DENALI NATIONAL PARK, Alaska — The shaggy blond grizzly stopped grazing on grasses and sat back on her haunches. Two black cubs saw the opportunity and ended their wrestling match, each racing to nurse in her arms. The massive head of the big bear seemed to be staring at the clouds, a look of motherly contentment in her eyes.

The three were halfway up a hillside and, in a van stopped on the gravel road below, four frustrated photographers watched the scene unfold just out of range of their telephoto lenses. They, too, had to be content staring through binoculars at the unsnapped picture of family bliss.

We were on an Alaskan safari arranged by Kirk Hoessle, who comes naturally by his love of wildlife. Along for the ride was Charlie Hoessle, Kirk's dad and my friend, who retired in 2002 after 40 years with the St. Louis Zoo, the last 20 as director. Kirk Hoessle runs Alaska Wildland Adventures, which in 2005 was named the top eco-tourism operator in the world by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

His company owns two lodges on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska, and is working on a third. From Kenai Riverside Lodge, we floated 17 miles down the turquoise Kenai River, then motored six miles across Skilak Lake to Kenai Backcountry Lodge, which is on five acres of private land within a million acres of wilderness.

The pot of gold near the end of the eight-day trip was Denali National Park, where we took the rare opportunity to drive the 95 miles through the interior, which most visitors view from tour buses. After two days of hiking and sightseeing, which included a flight through the clouds of massive Mount McKinley, we flew back to Anchorage and, unfortunately, civilization.

Lanky and 51, Kirk Hoessle first went to Alaska at age 20 to work as a crew leader for a youth conservation corps. "I was plopped down into the middle of wilderness with 10 kids who knew more about Alaska than I did," he said.

He's been there every year since. He went full time in 1989, and has developed a formula that makes venturing into the wilds easy. His lodges offer comfy cabins, good food and activities geared toward each visitor's capabilities. Guided groups are limited to 16 or fewer, and trips range from three days and two nights at Kenai Backcountry Lodge, which cost $1,025 a person, to the 10-day "grand journey," which is $4,895 and includes a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords, a raft trip to the backcountry lodge and three days in Denali.

Most visit via cruise ships

Alaska became one of the top destinations for U.S. travelers on nature-based vacations after Sept. 11, with most of the million or more annual visitors arriving on the eight cruise ship lines that serve the state. They enjoyed their sightseeing from a ship's railing, and did shore excursions to cities such as Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, where cruisers often outnumbered the residents.

"There's no comparison to what we do and the mass tourism approach, where you go where thousands have gone before," Hoessle said. "Thousands may have gone where we go, but you never see them. On the good side, 25 percent of cruisers will come back because they didn't get enough of Alaska. Hopefully, we'll get some of those people."

The fourth member along for our adventure was Kevin Minto, the guru of guides for Hoessle's company. A self-taught naturalist with a major in botany and a minor in edible plants, Minto grazes on trailside plants as he hikes. A guest once was readying her camera for a close-up of a prickly rose when Minto walked by and ate it.

"Now that was an accident," he insisted.

Our first night was at Kenai Riverside Lodge in Cooper Landing, the home base for Alaska Wildland Adventures. The lodge consists of 17 cabins on the banks of the upper Kenai River. About a quarter of the lodge's guests come for day trips fishing for salmon and rainbow trout, but we wanted action, and the four of us took off the next morning on a pontoon raft.

1931 lodge updated in '93

After floating 17 miles, we donned rain gear for the six-mile motoring across Skilak Lake, which can toss waves into your lap. A wooden picnic table and chairs on an otherwise empty, pebble-lined beach announced we had arrived at Kenai Backcountry Lodge. It was built in 1931 as a hunting lodge and is open June through mid-September.

Hoessle bought the lodge in 1993 and has added a modern kitchen and roomy tent-cabins spread out in the woods. There also are two vintage log cabins, and two new cabins, which have bathrooms. Everyone else uses a shower house, which has such modern amenities as flush toilets and hot showers.

The lodge is reached by boat or by vehicle driven across the frozen lake in winter. No heavy machinery was used in construction. A local high school wrestling team was hired to dig the septic system by hand as a conditioning project.

The Hoessle boys invited me to join them in the sauna, then coaxed me into following them into the lake for a very brief swim. Later, over dinner in the lodge, Kirk showed me a photo of a thermometer he dipped into the water. It registered 38 degrees.

