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Alaska Denali National Park

fogtender

Now a Published Author
Every year the National Park has a road Lottery to go back into Denali National Park where the winners can drive all the way back to the end of the road system at Wonder Lake and out the Northern side of the Park in the Kantishna Mining District area.

Anyway, they only give out 1600 permits to be divided into 400 cars per day for four days. About 12,000 people entered the lottery, but it is getting harder and harder to win because more people are entering each year. They charge ten dollar non refundible entry fee and only one per person, so they make a good chunk of change off 12,000 enteries. Once you win, they soak you another Forty dollars for the Permit to get into the Park!

Here are some of the photos I took Saturday.

The first one was earlier in the day, you can see a snow capped Mt. McKinley off in the distance with a clear blue sky... by the time I got there the clouds had moved in and it was obstructed.

The building you see on the side of the Mountain is called the Eielson Center, named after an early famous Aviator in Alaska's History, Ben Eielson who died in a crash in 1929 . The flag shots are from the viewing area in front of the center looking down into the valley, the first flag shot is just about where Mt. McKinley would be at if the sky was clear (at the tip of the flag pole for the peak), the second one is looking to the Southeast.

The rest are pretty self expanitory. Saw dozens of bears, sheep, moose and a host of other critters! Was a good trip (my third one back there)!
 

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Inside of the Eielson Center, they have marks on the floor where you can stand depending on your height, and when you look out the window, there is an etching on the glass (I traced it in red to be seen easier) so you can see where the peaks of Mt. McKinley are at on the cloudy days...

The second photo was taken a few years earlier when I went back on a clear day about twenty miles closer to the Mountain on a clear day for a comparison... The date is wrong on the bottom photo, it was in 2007, but my VCR isn't right either... The days of the month were the same though, just one trip was snow and the other wasn't, both Taken on about the 17 of September!
 

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These photos are in the Toklat river headwaters area, this is of special interest to me because my cabin is down river about thirty miles (North of here) on a lake a few miles from the river.

The one shot of the buildings is a rest stop on the Toklat River bank where the summer tour buses stop for breaks, the smaller buildings are a row of double outhouses in each building.
 

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Beautiful photos Fog. Thanks for sharing.

When does Denali close for the winter?

Bob

If it starts snowing that is pretty much it. But otherwise, on Monday when the last car leaves, that is pretty much it. All the Lodges at the end of the road are closed up already.
 
Toklat river in Denali National Park

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbHhHXL9oE&sns=em"]Toklat River - YouTube[/ame]
 
Going though the Park, the critters don't pay too much attention to the cars as do the ones found on the highway system. These guys will come right up and look in the window to see what's in your car.
 

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Fog, I have seen more wildlife in your photos than I saw in the 10 days I was in Alaska. We saw one caribou, and a couple of goats, and lots of eagles and whales. The caribou we saw while on the bus through Danali. That had to be the most photographed caribou in Alaska that day.

Bob
 

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Fog, I have seen more wildlife in your photos than I saw in the 10 days I was in Alaska. We saw one caribou, and a couple of goats, and lots of eagles and whales. The caribou we saw while on the bus through Danali. That had to be the most photographed caribou in Alaska that day.

Bob


Since the house is only about a forty min drive from the Park entrance and the boarders are half that far, you should see the critters that come through my
Yard!

:yum:
 
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