Hello all, phoenixblue - splat25's DW here -
Yea, it can snow in the park nearly anytime really. But 2008 was a nasty winter all around. In Fairbanks we had -40 to -50 for three weeks strait at one point. After that -20 felt like shorts weather!
(really, its not that way all the time! So far this year it very mild and we didn't get snow until just before Halloween!
)
We made it all the way to the Eielson Visitor's Center. We wanted to go all the way to Kantishna, but had to turn around due to needing to get home for DD's school the next day. The Mt. McKinely shots were taken at Stoney Dome lookout, about 10 miles from the center.
We were worried when we started out. We hit the park check point at Savage River about 9 a.m. and the weather was not nice foggy and cold. But the ranger at the check point said it was clearing up near Wonder Lake, so we were hopeful. The first wildlife we saw was the moose. That made the fog kinda cool actually, to see that big male with that rack come out of the trees in the fog was amazing. Next we saw the bear in the first bear image. Turns out we missed the best part by about 10 min. I think 50+ people were standing on the bridge that crossed the river watching the bear and it went right under the bridge. Patrick (Splat25) took DD out on the bridge to get the photos, I had to stay in the truck with binoculars since DS had fallen asleep. Still very cool though. And the park rangers were amazing. Any time there was a bear there was at least 3 rangers as well making sure people followed the rules and didn't do anything stupid. And they answered endless questions for people and pointed out things when someone didn't see what people were looking at.
The fog cleared out and the sun came and Wow. It was breathtaking. I was born and raised in Alaska, but I had not been into the park past the checkpoint before. Amazing. The eagle was circling overhead hunting ground squirrels we think. We opened the sunroof on our truck to get those shots. You knew something was there to be seen when you spotted all the cars pulled over on the road more like a one lane track really, but we all managed. We found the caribou by looking close when we saw a few other cars pulled over. Its a little odd to see just one and not a herd. We think this one had a hurt leg, as he seemed to be limping a little. We saw a lot of dall sheep up on the mountains, but you had to have binoculars to really see them. Next we hit Polychrome Pass. Again, Wow. I am really glad Patrick was driving as the road through here is carved out of the mountain, with the mountain wall on one side and a sheer drop on the other (Splat25 - at least 1000ft drop, no kidding, no guardrails). If you are afraid of heights, you will have issues on this section. But the view-literally breathtaking. We stopped to stretch our legs and use the facilities (outhouse/port-a-potty) at the Polychrome overlook. Patrick tried taking an panoramic, he is still working on it. Difficult since he didn't have a tripod. We walked along some of the trails here. The sun was so warm we didn't need our coats. It was great. Had to keep a close eye on DD and DS though, with the cliffs and such. Still again, Wow.
Our next stop was Stoney Dome, with the view of Mt. McKinley. Perfect. Just those wispy clouds and all the sun showing it in all its glory. We had to get the family portrait there. Course DD and DS were not very interested in standing still after the long car tip. So it took a bit to get those shots. Frustrating at the time, kinda funny now thinking on it again, trying to have the photo taken, while grabbing both kids to keep them in place and not close our eyes from the sun. Snicker.
By then it was getting pretty late in the day after noon, so we decided to scoot on up to the visitors center and make lunch. We had all our snacks and sandwich fixing along. We got to the visitors center about 1:15 p.m. and had a picnic and checked out all the nifty stuff at the center. We wanted to go on to Wonder Lake and Kantishna, but it was getting really late since we had to drive all the way back to Fairbanks. So we decided to head back. Turns out it was a good choice, 30 mins after we left the center, the clouds moved in again. On the way out we got the other bear photos. They were searching for ground squirrels. One had the dirt flying high digging in the side of the hill. When we got there you could see his front legs. Not 10 minutes later his head and shoulders were in the hole. The dall sheep photo I got literally hanging out the truck window in Polychrome Pass with that sheer drop right below me. We came around the corner of the road and there he and another ram were, sitting not 100 feet above the road. It looked like we might have just missed a head butting battle. That was nearly the last of the sun for us, we were racing the clouds out of the park. By the time we hit the Savage River ranger checkpoint again, it was cold, windy and totally closed in again. We got some nice photos of a huge flock several hundred of Canadian geese heading south for winter. We headed out to Rose's Café in Healy for dinner. We stopped in there for breakfast too. If you get a chance, stop in and have a pancake. Yes, one pancake. I think they make their batter from scratch and they are HUGE. Nearly an inch thick and a so big it hangs over the edge of the plate. And perfectly cooked light and fluffy, oh my.
We found out the next day that we were very , very lucky in our day to Denali. Those who went the day before were socked in with rain, and they had rain and snow the next day. We pretty much got the only sun and clear views of the entire weekend.
