Denali: Day 1
Arriving at North Face Lodge
Monday, July 16
Morning in Fairbanks. After breakfast, our small group of ten people travels by bus to the entrance of Denali National Park.
At the park entrance, we switch to another bus provided to the park service.
The Denali busses are the only means of transportation in the park.
There are stops throughout the park where hikers can be picked up.
The Toklat River is fed from the melting glacier of the Alaska Range.
It runs in channels, braiding across the gravel, sand and rocks.
At this river bed, our guides set up an amazing picnic prepared by the staff of North Face Lodge.
A brown bear or grizzly is looking for berries and other foods. Below: a caribou is grazing at the horizon.
Hannibal the Cannibal, the grizzly, earned his name by almost killing and eating his nephew.
The attack was observed from the passing bus a couple of years ago.
The whole trip to the lodge lasts 6 hours. The distance we covered within that time was a little over 90 miles.