Last Frontier Tales
Making Memories on the Magic Mountain By Hank Nuwer
First published in Cordova Times
A visit of our Natalia to Alaska inspired my wife Gosia and me to get off our duffs and into the gorgeous country.
The three of us agreed to explore Denali National Park and Preserve.
“I feel certain we’re going to see a grizzly today,” I said to both ladies as we drove past Nenana.
“Don’t make any promises,” Gosia said. “Remember when you promised we’d see scores of dolphins?”
I did remember. That was 2018. I had taken Gosia to Tampa Bay to board a 72-foot catamaran in search of wild bottlenose dolphins.
The year before I went alone on this Florida Aquarium excursion. I viewed at least two dozen of those gorgeous, toothed whales.
“Get the camera ready,” I had boasted to Gosia as the Bay Spirit II left port.
Two hours later, the catamaran had docked, and we sat in the aquarium’s café for a cup of consolation coffee.
Not only did we fail to spot a single-dolphin, but the captain, as disappointed as we were, had extended the tour about 30 minutes without even one leaping mammal.
But today, I was sure would be different.
About ten miles from Denali, I put on my blinkers to alert traffic and halted. We thrilled to the sight of a queen-sized, older Mama Moose guiding her two newborn babies across the road. Their legs quivered.
“They’re just learning to walk,” I said.
The top of Mount Denali was shrouded in cloud cover, but nothing dampened our collective excitement this day.
We arrived about 30 minutes before boarding and purchased coffee to go with our packed sandwiches and eggs. The ride included snack boxes, but we ended up tossing the contents into a community box at the front of the bus.
We climbed aboard in a very light sprinkle of rain. All but two seats were booked. The driver introduced himself as a veteran of many summers in Denali, although he said he wintered on the West Coast in Washington.
We had just left the parking lot when fellow passengers spotted a single female moose and, voila, then a second female moose with twins.
Natalia could hardly contain her excitement. Neither could we.
Although Gosia and I between us have seen Denali about 30 times between us, we never get disappointed, even on rare occasions when we can count game sightings on two fingers.
One of my favorite visits was when my then-teenage son Adam and I camped at Riley campground. One of the fun memories was a big bluejay tossing pinecones at us because we wouldn’t share our lunches with him.
Another was a lone trip I took more than 20 years ago to Wonder Lake. The bus didn’t have to stop at mile 43 as the tour does now, due to a cave-in on the road.
I was rewarded that trip with the sighting of a grizzly sow with a small cub and a yearling.
The last time Gosia and I took a Denali bus ride together, we enjoyed seeing a breath-taking Alaska gyrfalcon. It was on a tall rock face with its yellow eyes fixed on a nest of fat marmots.
Natalia on her first trip to Denali brought along good luck. I never have experienced a Denali experience so fine as we enjoyed this June day.
Gosia and Natalia daughter kept busy the entire five-hour journey clicking photos.
The highlight was seven grizzly parading pretty near the bus. They paid us no attention. The winter had been very long and snowy. They now needed to fill their bellies with bulbs and sweet vetch roots.
Best of all, we spotted a mama sow with a single cub that reminded me of a giant griz I had visited in the Calgary Zoo while reporting on the 1988 Winter Olympics.
In addition, this day we saw tons of ptarmigan, some still with white winter coloring, and two bald eagles.
I lost track of the number of moose after 15.
The Dal sheep herds included many youngsters, and the springy little tykes put on an exuberant display for passengers. They did everything except leapfrog over one another.
Another highlight was that the driver gave us a close view of the cabin where wildlife biologist Adolf Murie lived. Our driver knew quite a bit about Murie, and informed us how for decades Murie conducted pioneering research on Denali’s predators and prey.
I made a mental note to check out Murie’s “A Naturalist in Alaska” some time from the Fairbanks library.
All too soon the ride ended. We tipped the driver and thanked him.
That’s when he told us an amazing thing.
“I’ve never had so many sightings of bears in a single day,” he said.
I gave Gosia a self-satisfied grin.
“Maybe we should return to Tampa Bay and give those bottle-nose dolphin another visit,” I said.
Columnist Hank Nuwer and wife Gosia are leaving this weekend to visit their daughter Natalia in Poland.