Last Day in Denali

Today was my last full day visiting Denali and I tried to fill it up with as much as I could. I began the morning with a ranger talk at the visitor center called "Gathering Places" which was about subsistence hunting and gathering within the boundaries of Denali National Park & Preserve. After the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) passed in 1980, the park's boundaries expanded from 2 million acres to 6 million acres, and much of this new land was classified not as national park but as preserve.

According to the National Park Service, the ANILCA legislation "recognizes the important connection between local rural subsistence users and the land. In Denali, as long as fish and wildlife resources and their habitats are maintained in a natural and healthy state, traditional subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing are allowed in the 1980 ANILCA park and preserve additions." The ranger giving the talk described the different groups of people who have used the resources in what is now Denali National Park for subsistence. These group include Athabaskan groups and early miners in the past, and native communities and rural settlers today. For more information about subsistence hunting and gathering in Denali National Park & Preserve, click here and here.

After the ranger talk, I went on a short hike on some trails around the visitor center, making a loop out of sections of four trails. I started on the Taiga Trail, connected to the Rock Creek Trail, the Meadow View Trail, and finally the Roadside Trail. The hike was mostly wooded, but there were some beautiful mountain views along the Meadow View Trail section of the hike.

Nice forest at the beginning of the trail

Beginning of meadow view section of trail

Nice vista

Fall colors coming out

After my hike, I took a shuttle to the Wilderness Access Center, where I caught an 8 hour bus into the park to the Eilson Visitor Center at mile 66 of the park road. I went with some girls staying at the hostel. One is from Germany, and two are from Denmark. Just like last time, the ride in was very beautiful. I was extremely tired, so I tried to relax for most of the ride. We didn't see much wildlife until we were on the way back from Eilson. First, there was a wolf walking next to the road, then a mother bear and cub wrestling and playing, and then there was another wolf along the road. The wolves were especially exciting because I had never seen one before, even at Yellowstone. There are only around 59 wolves in Denali, and I saw two within an hour. They were beautiful animals and I feel lucky to have glimpsed them.

Polychrome Pass

The view at Eilson Visitor Center

Moose skulls exhibited at Eilson. While two moose butt heads, their antlers got stuck and they eventually died.

First wolf

In the brush

A view from the road

Mama griz and cub wrestling

One bear chasing the other

The second wolf

Seeing the two wolves and the bears, along with the fantastic scenery, was the perfect way to end my trip to Denali as well as my time here in Alaska.