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Note to Van Os clients
If you came here from my trip report on the Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris website, this collection is much like that one; however, there are a few images here that don't appear there.  Also, captions and metadata are included in this slideshow.

It was an oppressive summer throughout much of the USA in 2011, especially here in Texas.  Record highs, record number of days over 100°F, record drought ... yuck.  What better way to escape than to head North, and what better destination than Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska?

Denali in Autumn is really special.  There a colors like nowhere else ... golds, reds, purples.  Animals are actively preparing for the coming winter ... bears, caribou, sheep, moose, foxes, lynx, ptarmigans, grouse, cranes, and more.  And then, there's Mt. McKinley, if you're lucky enough to see it ... we were.

Visiting Denali National Park requires planning.  Although huge (3rd largest), access to Denali is very limited.  There is one road, the Denali Park Road, which is 92 miles long, along which the public can only traverse 15 miles.  The rest of the road is accessible only by licensed shuttles/buses or under human power (bicycle or walking).  There are a couple of visitor centers:  one at the park entrance and the other at mile 66 along the Denali Park Road.  There are some lodges on private land within the park boundaries and travel to them is provided by their private buses or shuttles.  

The Joseph Van Os Denali National Park in Autumn photo safari was a great way to experience Denali.  Not only was the tour specifically geared to photography, they handled all of the details of lodging and moving around the park.  Our lodging was at North Face Lodge, which provided wonderful meals, comfortable lodging, and a naturalist-driven private bus to shuttle our group around the park from shooting location to shooting location.  The tour was led by Len Rue, Jr., who also led the 2009 Teton/Yellowstone trip and co-led the Acadia National Park Digital Workshop in 2010.  The first night in the park, we enjoyed a stunning sunset (according to lodge staff, the best sunset of the season).   We also had wonderful opportunities to photograph grizzlies up close as well as Dall's sheep, caribou, foxes, moose, lynx, and more.  Although the weather in Alaska is very unpredictable and often rainy, we had beautiful weather, which afforded us the rare opportunity to see and photograph Mt. McKinley every day we were there.

Cool temperatures, beautiful colors, abundant wildlife ... what a great way to end the summer of 2011.

Photo info.  Click the slideshow icon at left to see a slideshow of photos from the trip.  Except where noted otherwise, all photos were shot by Dave using a Canon EOS 7D DSLR.  3 lenses were used:  a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (used on occasion with a rented Canon Extender EF 2x III).  Except for the two moose shots, all wildlife photos were shot, handheld, from within the bus provided by North Face Lodge.  All landscapes were shot, tripod mounted, on a rented Gitzo GT3531S tripod and a Really Right Stuff BH-40 LR ball head.  All images were shot Raw and processed in Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3.5 (with occasional work in Adobe® Photoshop® CS5).  Some photo data is provided below each photo in the slideshow.

Except where noted otherwise, all photos are Copyright © 2011 David W. Boston