For your 45th Birthday - you really are "Denali Bound" - Complete w/final thoughts - 2/17/2013 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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That photo of Chris grinning at the camera, surrounded by turbulent water, is great-- crazy, but great! Not anything I'd ever do, but it looks exciting!
The Ice Museum looked so cool, I agree do not think a night in the polar bed would be very enjoyable, the carvings are so beautiful though. Glad you got to visit with Santa during his off months at his home , I am sure everyone was on the good list.
The train ride looked amazing, the view just breathtaking, I would have been snapping pictures the whole time as well. The hotel looks very confortable. Glad you had enough people for your raft, what an experience!!! Chris definitely looked like he was having the time of his life.
Rachel and George ordered sandwiches for the tundra bus tour - $13.00 person (sandwich, bottle of water and bag of potato chips). After pizza, we wandered back to our rooms and crashed... we had to be up very early tomorrow morning since our tour confirmation said it started at 5am!!
Not gonna lie, for where you were, that's not a bad deal at all
That photo of Chris grinning at the camera, surrounded by turbulent water, is great-- crazy, but great! Not anything I'd ever do, but it looks exciting!
I agree with Laurie. I think that is one of the best pictures ever and I hope you had it framed! I think his smile there definitely made the long months of scheming worth every bit!
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Denali National Park - Tundra Wildlife Tour
May 22, 2012 Today we are booked on the Tundra Wilderness Tour (TWT) of Denali National Park. Originally I had wanted to book this for George and Rachel and book Chris and I the shuttle bus to the Elison Visitor’s Center – but the road to Elison was still closed – so we decided to spend the day with George and Rachel on the TWT.
Our tour confirmation says 500am... so we are up and ready to go. Lunches picked up... sitting out in front of the hotel - and no bus. I went to the Tour Desk to see if they could be of help – and come to find out – the 500am is a “standard time”, but the tour assumes you will call back after you book to see what real time your tour is... we didn’t call, so the gentleman behind the desk confirms that our tour will start at 630am. We now have more than an hour to kill - so we decided to get some breakfast. We went to the buffet breakfast (it was ok) – and then back to the front of the resort.
We boarded the bus and at first I was thinking, “what have I done?? We are trapped on this old school bus for 8 hours???”
The tour bus....
But it turned out fine. The seats were comfortable, the snack (it wasn’t enough to be called lunch), was good, the wildlife viewing was out of this world!
Instead of giving a blow by blow - I will just show you our photos - Overall - here is a list of what we saw:
Caribou
Moose
Grizzly Bear
Wolves – First wolves of the season!!! 70 wolves in the park, 6,000,000 acres – chances of seeing them is LOW.
Snowshoe hare
Ptarmigan – State Bird of Alaska
Porcupine
Magpie
Dall sheep
Harlequin Duck
Northern pintail
Arctic Ground Squirrel
Caribou were so common that after 8 hours – we were all saying “more caribou?? We don’t need to stop for caribou...”
Entering the park
It was a grey overcast day.
The tunrda
Our first animal - a caribou (actually there was a group of them).
A female Ptarmigan (Alaska's state bird)
Her mate - the male. During summer he will be brown, and during winter he will be white.
A ptarmigan in a tree
Harliquin ducks
After 10 miles - the ranger came onto the bus to tell us to please be careful and quiet when animals are near the bus.
MOOSE!!
Raven (which means goodluck!)
Caribou crossing the road
Porcupine... in a willow tree
We stopped at a rest area with restrooms. Very nice restroom.
View from the rest area
Solar panels to help provide electricity
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BEARS and WOLVES!! Oh My!!
Ptarmigan on a snow peak
Magpie in a tree
Arctic ground squirrel
BEAR!! our first bear of the trip.
I am SO glad Chris has a good zoom on his camera
Female Dall sheep
Dall sheep on a ridge... and when we saw them, we heard a wolf howl...
And them we SAW HIM!!! A grey wolf.
The sheep reacted too....
He sat there and looked at the sheep.... (look to the right and behind the white snow).
Everyone ran to that side of the bus. The little Japanese gentleman in front of me kept saying "Woof, Woof!!!". If you look here you can see the video screens that dropped down from the ceiling - our driver/guide had a camera and could zoom into the animals to help you see them better. He told us this was the first wolf that had been seen during the season. Denali is 6,000,000 acres - and there are approximately 70 known wolves in the park - so your chances of seeing one are LOW....
We saw this male Dall sheep next. He was so close to the bus.
And then we saw wolf #2!!!
And then we saw a young grizzly bear. He walked down the hill and crossed the road directly in front of us.
Our guide said he seemed nervous. He appeared to be a young bear - maybe this was his first year away from mom.
Then we stopped at the river turn around - 53 miles into the park. There is a ranger station there, we talked to the rangers and told them we'd seen wolves. One of the rangers said she was so jealous.
To quote Rachel - Look at the rack on that one!!! (Caribou antlers).
We reboarded the bus - and headed back toward the entrance -
and we found our buddy the bear again -
He was looking for grubbs... digging around in the earth
He was keenly aware of the bus too
We drove close to the valley below - the road was one lane wide, narrow and twisty
Panoramic view of the valley below. Our guide told us that IF we could see Mt. McKinley we would see it from here - well it was overcast and we could not see it. Only 30% of park visitors see the Mountain from in the park.
We stopped at a valley overlook - and took some photos
Do you see where the V between the two mountains are? That is where Mt. McKinley should be....
Mama and younin' bear....
Northern pintail ducks
More caribou!
We had to wait for the caribou to cross the road... all the buses had to wait...
Then it began to rain...
And then the sun came out and we saw another moose!
Rachel took this photo at the first stop
Chris took some photos with his zoom ...
Photos at the overlook
Mom and youngin..
After our 8 HOURS on the bus.... it went by quickly and we really enjoyed all of the wildlife sightings... we were dropped off at the lodge. Rachel and George opted for a nap. Chris and I opted for a hike to the Denali Visitor's Center, about 2 miles away. We got back to the resort about 2pm.
What an amazing tour, you saw so many animals, how cool that you got to see the first wolves of the season...I love the shot of the wolf walking over the snow. The young grizzly bear was so cute too...I know, probably not as cute if I woke up in my sleeping bag to see one standing over me but from the windows of the bus....very adorable.
WOW!! What an amazing tour. I can't believe how many animals you saw. I love seeing the ptarmigan-- beautiful birds! And, of course, the wolves..... watch out, sheep! You got some amazing shots. The sheep have such beautiful faces!
Having been somewhat of an outdoorsman, I really like all the wildlife shots. It is so cool to see them in the wild like that.
The first wolves of the season... now THAT'S cool!
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