Denali National Park Wildlife

[staufj22]

Hi All,

 

Would it make a difference, as far as wildlife sighting goes, whether you're taking a morning shuttle, or an evening shuttle?

I understand that it dosn't get dark until pretty late there, so we have a 6PM shuttle going to Polychrome.

I'm thinking of switching it to a morning shuttle, leaving around 7AM, wondering if that'll provide a better chance at wildlife sighting.

[wolfie11]

Either is probably good for wildlife, which are active more in the am and pm and tend to bed down during the hot, sunny part of the day. If cloudy/cold and raining, then they are usually active all day.

[Budget Queen]

However with selecting Polychrome instead of Fish Creek, you are missing 10 miles of PRIME bear habitat.

 

Either timeframe will have wildlife sightings, always unique to the day and unpredictable.

[Chenega]

Exactly - we've had out best bear sightings past Polychrome. Last summer they were consistenly showing up in the Stoney Hill/Fish Creek area.

[fti]

Exactly - we've had out best bear sightings past Polychrome. Last summer they were consistenly showing up in the Stoney Hill/Fish Creek area.

 

Tell me about it. Within 15 minutes of starting our hike at Stony Hill last June, we saw a large bear within 50 yards of us. Fortunately he didn't see us and we moved out of his way quickly. Glad we saw it early actually - made us even more bear-aware the rest of our hike around Stony Hill aka Stony Mountain (only in Alaska could that be called a "hill"!).

 

John