Well, our luck couldn't last with the weather. It was cloudy with a little bit of rain for most of the day. So, we saw no more than a corner of Denali Mountain peaking out behind the clouds all day. Also, we got a surprise when we showed up for our camper bus. Igloo Campground was closed; a grizzly bear and her cubs had torn apart an empty tent the day before. So, there went our planned hike up Cathedral Mountain. We got switched to Sanctuary Campground. After setting our tent up, we took the bus further in to Eielson Visitor Center. On the way in we spotted tons of caribou, a blonde grizzly bear with a dark cub, and a lady moose. The Eielson Alpine Trail was good, but much of the mountains were veiled in clouds. The clouds just got thicker as the day progressed. We caught the first bus back, spotting more caribou and other wildlife.
The next day, we took a leisurely morning before catching the first camper bus out of the park, 10:30am. We took the Denali Highway towards Valdez. The clouds had not left us behind. So, while we enjoyed the mountain vistas along this mostly dirt road, we had trouble photographing any of it through the rain and gray. We did have our first sightings of the big volcano peaks of Wrangle St. Elias National Park. Our day was topped off by a small hike to some disappointing mud volcanos near our camp, but it was redeemed by a whole heavenly delicious patch of cloudberries. These really are nirvana if it were reduced into composite berry form.
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