bettered by a black wolf a few miles further on who came right up on the road and walked right beside the bus. We saw much of their favorite prey, the caribou, starting with a big buck who dashed across the road behind us and then followed by a herd of at last a hundred out on the tundra. And there were bears including two sows with cubs. The first had a pair of two year olds and the second has two little cubs from this year.

As far as birds were concerned, we saw one owl, a harrier and a pair of Long-tailed Jaegers (but a better sighting in the afternoon). As we got close to Wonder Lake we passed a series of small kettle ponds where we saw Pin-tailed Ducks and White-fronted Geese.

There was a long stop at the Eilson Vistor Center, about 66 miles out. It is a quite nice design with the building built right into the hillside. It overlooks the Alsaka Range and would have a great view of Denali, if there were one today. 

From there it was less than an hour to Wonder Lake where we had an early lunch, rather than take the same bus back, we opted to stay a bit longer and hike up the road to Reflection Pon which is known for a classic view of Denali with the mountain reflected in the pond. It was too windy for a relection and there was no mountain to reflect.

We then cuaght a later bus as it passed us on the road. The ride back was as interesting as the one out with more ducks, really good views of the Jaegers, more bears, more caribou and another wolf who decided to walk along the road and rightnext to the bus.

By the time we got back, it was nearly time for dinner. 

Tomorrow we are going back to Eilson VC and doing a hke from there.