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The mile-long strip near the park, aptly called
Glitter Gulch, offers all sorts of tourist services, including the
campground where we stayed. River adventure trips and flightseeing by
helicopter or plane are offered as well as all sorts of shops and restaurants.
We opted to take a bus tour that goes to Kantishna, 95 miles into the park.
Private vehicles are not allowed beyond the 15-mile mark, except those camping
in the park, and then those vehicles cannot go beyond mile 29. The road,
though traveled frequently by busses during the summer months, is narrow,
winding, often steep, and with no guardrails. The photos were taken with our old
2.1 megapixel camera since our Olympus (with the 10X optical zoom) bit the dust
the night before. Our only consolation is that no one was really able to
capture the grandeur of the place. It was spectacular! The
highlight of the day was having two young wolves come up on the road right
beside the bus. We saw what had to be a huge grizzly bear up on a hillside
and lots of Dall sheep and caribou. The bus played hide-and-seek with a
monstrous moose beside the road, but he moved too quickly for anyone to get a
good picture. They say that only about 10 percent of visitors
actually get a good view of the park's elusive peak, Denali, AKA Mt. McKinley.
We were not among the fortunate ones the day we went. The second day we went back to check
out the new Visitors Center, the Railroad Station, and to see a sled dog
demonstration held at the park kennels. In the winter months the rangers
use the dogs to patrol the park. They love to run!
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