A gloomy day in AK

The last 2 days in AK have been dreary and gloomy. Yesterday we were scheduled to take a flight around Denali (Mt. McKinley). The weather was too bad so they rescheduled us for Friday.

Today we went to Denali National Park and Preserve. Again, the weather is gloomy, so the park wasn't fantastic. We rode a school bus from 9:30 to 5:00 with a few short breaks. We did see some wildlife, but it was too far away to take pictures. We could barely see them with our binoculars. We saw 3 grizzly bears and a cub, several Dall sheep, 2 moose and several caribou herds. We also saw 2 snowshoe hares (1 at our cabin). The wildlife was neat, but we thought it would be more abundant or closer. The weather made it uncomfortable to hike (since we are fair weather hikers anyway). It was colder than we thought it would be.

Overall, we were sort of disappointed with Denali National Park. We probably would have a different opinion if it was a nicer day, but the land is pretty barren. The harsh conditions there (extreme cold, little precipitation, and gale force winds) make it difficult for any vegetation to take hold in the higher elevations. From the pictures, you will see how barren it seems. This was not what we expected, so we were surprised. It was a very long drive to get here from Anchorage, too. So if we had it to do over, I think we would skip Denali and spend an extra day in Seward.

We are really hoping to take our flight tomorrow. We will be really sad if we came all the way to Alaska and didn't get to see Denali.

One quirky note - when we boarded our second bus, we noticed a family that was on our boat ride Tuesday. Then we noticed another family that was at the Sheraton with us during the fire alarm! It's a small world!

Wish us luck for our plane ride tomorrow. We are headed to the wedding tomorrow afternoon. I'm pretty sure there will not be internet access there, so I will get this updated on Monday probably. Have a great weekend!

Pictures of our gloomy day in Denali National Park and Preserve