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.
Very detailed and informative, Joe. Thank you.
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