Day 5 of 2020 Alaska Trip, Denali National Park

Fifth day of our Alaska trip. We would devote the entire day to a bus tour of Denali National Park.

Denali

Denali was probably the most craved national park for my friend, so he had been anticipating this day. And weather was certainly on his side, after days of gloomy and drizzly weather, we woke up to a shining sun with only patches of clouds this morning.

Most of the access into Denali National Park was through its 91-mile park road, the first 15-mile to Savage River was paved. With very limited exceptions, that’s as far as private vehicles can go. The park operated numerous tour and transit buses reaching deeper into the park, the latter being much cheaper than the former. (Some online comments mentioned there wasn’t that much a huge difference between the two, as far as sightseeing goes. Transit buses may have to stick more to a schedule, and may not linger as long when animals pop around the road, while tour buses feature more narrative, but I believe the difference is minimal.)

Bus Tour of Denali National Park

For the year 2020, due to COVID, the park’s bus schedules got greatly slashed. The farthest transit buses went was Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66 for an 8-hour tour (tour buses didn’t even reach that far), and during our visit in late August, there were only three daily buses (in addition to schedules serving overnight campers), departing at 8/9/10am respectively. When we were booking our tickets, the 9am bus was fully booked, so we opted for the 10am departure.
As a sidenote, transit bus tickets usually allow its holder to hop on and off buses at will. This enabled one to explore hiking trails deep in the park. This year, with limited bus services the park required everyone to stay with their original bus, with an hour-break at Eielson Visitor Center for those to explore the surroundings.

Denali Bus Depot

Where transit buses into Denali would depart. Due to COVID, the indoor waiting room was closed. Buses departed from the other side of building where people lined up 6 feet apart by markings on the floor.
Interestingly, a ranger told us it’s okay that we leave bags as placeholders in the line.

Parking Lot for Denali Bus Depot
Bathing in morning light and rather empty for the season.

Since Denali National Park was known to abound in wildlife, I switched to 70-200mm lens at the parking lot. A wise decision, only that I longed for 150-600mm even more after the day.

Transit Bus
Photo taken at Polychrome Overlook.

Our bus driver for the day was an old gentleman, who kindly gave us an overview of our day ahead, a Denali Park when mosquitos had left but snow hadn’t arrived, with changing colors and soothing breeze. Due to COVID, the buses were limited at half capacity, and with a few empty rows here and there, we were not half-full yet.

The top half of bus windows slide down, giving photo-lovers a better view outside. It did take me some time to figure out the locking mechanism though. Probably due to lack of funding, the bus felt pretty aged and timeworn, especially its interior. The seats and luggage racks were covered in dust, probably from the park’s gravel roads. Cleanliness-wise, it’s completely the opposite from our Kenai Fjords tour boat experience three days ago. (That’s certainly reflected in price.)

Fields

Not long after leaving bus depot, we were gaining elevation out of forests. Bushes began to dominate the landscape from trees, views were unobscured and clear.

A series of rivers originated from glaciers in the Alaskan Range the flew towards the North. Savage River was the first of those during our bus tour. It’s also where stunning sceneries began to emerge.

Savage River

Rolling Clouds over Distant Mountains

Field
An awesome autumn scene.

Distant Mount Pendleton
Captured in the morning (top) and afternoon (bottom).

Despite the abundance of mountain peaks to the south, only a few of them had names. I guessed people had been busy exploring and naming more magnificent peaks farther into the park.

Distant Mountains

Field

An hour into our bus tour, we arrived at the first rest stop of the day, Teklanika River Overlook.

Teklanika River

Mountain

Trees on Teklanika River Flood Plain
Harsher conditions on the flood plain meant leaves changed colors earlier in season.

Bridge over Teklanika River
Another of those rivers that we had to cross.

10 minutes later, we were on the move and crossed Teklanika River.

Teklanika River

Outstanding
Some patches of trees changed color before the rest.

Mountain
A group of goats on the slope.

Mountain

Distant Mountains

As we made farther into the park, some more prominent mountains began to appear from the distant horizon. These include Denali (left) and Scott Peak (right).

Field

Distant Glacier

The origin of East Fork of Toklat River, a valley separating Mount Pendleton to the East and various mountains with Polychrome Glaciers to the West.

Mount Pendleton

Range of Mountains
West of Mount Pendleton, mostly nameless ones.

East Fork of Toklat River

Field

Not long after crossing East Fork of Toklat River, we were at Polychrome Pass, named for the vibrant colors of soil, created by volcanic activities. The pass was overlooking a valley, offering a front-row view various mountains to the South.

Polychrome Pass

Flood Plain from Mount Pendleton

Mountain
The ones above Polychrome Glaciers, west of Mount Pendleton.

Mountain Ranges from Polychrome Pass

After that, we took a 20-minute break at Polychrome Overlook, with a short trail for those to explore.

Valley

Mountain Ranges from Polychrome Overlook

Moose in Field

While hanging around Polychrome Overlook, a group of people spotted this moose wandering towards us in distant field. It did come a lot closer, until being scared off by us later. In addition, when we were passing Polychrome Overlook in the afternoon, a bear was spotted in the nearby bushes. Our driver deemed it dangerous that a bear came to such proximity to hiking trail, and did not allow us off the bus.

