Tom's Journal - Denali, Days 27 - 34
Denali
We had a fabulous time!
We left Fairbanks on Saturday and drove to Denali National Park and stayed two nights dry camping at the Riley Campground at the entrance to the park. On Monday, we left the truck and trailer in the long-term parking area and rode the bus 90 miles to the Denali North Face Lodge for four nights.
But first things first, an update on the wild animal union strike. The strike continued as we left Fairbanks and drove to Denali but there were rumors circulating that there would be a brief appearance by the animals as a special Fourth-of-July celebration along the road. We got very excited about this and prepared binoculars and cameras, cleaned the lenses, and waited with great expectations. Then the time arrived and as we rounded the bend, we saw…
THOSE ANIMALS PLAYED A MEAN TRICK ON US. We highly suspect that it was the animals themselves that had started the rumors of the appearance. Will this never end!!! What did we do to them (don't answer that)?
Day 27-28 (Saturday-Sunday, July 4-5)
Happy Independence Day everyone! Did you all watch the movie (musical?) 1776? I didn't, thankfully!
We left Fairbanks and headed to
Denali and were the recipients of a practical joke by the Wild Animal
Union of Fairbanks. Okay, we
bit. We drove 112 miles
south from Fairbanks to Denali National Park and spent two nights
camping at the Riley Campground at the entrance. But, as we left
Fairbanks, Becky had to take her turn holding up the Alaska Pipeline.
When we arrived on Saturday, we spent the afternoon checking things out at the visitor center, watched the introductory film, looked at the exhibits, and oh yah, the gift shop.
On Sunday in the morning, we drove just outside the park entrance to what has become a huge resort area with several large hotels, gift shops, and restaurants. This area is the creation of the cruise lines (Princess, Holland America, and others) and is the housing area for the cruise ships excursions to Denali. From there, people are shuttled to the park where they ride packed tour buses through the park.
In the afternoon, we drove the 15
mile road into the park to the Savage River for a two mile hike along
the Savage River, very enjoyable and relaxing.
This 15 mile stretch of the park road is the only section open to
drive (except for special permit that is not commonly available).
The rest of the 75 miles of the park road is accessible by park
and a few commercial tour buses and is not paved (can you say bumpy?)
and is 20-35mph.
There have been several forest fires in the area and the canyon was filled with smoke and haze that prevented a clear view of Mt. McKinley or much of the Alaska Range. We tried for a view from several spots at the park entrance and along the road to Savage River but at best maybe we saw a very hazy outline of McKinley but probably wasn't even it. Oh well, with the fires and haze, we figured we wouldn't get a good look at the mountain but there is plenty of other things to see in Denali. Yes, Mt McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America but any mountain looks tall when you are right up next to it. They are all just big mounds of dirt! Only about 35 percent of the visitors to the park actually get to see the Mountain anyways.
Day 29 (Monday, July 6)
We got up, got ready, and hauled our trailer to the long-term parking next to the campground. I drove Becky and our luggage to the train station that is in the park right next to the visitor center and returned the truck to the long-term parking and walked (instead of taking the shuttle bus) the 1.25 miles back to the train station where we met our Camp Denali / North Face Lodge buses for the 90 mile trek into the park to North Face Lodge.
There are three resorts/lodges in Denali National Park with Camp Denali / North Face Lodge being one. Camp Denali and North Face Lodge are actually two separate lodges run by the same family with North Face Lodge being more of a lodge and Camp Denali being separate small cabins with outhouses (I preferred the lodge). They have a three night program (Friday-Monday) and a four night program (Monday-Friday which we attended) where they provide the bus ride into the lodge, sit-down group breakfast and dinner gourmet meals (you prepare your own sack lunch), daily excursions and hikes with top notch naturalists, and evening programs. The lodge has 15 rooms and there were 27 people in our group this week. The daily excursions are broken up into smaller groups.
The bus ride in was great!
We left the train station at 1:00 PM with our bus driver /
naturalist (actually, a naturalist with a related degree and usually
masters that has been taught to drive a big bus on some pretty tough and
steep roads and has gotten their commercial driver's license).
We stopped along the way for numerous wildlife sightings,
including Dall Sheep, Willow Ptarmigan (official state bird), two
different sightings of grizzly bears with cubs, red fox, caribou, wolf,
golden eagle, a beaver lodge being occupied by a muskrat, and several
other birds and snowshoe rabbits (but no moose).
Each stop provided a lengthy time for observing, discussing, and
picture taking. Either the
strike has ended or else the animals in the National Park are not union
members. The naturalist very
interestingly explained the tundra and the ecosystem but please don't
test me. After a couple of
bathroom breaks along the way, we stopped for dinner at 4:00 PM.
What a spread with pasta salad, dried fruits, breads, vegetables,
and reindeer sausage, all served in the open with table cloths, cloth
napkins, silverware, and plates.
Everything very environmentally conscience.
Back on our way at 5:00 we arrived at the lodge at 8:15 where we
were greeted by the hosts and staff with a delicious dessert and an
orientation for the week's activities and logistics.
The mountains remained hazy and no visibility of the Alaska Range
but the weather has been great, maybe a little on the warm side at mid
80's. Off to bed at 10:00.
