Denali Road Lottery!
What a week I’ve had! Busy doesn’t even come close to describing what I’ve been up to. Portrait shoots, dancing (belly dance class has started up again), and the coveted Denali Road Lottery adventure have filled the days since I wrote last. I’ll start with Denali and work my way back.
My friend Sabrina won the *golden ticket* to drive into Denali this past weekend. Her pass was for Monday, so she and Lori (who went with us) had to take off from work. I’m sure their bosses understood, as the Denali Road Lottery is quite the event for many people. Winning a pass is truly like winning the lottery.
To sum up what the Denali Road Lottery is: Every year during the summer, there is a time period when you can apply to win a pass into the park. This summer, it was the month of June. You have the entire month to apply, and there is an application fee of $10 per chance. There is only one chance per person, but you can apply for everyone in your family (to include kids), as long as you’re willing to part with $10 each. I only apply for Steve and I, although I have thought about applying for my sons to better my odds of winning. (Passes are transferable, but not permitted to be sold - however, you will see them advertised on Craigslist and other venues by folks who seem to make a habit out of applying for passes they never intend to use - frustrating!)
Names are pulled (not sure how they do the selecting) - a total of 1600. Four hundred cars a day - for four days (Fri-Mon) are permitted to drive into Denali Park; all the way to the end if they want. This allows you to stop when you want, get out when you want, spend as much time with wildlife as you want, etc. (Of course there are rules about getting too close to the animals, etc).
It’s 85 miles to Wonder Lake, and the road continues another 8-10 miles or so to Kantishna Backcountry Lodge. The lottery is a fantastic opportunity to explore the park at your own pace, and the autumn season is especially nice with the pretty foliage, rutting moose, and hungry bears.
Sabrina spent the night on Sunday, so that we could get up early on Monday morning. We met Lori at Fred Meyer on the north side of town, and then went to Sunrise Bagel for our morning pick-me-up. I estimated we’d be at the park by 8:30am and I was pretty accurate. We had our windshield placard and were on our way into the park quickly.
There was no view of Denali in the first 15 miles. That wasn’t a good sign, as the mountain (when *out*) is visible from about mile 6, and then several other places. So we resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be seeing The Great One. Imagine our great surprise when we moved a little deeper into the park and Denali appeared in all her glory (with a few clouds here and there) to greet us! That, alone, made the drive worth it.
The weather, on the other hand, was lovely. While a bit breezy and chilly (40s and 50s), skies moved between partly sunny and mostly sunny throughout the day.
Wildlife spotted included dall sheep, grizzly bears, bull moose, caribou, ground squirrels, snowshoe hares, and a wolf. Photos, however don’t reflect all of these sightings as the wildlife was either at a distance, or moving too fast for us to get our cameras out and focused. As the driver of the car, I was at a disadvantage. While Sabrina and Lori could bolt out of the car before I was even in Park, I had to worry about safely pulling off the road and then grabbing my camera. If Steve and I win next year, he can drive so I can at least hang out the window for some landscape shots!
I’m not complaining though, as I did manage to grab some good photos, and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive and the beautiful scenery. And just when we thought it was all over… we experienced one of the best sunsets EVER, on our drive back to Fairbanks.
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