8-8-09: The day started with a visit to the Murie Science Center in Denali Park. Alous Murie was a famous biologist who performed important wolf research for the Park Service in the 1930s. Even though the Center was just 1 room, it had 5 interactive computers for self-directed learning and a kids' activity corner. Murie's wolf study was exhibited (he was commissioned to see if wolves were the reason for a 2-3 year decline in Dall sheep populations as was popularly believed but he showed that the decrease in sheep populations was due to severe winters rather than wolf predation). Other stations demonstrated how to identify different Alaskan animal tracks, showed a 5 minute video recording on how quickly a forest fire consumes an area of forest, and reproduced the calls of a variety of birds.
Then we headed to the Savage River trail loop; a 3 mile loop that is the last trail in the park accessible by private car. Otherwise you must purchase a park bus ticket to go further into the park. The bus trip to Wonder Lake which is the closest you can get to Mt. McKinley (Denali) other than climbing it (Mike climbed it in 1981 and it took him 36 days for ascent and descent) would have been an 8 hour, roundtrip bus ride thus we opted out. The kids enjoyed the Savage River trail and we all climbed up a large rock formation that gave us a nice view of the valley below. We saw pika and ptarmigans during our hike.
Then we headed to the Savage River trail loop; a 3 mile loop that is the last trail in the park accessible by private car. Otherwise you must purchase a park bus ticket to go further into the park. The bus trip to Wonder Lake which is the closest you can get to Mt. McKinley (Denali) other than climbing it (Mike climbed it in 1981 and it took him 36 days for ascent and descent) would have been an 8 hour, roundtrip bus ride thus we opted out. The kids enjoyed the Savage River trail and we all climbed up a large rock formation that gave us a nice view of the valley below. We saw pika and ptarmigans during our hike.
I cant stop reading all your entries of your trip along the way. They are very interesting to hear all the experiences all of you are running into. :)
ReplyDeleteI am missing the videos. They are really enjoyable to watch.
Hope your trip is better than expected!
Sorry Jenn, but our friend in Boise had the camera that shoots videos which is why no more videos have been posted.
ReplyDelete