Southbound Canucks: Denali

Sunday July 28th we were driven by motorcoach from Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge to Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Lovely scenery and the only opportunity we had to view a moose during our entire trip. We spotted the moose with its calf along the George Parks Highway. The bus slowed down so that we all got to get a glimpse. It was a good thing as that was the last opportunity for the rest of the trip.

young moose hiding in the bushes

mama moose

We arrived at noon in time for Vic and Bev to take an optional ATV excursion in rough terrain just outside the Nation Park boundary. It was Bev's first opportunity to learn to drive an ATV. She got the hang of it after a few minutes and we both got to enjoy the outing.

This was the excursion that took us to the excavation site of Blue Babe, the mummified Steppe Bison we had seen at the museum in Fairbanks.

distant view of excavation site

we stop neat the bottom of the site

area where the mummified remains of Blue Babe was discovered

Along the trail our guide stopped to show us the markings on a tree where the moose rubbed his antlers. The marks on the trees are over 12' high. Amazing how tall a moose is!

The following day we took an 8 hour bus excursion through the Denali National Park and Preserve. This tundra tour was automatically included in our Princess land tour package.

Denali National Park and Preserve encompasses 6 million acres of Alaska’s interior wilderness. Its centerpiece is 20,310-ft.-high Denali (aka Mount McKinley), North America’s tallest peak.

During that drive we spotted grizzly bears, trumpeter swans, golden eagle, caribou, dall sheep and Willow Ptarmigan. Other than the Caribou that ran along side of the bus and the ptarmigan on the road, all the wildlife was distant and best seen with binoculars.