Day 8 • Denali National Park • 74 mi

Day 3 in Denali National Park.

We started with a short hike up Igloo Creek, just below the tree line at 2940 ft. The backcountry rangers told me that an accomplished hiker could expect to average about a mile an hour in the park, and they weren't kidding. We made about a quarter of a mile and back in an hour.

On the bus again.

We rode to Eielson Visitor Center again today, same as Day 6. On a clear day you can see Denali from the center, but today was filled with beautiful clouds and a little bit of rain.

Here's a tiny taste of what it feels like to ride the bus:

Except more, all around you, for hours.

The road is still a little terrifying, though.

We ended up seeing a few caribou at close range:

And to cap off our time in Denali, we ran into three(!) bears at roughly the same time. Two sprinted several hundred meters across the hillside; it's quite a thing to see that much animal moving so quickly. Still limited at 200mm, I cropped some of these down to see them better.

When you do Denali (and you must), bring a 400mm lens. The bus does the heavy lifting.

Wildlife totals today: 3 caribou, 3 Dall sheep, 3 grizzly, 2 gyrfalcon

Total mileage: 74 mi