{"id":581,"date":"2025-09-11T09:44:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/?p=581"},"modified":"2025-09-09T02:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:07:35","slug":"usa-2024-part-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/usa-2024-part-18\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Part 18 – Everything is connected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was almost 9:30 am.
\u201cWe\u2019ll need time to pick them up and come back.\u201d
\u201cIt will take an hour. Earliest bus may be the 11 am one that we can make.\u201d
\u201cLet\u2019s go to the visitor centre also and then take a call. We know the bus timings.\u201d
The centre is a 5-minute drive from the bus depot.\u00a0
There were already a couple of people in front of us waiting to talk to the receptionists. While waiting, I noticed a notice on the wall regarding activities for families with kids, along with some goodies and a backpack for them.\u00a0
\u201cAre there ranger-led hikes?\u201d
\u201cYes. We do have.\u201d The staff pulled up a book that had a page for each of the hikes planned for the next few days – the descriptions of the hikes were written by hand; probably the ranger had drafted them.
\u201cAre they full-day hikes?\u201d
\u201cIt will take about six hours or so overall, including going to the place and returning.\u201d
\u201cWe have to book in advance?\u201d
\u201cYeah, a couple of days earlier, you can book for them. Needs to be done in-person. Tomorrow\u2019s is booked out. There is availability for Wednesday.\u201d
That would mean June 26th; however, with the hike taking up a significant part of the day, it would mean we could only leave Denali late on the 26th. And the 27th is when we had to leave Alaska, so it would be cutting it too close, considering there was also the cruise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> Denali is the name of the mountain and this is contained with the Denali National Park. So usually the reference to saying \u2018heading to Denali\u2019 means \u2018heading to Denali National Park\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After calling our folks, we decided that the 11:30 transit bus is the safest time to pick.
\u201cWe can spend some 20 minutes here before leaving. And then pick them up and come back.\u201d
There were a couple of short movies playing in small theatres just past the reception area, running every half hour. Further ahead was a staircase that led to a floor below, where exhibits explained the park and its wildlife, along with life-size replicas of some animals found in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was a quote that read, ‘For most of the year, Denali is defined by snow rather than mosquitoes and darkness rather than daylight.’\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a dedicated section on mosquitoes as well – so mosquitoes were common in Alaska. Male mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower (leads to the berries we get) while female mosquitoes also can do the same, but they also need blood to nourish their eggs. The board read, \u201cIf she bites you, you become part of the Denali food chain\u201d! Apparently, mosquitoes are also a food source for many birds. Another board read, \u201cThe next time you swat mosquitoes, think of the birds and bears that depend on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learnt that bears used to break cooking pots and cans for food; and so in Denali, they created Bear Resistant Food Containers (BRFCs) in the 1980s, which led to a dip in food theft by bears. It also ensures that the people carrying the food are safe and not attacked by bears that would be attracted by the smell of food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything in nature is interconnected – there\u2019s something called \u2018lichen\u2019 – which grows on trees and rocks; it\u2019s a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungus – fungus provides a structure for the algae to grow, while the algae makes food for the fungus! Animals in this part of the world look to consume a lot of protein in the non-winter months; lichen has 5% protein, and caribou (reindeer) produce an enzyme lichenase that enables them to extract the full 5% of protein!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a long winter season here, vegetation is slow-growing, and they explained why you won\u2019t see large animals in every corner – they require a lot of food – greenery or smaller animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The Athabaskans were the first inhabitants of Alaska – the first people in Alaska arrived from Asia 14,000 years ago, towards the end of the ice age. The Athabaskans revered bears, believing in their spiritual powers. They were hunted but only after elaborate rituals, and the spear wasn\u2019t thrown at the bear as we would imagine – instead, they would keep it firm on the ground, and the charging bear would land on it. The natives made use of whatever the land provided to improve their livelihood – clothing and sleeping bags were made using animal hides, roots were used for ropes, birch bark was used for canoes and baskets, and animal bones were used for weaving. There was an exhibit explaining how every part of a moose was used for something – even the grease from their fat was used in Athabaskan ice cream! There were exhibits on gold mining as part of the gold rush in the early years – it is one of the tourist activities you will find – companies organising gold panning tours where you can learn how people used to search for gold back then.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also \u201cmushing\u201d or dogsledding in this part of the world – makes the land more accessible in the winter months, with some places even hard to reach on snowmobiles. There are kennels established in Denali Park to provide a stock of sturdy dogs to help the park rangers during their winter patrols and help carry materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Schedule<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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For kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You could spend longer in the visitor centre going over the exhibits – it was a nice little set-up that gave a traditional feel because of the materials used inside – a lot of wood rather than cement. 
There was a board outside the visitor centre listing some activities for the day – dog demonstrations, ranger-led hikes (today there were two, one in the morning and one in the evening, and they were shorter than the one scheduled for tomorrow), and a Geo family hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was almost 9:30 am.\u201cWe\u2019ll need time to pick them up and come back.\u201d\u201cIt will take an hour. Earliest bus may be the 11 am one that we can make.\u201d\u201cLet\u2019s go to the visitor centre also and then take a call. We know the bus timings.\u201dThe centre is a 5-minute drive from the bus depot.\u00a0There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travelogue","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}