Denali National Park - God's Country!

I am always in my happy place in Denali National Park.  Every trip and every day is a different experience!  Being able to camp at the Teklanika Campground, 29 miles inside the park and beyond where other personal vehicles are prohibited, provides a true sense of seclusion.  Being "off the grid" here is a reality as there is no cell phone coverage . . . and you do not have the luxury of going back to the park entrance until you are leaving the park.  For us, this year we were doing five nights at the Tek CG.

Another added benefit of staying at Tek CG is the "Tek Pass" for unlimited use on the shuttle system, beyond the campground.  In normal years without COVID, you can use the shuttle buses all the way to the end of the road.  But this year, due to severely limited visitors, safety precautions in place, plus the simple unknown of how the pandemic would affect day-to-day operations inside the park, there were far fewer shuttles operating . . . and only to the Eielson Visitor Center.

While understandable, we were disappointed that would rule out getting to some of the best bear viewing as well as the wild blueberries at Wonder Lake.  Because of David's back pain, we opted to not do the daily ride on the school bus from camp further into the park.  He encouraged me to go about my day and enjoy the park, which I did!

The wildlife was seemingly much further away from the road this summer.  Many of the bear sightings we had were too far out to get great photos.  Add to my personal challenge, I bought a new camera, finally retiring my old Olympus DSLR set up I ironically bought for my very first Alaska trip back in 2006.  I worked to learn my new Nikon P900, which has a long telephoto range. But even so, there were issues when I tried to shoot from an idling school bus with the zoom out to 1000 mm and beyond.

On this trip, however, there were seemingly caribou EVERYwhere along the road, particularly around Polychrome Pass.  I was also delighted to see a pair of sub-adult grizzy bears right in the Tek rest area, which was about a mile from our campsite!

Regarding time spent in Denali and the COVID-19 pandemic . . . it was clear the park service and staff were working to keep the virus from infecting their guests and employees.  The visitor centers were closed, with only the restrooms and water bottle refill station open at the Eielson center.  High touch surfaces like the spotting scopes were all covered and unavailable for use, plus the toilets at the Toklat River stop were reduced to roughly one-third being available for use.
 
While face masks were required while inside the shuttle buses, there were some who disregarded the directive.  Additionally, there were a couple of buses that were over their half occupancy limits required to provide adequate social distancing.  All in all, however, I felt safe as a single traveler unwilling to "share my seat" with a stranger.

The landscape and views throughout Denali National Park are amazing!  With rain and clouds every day, we never got to see Mt. Denali, but the views in the park are still worth sharing!

And here are some of the wildlife photos I took during my four trips on the shuttle buses.