Monday July 12

Denali National Park. I’ve been waiting a long time to visit Denali

and today was the day. It’s a strange set up they have going on, where the only way one can actually enter the park is by tour bus. Private vehicles are not allowed. This made choosing one of about 15 different tour options a little tricky. I’d say I chose one of the furthest destinations, with the least amount of comfort (school bus). This combo seemed to be the most popular so I went with it.

Highlights included getting a clear view of Mt McKinley, also called Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet. Apparently getting this clear view was pretty lucky as the summit of Denali is only visible 62 days of the year. The rest of the year it’s covered in clouds.

Other highlights included seeing my first caribou (also called reindeer), and my first dall sheep (sort of like a mountain ram type sheep with curly horns). Another highlight included hearing the bus driver tell a story about how he and a friend were charged by a grizzly and lived to tell the tale.

However, overall I thought the Denali Park experience stunk. I knew coming in that there was a pretty good possibility that I’d be disappointed. I’d seen so many animals, so close up on my trip already. You’ll remember that I saw my first grizzly coming out of the bathroom back in Banff in Canada at about 30 yards. I didn’t think the park tour could top it…and it couldn’t. The tour felt like it was designed for the Princess Cruise crowd as the “nature” portion of their itinerary. The masses paid top dollar and were herded on these school buses with high hopes to see anything. Glimpses of bears and other animals were from incredible distances. It was pretty disappointing. It was also a struggle to sit for 8 hours on a school bus. For those of you who don’t regularly ride a school bus, they are a lot more comfortable when you’re in second grade as opposed to being an adult. For 8 hours I sat captive in the world of Princess Cruise Lines.

I think those cruise line tours are a sham. People are shuttled from one pristine location to the next. The stops that are made on the tour provide this idyllic view of Alaska that is not realistic. What’s real is that Alaskan’s pay $7 for a bag of chips and need to supplement their food with animals or fish that they kill and eat. I have yet to encounter a fisherman who catches a fish and lets it go. It’s all about gathering food. Casting a bare treble hook into a giant school of salmon is not about fishing for sport, it’s about food on the table. If you think of the crappiest house in your town, the one with all the old cars and junk just piled everywhere, that is what is down the back roads all across Alaska. People are rugged here, hard core, and hard working. I’d say most cruise ship tours never get to fully experience this. In most cases the shiny clean hotel is physically separated and isolated from what I’d call, real Alaska.

The reason I keep harping on the cruise tours is because they are simply everywhere here. It is by far the most common way people choose to see Alaska. Hundreds of Princess buses crisscross the state every day. Towns and areas are empty until the busses show up and people go nutty spending their money on every little trinket that says Alaska on it. When the busses pull away the areas become empty and feel a bit deserted.

Had pizza for dinner tonight and called it a day.