Denali National Park & Ruth Glacier
July 2010
Day 12 was the only day on the land portion of our trip that we spent the whole day in one place because our tour had 2 nights scheduled in Denali. We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour through Denali National Park. It was eight hours long and full of some of the most spectacular sights we’ve seen. We saw bears, Dall sheep, moose, caribou, a lynx, golden eagles, mew gulls and more. We also got to see Denali (aka Mount McKinley) which apparently only 30% of visitors get to see. Eight hours and a boxed lunch later our time in the park was over and we headed back to the lodge just in time to catch our shuttle to Healy State Airport for our glacier flight. Finally, we finally made it off the ground and we were on our way to land on a glacier. We flew over the very rugged and beautiful terrain of Denali National Park to reach Ruth Glacier. After landing on the glacier, we spent 30 minutes walking around on top of 20 feet of snow and more than 1000 feet of glacial ice. It was an amazing experience. We ended the night with a flight back to Healy and dinner at the lodge in Denali.