Future for tribal land

The Weather or Knot is a 40-foot, 23-passenger aluminum catamaran that cruises Resurrection Bay out of Seward, showing passengers the killer whales, bald eagles, sea lions and other creatures that inhabit the wildlife-rich area around Kenai Fjords National Park.

The boat is Kirk Hoessle's latest purchase, and would be used to make the two-hour ride to his proposed Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge. He has signed a long-term lease with an Alutiiq native group to use 10 acres of tribal land for a lodge and 16 cabins with bathrooms, spread out on a protected lagoon surrounded by a private, 2,500-acre wildlife sanctuary.

"Here's the wonderful thing out there," he said. "During high tide, you can paddle right up to the face of Pedersen Glacier with a guide. We also intend to have a trail going through the alder forest back to the glacier. There are black bear, harbor seal, river otter, sea otter — and oystercatchers nesting nearby."

Low-impact construction methods will be used, with work expected to be completed by summer of 2009.

"The idea is to make it look like it's always been there, with the cabins just set in among the boardwalks and gravel paths," Hoessle said.

After a tour of Resurrection Bay aboard the Weather or Knot, we visited the Alaska SeaLife Center, an aquarium of native fish and animals in the small town of Seward. We had seen endangered Stellar sea lions gathered on the rocky ledges of the bay, and found that researchers at the aquarium have a remote camera positioned on a herd 35 miles away. During our visit, an announcement directed us to the video screen, where we watched a cow give birth, live and in color.

Town known for many things

The road to Denali National Park leads through the tiny town of Talkeetna, which is famous for its:

- Bush pilots.

- Annual Moose Dropping Festival.

- Reputed connection to TV's "Northern Exposure."

- Fairview Inn, which may or may not have served a meal to President Harding in July 1923 that resulted in his death from food poisoning.

Some residents brag about the fact, while others say he suffered a heart attack.

We spent the night at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, which is perched on a hill outside of town. The handsome lodge is owned by an Alaska native corporation and has 212 rooms, a 46-foot-high rock fireplace in the lobby and killer views of Mount McKinley and the Alaska Range 60 miles away.

"You can see it 30 percent of the time," said spokeswoman Deedee Kaye, referring to the cloud cover that often obscures North America's tallest mountain, which is 20,320 feet high.

95 miles to center of park

The area at the entrance to Denali has been dubbed "Glitter Gulch" by locals because it is home to a burgeoning commercial strip anchored by the large hotels built by cruise lines to house their guests who bus or take the train to the park.

Private vehicles can drive 15 miles into the park, and then must turn around. Narrated tour buses take you the rest of the way, which is fine because it's difficult to see and photograph wildlife when you're driving on twisting mountain roads.

We had a special permit to drive the entire 95 miles. The enclave of resorts at Kantishna Roadhouse, our final destination, offers the only lodging inside Denali.

Driving through the vast expanse of glassy lakes, braided rivers and jagged mountains reminded Charlie Hoessle, the zoo man, of his wife: "Right about now, Marilyn would turn to me and say, Well, here we are again, back in the middle of nowhere.'"

During our time in the park, we kept a list of the species we sighted and ended with 21. Among the best sightings were a golden eagle that circled the sky, ignoring three pesky Bonaparte gulls; a Dall ewe that scampered straight up a rock face; and the momma grizzly and her two cubs.

Before heading out of Denali, I hitched a ride in a six-seater Cessna owned by Kantishna Air Taxi for a close-up view of Mount McKinley.

"Right now, there are 400 people on the mountain," said Connie, our pilot. "The glacier on the left, you can see the bathtub ring of how high it used to be, and how high it is now. Bet Al Gore would like to see that one."

— Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

If you go

Denali National Park and Preserve: 907-683-2294 and www.nps.gov/dena. The park road is open year-round. The Alaska Railroad (800-544-0552) has daily passenger service to the park from Anchorage and Fairbanks. There are day hikes and backcountry hiking. Call 800-622-7275 for shuttle bus and campsite reservations. Most visitors come between late May and mid-September. Tours buses are available at 800-276-7234.

Alaska Wildland Adventures: 800-334-8730 and www.alaskawildland.com. Activities range from day trips for fishing and floating to 10-day adventure outings.

Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge: 888-959-9590 and www.talkeetnalodge.com.

Kantishna Roadhouse: 800-942-7420 and www.seedenali.com.

Kantishna Air Taxi: 907-683-1223 and www.katair.com. The pilots fly around Mount McKinley and to and from Denali National Park.

Alaska SeaLife Center: 800-224-2525 and www.alaskasealife.org. The only public aquarium in Alaska.