The Big Four of Denali and the King of the Sea

Today we spent eight hours on a school bus. Willingly. Happily, actually. The excursion was a 62 mile drive into Denali National Park and 62 miles back out. The purpose was to spot wildlife and on a rare occasion, a grand view of The Great One...the mountain itself. I will tell you up front, it was a cloudy, mostly rainy day, so we barely got a glimpse of even a few snow-caps because the clouds were so low. I was amazed to find out that the on the north side of the mountain, the average rainfall is much less than I had expected—I can't remember the number and I can't remember the reason well enough to explain it. Most of the precipitation in Denali, however, comes during the winter in the form of snow, so apparently it's unusual to actually get rain in the summer. Clouds? Yes, regularly. Rain? No. Today there was rain pretty much all day...and snow at about 4,000 feet! It is July 18, and there was snow in the park at relatively low elevations. It was cold. Not cool, cold. Like you-can-see-your-breath cold. But it was beautiful. Even our bus driver/tour guide/window-washer, Clay, was delighted by the snow at this point in the summer.

So the focus today was wildlife. Tim and I got a lot of attention on the bus. Tim was the first to spot anything—dall sheep up on a hillside. Of course, when you spot something, you have to share with everyone on bus so they can take a look as well. The sheep were just little dots of white. We could hear people murmuring, “How did he see that?” Clay congratulated Tim for a good (and first) spot of the day. There was also some camera envy as Tim took pictures in which you could actually tell what the animals were. He took some great ones! (See link on the right.) Tim spotted the sheep, then others spotted a moose and quite a few caribou. There are 4 big animals in the park to look for—dall sheep, moose, caribou, and grizzly bears. We were almost finished with our eight hour tour...oh wait...did I mention it was raining? Did I mention that the vast majority of the road was gravel? Have you deduced that rain plus gravel equals mud? This is where are bus driver/tour guide also becomes a window washer. We stopped several times to get out, stretch our legs, and where available, use the outhouses. Each of the few times we got out, Clay would pull a bucket out of the belly of the bus and squeegee the windows, which were covered with a grayish-brown silt. His cleaning lasted all of about 5 minutes before it was difficult to see out the window again. So, at hour 7.5, of the 8 hour trip, I was one of the few people who were still scouting for the grizzly through the little patch of window closest to the front of the window frame that wasn't covered in a thin film of mud. As we rounded a bend, I noticed a small brown lump that didn't look like a boulder or dirt...it was furry...it was a grizzly! “Bear! 4 o'clock!” Clay came to an abrupt halt as the rest of the sleepy passengers came to life. “Where? Where?” The inside of the bus began to buzz with excitement as one after anther, some quickly, some with much help, spotted the large grizzly, lounging lazily on the hillside. After the buzz died down, Clay asked the person who spotted it to raise her hand. He congratulated me for the ninth inning find, which completed our grand slam (his baseball analogy, not mine). I got lots of 'atta girls as we finished out the ride. We got off the bus back at the lodge where I snapped a photo of Clay and Tim in front of our dirty bus, then headed in to stretch out before dinner.

Dinner. Ohhhhh, dinner. Tonight was the first meal that impressed me. We ate at the King Salmon Restaurant on the Princess property. Tim and I dined with Chuck and Sharon, from Iowa. I think Tim and I have become the hope of the older generations. Each time we finish eating with a couple, they tell us what a pleasure it has been and call us “kids.” This is the first meal where we ordered off the menu but paid nothing. Nothing, I said. Not a penny. We each ordered an appetizer and shared. Alaskan King Crab dip—more crab than dip, coconut crusted halibut bites with a chutney, beef skewers, and potstickers. There is a good chance that if we had not been with “company,” I would have licked the plate clean with the crab dip. It was deeeelicious. The halibut and beef skewers were way above average, the potstickers, above average. Tim ordered the king salmon from the Copper River with a lemon, butter, dill sauce on top of mashed potatoes. I ordered the Bering Crab legs—Alaskan king crab and another very large crab from the Bering Sea. These were quite simply the best crab legs I have ever eaten—sweet, moist, tender. I barely touched the green beans and fingerling potatoes. For desert, blueberry ice cream sundae and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Dinner was awesome.