A Bear and a Pint

August 03, 2013

We were up early this morning for our Denali National Park tour so we powered up with Wild Alaskan Blueberry Sourdough Hotcakes and coffee.  The ladies did a fine job with the picking yesterday. 

Wild Alaskan Blueberry Sourdough Hotcakes

After arriving at the park we were early enough to catch most of the informative video about the park’s beginning.  Then at 9:25am we boarded our bus for the six (6) hour tour to the Toklat River junction.  Some may remember a movie of the same name TOKLAT, 1971, about a man and his grizzly, well it isn’t the same.  But there is a Toklat color phase of the grizzly and it is blonde with chocolate colored legs.  Anyhoo, Rex was our driver, originates from the western Upper Peninsula and is in his seventh year in Alaska.  Rex did a fine job with landmarks, geography and spotting animals but lacks a little with biology of said animals.  The first 18 of the 53 miles was more or less void of animals but then things started to pop.  First was a grazing three year old “Toklat” grizzly and it ate grasses thirty yards from our bus.  A few miles later were a sow and two cubs and on the opposite side of the road another sow and pair of cubs.  Above them, I counted six grazing caribou that were barely visible to the naked eye.  As the drive went on we crossed Polychrome Pass, aka Sinners Pass or Poison Pass (One Drop Will Kill You), where back when the park opened, a ranger would walk visitors too frightened to ride in the car or bus.  It hasn’t improved much since then and when you pass another bus, you could shake hands with the others without any extra effort.  The junction at the Toklat River was extremely windy, dry and dusty and nobody wanted to linger.  During the return trip we saw another three caribou and headed to the exit.  And as 70% of the Denali visitors can attest, we did not see Denali due to the heavy clouds.

                         Scruffy looking 3y Grizzly, "Toklat" phase

                         Grizzly sow and cubs

Toklat River, windy and dusty

Instead of returning to Cantwell we made a turn north to HEALY and the 49^th State Brewery for dinner.  Outside they were holding their version of Oktoberfest called Augtoberfest.  I enjoyed a pint or two of Solstice IPA and all you can eat Pork Roast.  Carol and Lisa had chicken and smoked pork chop and everything was German-style with kraut and German potato salad.  Parked outside the brewery sat a movie prop from the movie Into the Wild, 2007.  The story was about Christopher McCandless and his adventure and eventual death by starvation in said bus.  This is ONLY a movie replica as the original is located about 30 miles west of HEALY on the Stampede Trail.  That will be another trip at another time.

Lisa at 49th State Brewery, Healy Alaska

                               Bus 142 from Into the Wild, 2007