北美生活
Live life to the fullest
After Dalton Highway, our final stop of the trip was Denali National Park. This was our second time to visit Denali. When we approached the park entrance, we were shocked at how much things have changed since our last visit in 2000. The tiny little village one mile north of the park entrance has became a big town, packed with luxury hotels, restaurants (there was even a Subway) and souvenir shops. There were so many tour buses coming in and out of the village that a traffic light has been installed on the Parks Highway for the village. The cabin we stayed last time doesn't exist any more, replaced by a 5-story hotel belong to some cruise company. At least it was built on a lower ground than the highway, and there were many trees surround it, so the building didn't look too intrusive. One hotel was built high in the mountain, you could clearly see it for miles within the park. Don't they have any regulation here?
We took the 11-hour Wonder Lake shuttle bus again, saw many wildlife along the way (bears, moose, caribous, dall sheep, eagles, .....). They were either high on the mountains or down in the valleys, nothing like the caribou herd we saw on Dalton Highway. The ride was long and uncomfortable. When we finally got back to the Wilderness Center, it was 8:45pm. We were surprised to see a bull moose eating leaves off some trees right next to the center. We searched all day for this kind of close encounter, who knew we would have it in the end of the day at the parking lot. There were dozen of us watching him from feet away, taking pictures with flashes, he didn't seem to care at all, continue eating, even moved on to the flower bed and ate half of the flowers. From the size of his antler, I could tell he was still a young moose, but standing over 7 feet tall, he looked so majestic and beautiful from close-up, almost make you want to go over and pad him :) We watched for 15 minutes, the moose showed no sign he would leave any time soon, so we took off, searching for our own dinner.
1. Denali National Park.
2. Denali National Park.
3. Denali National Park.
The next day was our last day for the trip. We sadly drove back to Anchorage for our flights. Having visited Alaska twice in six years, I feel you can never spend enough time in Alaska. It is so HUGE. There are so many places to visit, not only well known places like Anchorage, Fairbanks, Valdez, ...... but also places like McCarthy, Coldfoot, Wiseman and many more hard to reach bush communities. They are truly the last frontier, and I sincerely hope that they stay that way for the years to come!
(The End)