Denali North Face Lodge
 Dinner on the road to North Face Lodge |
 Squirrel eating his (or her) dinner |
 Willow Ptarmigan hiding in the brush |
 Wolf on alert! |
 Dall Sheep |
 Caribou on the ridge |
 The Three Bears - well, maybe mama and her two cubs |
 Red Fox laying in wait |
Day 30 (Tuesday, July 7)
Up at 6:45 to get ready for breakfast at 7:30 and the days activities. Wow! There is the Alaska Range and Mt McKinley!!! Who said they all look the same and are nothing but a pile of dirt. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! A great clear morning and, of course, I had to run around and take way too many pictures (so did everyone else). After breakfast, we packed our lunches (in reusable sacks and reusable water bottles) and headed out in a group of eight along with a naturalist guide for a beautiful but warm (about 88 degrees) day. We learned all about tundra, lichens, several plants, flowers, and birds. Sounds very boring but it was actually very interesting. We tromped through the tundra and thick brush off trail (we were asked to spread out so we didn't start to create a trail). The naturalist showed us with our hiking sticks that the permafrost was only about 12 inches below the surface. She had a thermometer that she poked through and showed us that it read 40 degrees when she pulled it out; great place for the staff to store their beer.
Mt McKinley
The Alaska Range
We took several short hikes, had great views of those magnificent snow-packed piles of dirt (far too many more pictures), ate lunch on a hilltop with a great view of the big dirt pile, and grabbed a few wild blueberries that had just ripened for a taste.
 A beaver lodge in a lake next to our lodge |
 Our hike through the tundra brush |
 Lunchtime on our first day with a beautiful view of Mt McKinley |
 Our Sprinter excursion van |
Back to the lodge in the late afternoon for some relaxing, dinner, and an interesting slide presentation by a naturalist on water. Off to bed after a very busy day.
Day 31 (Wednesday, July 8)
Again up at 6:45 and, yes, WOW again the spectacular view of the mountains. Breakfast at 7:30, make lunch and hit the road in our small group but with a different naturalist by 9:00. This time we took a longer drive (90 minutes) back to the Eielson Visitor Center and a new area of the park to explore. Did all of the flower, plant, and bird things (okay, I am getting a little tired of that). Had a great hike up a canyon for lunch, drove out to the riverbed, explored animal tracks, did a few more flower, plant, and bird things, and then headed back to the lodge. On the way back, we spotted a moose not too far off the road and we stopped and watched it for about 15 minutes. Then a little farther along the road we spotted another moose much closer. These aren't well trained moose as most of the time we got to view them from their tail end. Back to the lodge at about 5:30, dinner at 6:30, naturalist presentation on lichens (yes, it was interesting), off to bed.
 Our lunchtime picnic |
 View back through the canyon at lunch |
 Muskrat bringing food home |
 Our first moose sighting |
 Second moose |
 The river that we explored |
Day 32 (Thursday, July 9)
Up at 6:45, it rained overnight and in the morning and now the mountains are socked in. But the warm days also finally broke. This is actually good because it gave us a chance to experience the normal weather and conditions of the park. Breakfast at 7:30, pack lunch, 9:00 departure with new naturalist guide but this time we are hauling along our raingear. We head out about 60 minutes to a new area that has somewhat thicker foliage and with a light rain. We put on our raingear and step out for our hike and WHAM, instantly there is a swarm of mosquitoes. The now cooler damp weather brings out the mosquitoes and flies. I quickly grab my repellant and liberally apply it, yes it helps significantly. We had a great time hiking through the mist and damp and seeing the foliage in this rainy misty atmosphere. We toured around more spots but ate lunch in the van. Back to the lodge about 3:30 and we had a tour of the greenhouse and went up to Camp Denali (the sister property) to see their digs. Back for dinner, naturalist program on waterfowl (okay, not as interesting) and off to bed.
 The rainy tundra |
 Our short hike through the rainy tundra |
Day 33 (Friday, July 10)
Day of departure, up at 5:15, bags outside the door at 5:45, breakfast at 6:00, say goodbyes to staff, and load the bus for departure at 6:45. The clouds were out early in the morning but then cleared up for some spectacular views of the mountains with a beautiful cloud layer in the river valley and the mountains towering above it (we won't talk about that I forgot to put the media card back in the camera after downloading pictures so I took some fantastic pictures with an empty gun, luckily, Becky is smarter than I am and her camera was loaded). I corrected my technical error in time to get some great shots of a big fox and later a playful set of four young red foxes just off the road in a foggy mist. We had a couple of quick bathroom breaks and stops for wildlife but mostly a direct drive back to the train station for departures and arrival of the weekend lodge guest. We arrived back by 11:15.
 Our first fox on the day of departure |
 Four very playful young foxes bouncing around and nipping at each oher |
We picked up the truck and trailer at the long-term parking and headed back to the campground for two more days and nights for some relaxing and catching up after a very busy and tiring week at Camp Denali / North Face Lodge.
Day 34 (Saturday, July 11)
Slept in, drove 11 miles to Healey to explore, went to the Denali National Park Wildlife Center and watched a short film, and back to the trailer for some more relaxing and catching up. Tomorrow we are back on the road heading to Talkeetna for a night and then on to Anchorage.
It was a great week!