Road into Denali

Mountain

Toklat River

Distant Mountain beyond Toklat River

At 12:40pm, we arrived at Toklat Rest Stop for another 20-minute break. This was another well-equipped rest stop, featuring a giant tent for exhibitions (that’s unfortunately closed due to COVID).

Mountains

Toklat River

Toklat River
Heavy vehicles dredging the river in the distance.

Field

Mountains

Not long after that, we reached Stony Overlook, named for the Stony Mountain to its North. However, this overlook was popular for its unobstructed views of distant mountains, including Denali. During our visit, parts of Denali was covered in clouds, but its peak was soaring above those, so our driver wisely stopped there for a 7-minute photo-op despite not being on the transit bus stop list. (Later when we reached Eielson Visitor Center the peak was behind clouds.)

Denali

Top of Denali

It’s 1:55pm by the time we reached Eielson Visitor Center.

Denali behind Clouds

My friend and I opted to hike (a portion of) Gorge Creek Trail, before returning to visitor center for lunch.

Hill

Another hiking trail, “Eielson Alpine (Thorofare Ridge) Trail”, leads to the top of this hill for better views. We thought the one-hour layover at Eielson would be tight for the 3.4km out-and-back trail, so we opted for a shorter trail instead.

Sunset Peak behind Clouds

Trail from Eielson Visitor Center

Plants
Mesmerizing crimson red.

Trail

For those not used to hiking, the trail was sort of steep at times. However, it’s obvious and hard to lose track of.

If one prefers, the trail goes all the way to the river bar of Gorge Creek, or beyond. But my friend’s not in shape for hiking and we had to be back at Visitor Center before our bus left, so we only hiked for half a mile, till we reached the lair of this squirrel.

Squirrel

Both he and I could agree that the views on top of this rock were pretty. So while my friend and I were standing atop that rock for photos, he would retreat to a tiny hole in the rocks.
And whenever we stepped away for the briefest moments, he would return and reclaim his sovereignty over such rock.

Hole

Scott Peak

Mountain Range

After taking a few photos and saying goodbye to such cute squirrel, who lent us his roof, we headed back. Along the way, I spotted more squirrels.

Squirrel

Probably because they were cute and people at visitor center liked to feed them, squirrels abounded in the area.

After that, we went on the return trip. The sunny morning weather had turned into overcast, giving softer lights that were perfect for shooting snow-crested mountains.

Distant Mountain

Towards the end of the day, it even started to drizzle. It’s like, we experienced as much of Denali as possible in a day.

Field

Sanctuary River

Fields

Animals

The various wildlife that one could spot is certainly a highlight of the trip. And I have to say, among the national park that I’d visited, Denali was the best for wildlife-viewing.

As our driver told us, usually the deeper into the park, the more likely we were able to see big mammals. One of the first sightings for the day was this moose at Polychrome Overlook.

Moose

But perhaps the biggest catch of the day happened after we left Toklat Rest Stop for Eielson. Just on the side of the road, our driver spotted a bear feeding on berries.

Bear

It’s so close to our bus that we could almost touch it through windows. I wasn’t even running my lens at its maximum 200mm. Here’s a video:

After being observed by us for more than 5 minutes, the bear finally had enough of its lunch, and dashed off towards the field.

Bear

Here’s a video of it leaving us, apologies for the shakiness.

Only 5 minutes later, we spotted another bear down the road. This time, it’s probably alerted by us, and dashed across the road before disappearing into the valley.

Bear

Bear Crossing Road

Moose
We did have the opportunities to spot more moose for the rest of day.

As for animal spotting, while our driver was experienced in scouting for animals ahead, he told us he relied on us for animals down the valley, or up the hill, or behind us, and we should yell “stop” when we spotted something. That’s when two old gentlemen on our bus carried the day, by making almost all “stop” calls for the day. (Later we learned they were ex-hunters.)

Like how they spotted these moose down the valley.

Distant Moose on Flood Plain

Or this pair of bears in the distance (I cropped the photo to 1000mm equivalent).

Bear in Distant Field

Or these groups of mountain goats up the hill.

Goats

I thought, maybe the tour company could set up an award for the most animal spots of each tour, that must be interesting.

It’s also thanks to them, that we spotted these two bears in the distance on our return trip.

Bear
This is the cutest one I’d seen for the day.

Bear
I don’t think this one’s as cute.

Bears

Here are two video clips of them:

Fox

Our driver spotted this one during return on Polychrome Pass. After seeing so many bears for the day, a fox was a rarity.

Bear

The final bear spotting of the day, just outside Sanctuary River Campground. The bear was probably alerted by us and quickly retreated into the forest.

8 hours later, we returned to Denali Bus Depot, concluding this wonderful tour of Denali National Park. Both weather and animals were cooperating, and it’s an awesome experience to see the park in such dynamic colors.

Before heading to hotel for the night, we made a brief stop at an overlook along/across Nenana River, for some final colors of this season.