Day Eighteen, Denali Kantishna Experience

First, here's the picture of the picture that I didn't put in yesterday's blog.

We met the bus at 7:20 A.M. for our 11 1/2 hour bus trip to Kantishna,  the farthest you can travel into Denali NP.  That's 92 miles from the visitor center.   The bus was almost full - 28 visitors.

 This is a  photo of the bus with the mountains in the background.  It was a cloudy and rainy day, so there was no chance of seeing Mt. McKinley.

Connie at Elison Visitor Center - Mile 66 of the trip in.

View from Elison Visitor's Center. Notice that this sculpture is made of 'locked' moose antlers.

This is an "art fabric" quilt that was on display at Elison. Connie and Rosemary are both quilters, and, in fact, have found at least 4 quilt shops during our vacation.

Fannie and Joe Quigley were some of the first to live through the winter in Kantishna which is now part of Denali National Park and Preserve.  Fannie made her living baking and cooking.  But to make a pie crust in 1905 in Kantishna you had to hunt and kill a bear just so you could render the fat into lard.  She described her life as very hard.  Enlarge the plaque below for more information.

One of the reasons for riding the bus for 93 miles is to see the wildlife.  We did just that.  We saw eight bears, grizzlies.  The one that walked right past the bus was an unusual event.  As he/she walked by, it didn't seem to care that we were there; it was used to people.  We also saw a herd of caribou, a herd of Dall sheep in the distance, and a fox (right click) that also wasn't concerned about the bus.  The only other animal that we didn't see was a moose.  

I have to close with a quote from John Muir, a champion of the National Park system that some call the 'father of Yosemite NP'. "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."  When I look at Denali I find that it is just a part of the larger treasure, the National Park System.  I wish you could all see a National Park very soon.