Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Wilderness Tundra Tour Denali NP

Our guide on the left.

A pair of moose.

A willow ptarmigan, the state bird.
grouse.
A grizzly bear...
feeding on berries.
A caribou bull.
The massive antlers of the caribou.

The day was grey and drizzly as we traveled up to the tree-less tundra.
The four dog mushing team with the wheeled sled.

Wednesday, August 16th.

I had a bit of a relaxed morning before having breakfast and going to the lobby to catch the bus for the 5 hour Tundra Wilderness Tour. We had an excellent guide with 22 years of experience here and he gave us an excellent narration as we went looking for animals. Denali National Park and Preserve is over 6 million acres (that’s about the size of New Hampshire) of pristine wilderness with only one tourist road that penetrates it for 43 miles which was built from 1924 to 1938. We drove the entire thing and came back the same route. It used to go quite a bit further, but a section of the road is sinking as it was built on permafrost, which is thawing due to climate change, so for safety reasons it was closed in 2021. They are planning on building a bridge over that section, but it won’t be complete until 2026. The road rises from 1700 feet to 4000 through boreal forest (consisting mainly of spruce trees and some dwarf birch) to the tundra zone above the tree line. On June 21, the summer solstice, they get almost 24 hours of sunlight and on December 21 they get about 22 hours of dark. Winter temperatures can fall to -20 or -30, and at the summit of Denali at 20310 feet, it can fall to -90. Alaska is often called the last frontier, but our guide explained that the first people to come to North America came via the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia during the last ice age; so, he said maybe it should be called the first frontier. He talked about different ways animals survive the winter including bears hibernating for about 7 months. Despite the grizzly’s fearsome reputation, they only get about 20% of their diet from animal protein. The rest comes from an abundance of berries and roots. Reptiles and amphibians cannot survive here, with one exception, the wood frog. It survives by a chemical process that happens within its body when it gets cold. It literally freezes solid and thaws again in the spring with no ill effects. There are 15 bird species that over winter here including the Alaska state bird the willow ptarmigan and the spruce grouse. Although this is sometimes called the Serengeti of the North as there are many species of animals here, they are very spread out over a vast area, and very hard to find. On our journey today we were lucky to see a pair of moose, a grizzly bear, five or six caribou, some willow ptarmigan and three spruce grouse. After the tour our guide suggested we go to see the dog mushing demonstration. On the bus to get there I got to talking to an Australian couple from Brisbane who are traveling through western Canada and the US for six months in a caravan. We fell into a very easy conversation about our mutual experiences. We visited the kennel where all the dogs are kept. Then we listened to a young woman presenter who told us all about the history of dog teams and sledding (there seems to be evidence that the prehistoric people coming out of Asia were already using this technique). There followed a very short demo as they brought four exuberant huskies out to pull a sled on wheels around a short track they had. It was all interesting but somewhat disappointing as we stood and listened to the presenter for over 20 minutes to see a five-minute demo. Then I said goodbye to Colin and Jane after exchanging info and took the shuttle back to my hotel. I had time to have dinner in the square before returning to the lobby for my 6:30 Denali Photography Tour. It started to rain, and the tour never showed up. I wasn’t too disappointed given the weather. Back to the room to write up the blog before going to Karsten’s Public House for a pint of Twisted Creek IPA.

1 comment:

  1. Very detailed and informative, Joe. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete