Denali National Park AK

June 18, 2011 - We broke camp to leave Fairbanks before 10:00 a.m. and entertained a couple attending the Harley Davidson rally at the fairgrounds while we hooked up the car to the motor home. (They thought it looked interesting.) On our way out of town we stopped by the recycling center on campus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. We disposed of all our recycles except for our steel cans. Oh well, at least they took paper and glass.


Our drive south on the George Parks Highway was beautiful. The drive from Fairbanks to Denali was only 150 miles so we could take our time and enjoy the sights. Our first stop was in Nenana where we learned about the Nenana Ice Classic. The ice classic is a guessing game to predict the exact day hour and minute the ice will break on the Tanana River. The folks were adamant it was NOT a lottery. In February they drill holes and insert a four-legged tripod in the ice on the frozen river. A cable is stretched from the top of the tripod to a tower on shore, where it is connected to a clock. When the ice breaks, the cable pulls a pin and stops the clock. That determines the time of the break. Last year's payout was over $300,000. It's a pretty big deal in Alaska We bought tickets and entered our guesses for the ice break.



We arrived at Denali National Park, where we had reservations for 4 nights at Teklanika Campground. Teklanika is 29 miles down the road into the park and 15 miles beyond the point where motorists can normally drive. When you camp at Teklanika you get a pass to drive your vehicle to the campground on the day you check in and out from the campground on the day you check out. You can't drive your vehicle on the road except these times. The check-in process was fairly painless and efficient. We also made a reservation at Riley Creek campground for the night we check out of Teklanika. This would allow us to spend a little time visiting the visitor's centers and the area at the entrance to the park. We also purchased a shuttle bus pass called the Tek Pass that would reserve a seat for us on a bus going to Wonder Lake for the next day. The Tek pass also entitled us to unlimited shuttle bus passage from Teklanika CG into the park, and then we could use the pass anytime after that on a space available basis while we were camped in the park. We unloaded the things we thought we might need from the Element and parked it near the main visitor's center near the park entrance. Our stay at Teklanika River Campground entitled us to drive our camping unit (RV only) into the park Since we were in no hurry we took our time and enjoyed the scenery and looked hard for wildlife. After the first 15 miles the park road became dirt and narrowed. Shuttle and tour buses; other campers either arriving or departing and park maintenance folks were the only traffic on the road and since the speed limit was 20 and 25 we savored the drive.



June 19, 2011 - Happy Father's Day! Our first morning in Denali was a busy one. First, we had tried to go to bed early (10:30-11:00 ish) so we could get up early to meet our shuttle bus through the park to Wonder Lake. Since we were about 29 miles into the park we could catch the 6:15 a.m. bus at the campground at 7:25 a.m. That still meant we had to set an alarm (heaven forbid!!) so we could get up in plenty of time to pack our lunch and snacks, have breakfast, walk and play with Matilda (since she would be in the motor home for at least 8 hours) and walk to the bus stop. The day started partly cloudy/sunny...maybe we will get to see "the mountain". On Myron's previous trip to Denali NP Mt McKinley (Denali) stayed shrouded in clouds during his entire visit. Since our trip began good weather seems to be following us where ever we land, so we had "high" hopes. All went as planned, and we boarded Sheryl's bus about 7:30 a.m. The buses have a schedule but the times can vary depending upon the weather and wildlife sightings. These are not "coaches" they are like retired school buses. Narrow slippery bench seats meant for three children but barely long enough for two average sized adults. Also, remember how noisy your school bus was? You were barely able to hear yourself think not to mention a bus driver describing the sights. Fortunately, Sheryl had a headset microphone which was audible unless we were on a bumpy section of road. Remember, we are in Alaska where the roads are never completed...they just continually require maintenance...



The scenery was beautiful and with about 40 people looking for wildlife we did see wildlife. Caribou were the most plentiful. A couple of times we saw a male and female pair just hanging out enjoying the day. We saw a small herd on a large patch of snow relaxing and avoiding the mosquitoes. We saw a grizzly sow with a cub; a couple of moose, one bull and one cow; a couple of ptarmigan; a distant view of a small herd of Dall sheep; a couple of golden eagles and several water fowl.



We took regular breaks stopping at overlooks and visitor centers which made the 10 hour trip not seem so long. Our driver, Sheryl, entertained us with stories about the park and her experiences during the 11 summers she has driven for the park. One of her encounters was of two bear cubs she videoed at play in front of her bus and is posted on YouTube.




June 20, 2011 - Today we had planned to take the shuttle bus to Eielson Visitor Center and join the ranger-led hike at noon. We would be able to jump on any bus going that way if space was available. We again set the alarm (ugh) to repeat our activities from yesterday. Before we got out of bed we heard the pitter patter of rain. Of course, rain an hour before we boarded the bus was no indication of the weather we would have the rest of the day. We found the weather here can change from hour to hour and from place to place along the road into the park. We had a two minute debate over the pros and cons of getting up and heading for the bus...the cons won and I turned off the alarm and snuggled down for an extra hour of sleep. We enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast and a nice walk around the campground with Matilda. This turned out to be our "layover" day. By the afternoon the clouds rolled away bringing a very pleasant afternoon. We took Matilda out for a walk and run down by the river. Matilda really enjoyed running in circles and up a cliff which made me nervous.

June 21, 2011 - Tuesday morning turned out to be partly cloudy so we decided to catch the shuttle bus to Eielson Visitor Center and join the ranger-led hike at noon. We didn't have to wait long before we were able to board a bus. This bus was a bit more comfortable with bucket like seats (unlike the previous bench seats). We assumed our back of the bus seats and set off in search of wildlife. Our bus driver Nancy was very informative. She told us she was driving a tour bus in a couple of days so I think she was practicing on us. At Eielson we signed up for the noon hike filling slots 9 and 10 of the 11 max for the group. We had about an hour to kill before meeting for the hike so we ate our lunch and had a nice conversation with a couple from Anchorage. She was retired from National Park Service and was a former Superintendent at Katmai NP. The hike was about 1 mile one way with a 900 ft elevation gain. Being a bit out of shape we did a lot of huffing and puffing but the views were fantastic and we learned how fire and ice work together to create the beautiful landscape in Denali NP.




Catching a shuttle back to the campground took a while. We were part of a large group of folks who were going the same way. After three buses our name came up on the list and we boarded a bus (the back row again). I was ready to relax and enjoy the ride and not worry about seeing wildlife. Our bus mates were a group of Europeans that seemed to not understand the concept of whispering (or saying nothing at all) when an animal was spotted. And wouldn't you know it...we saw a brown bear sow with two cubs very near the road. After much squealing and hanging out the windows order was restored by a ranger that happened to be riding our bus. I think everyone got great photos...then the trio moved into the road effectively stopping traffic both ways. At one point there were three buses in the bear jam. The blessing was there were no private automobiles to add to the pile-up. We finally continued our journey back to camp and saw more snowshoe hares, caribou, and ground squirrels. When we reached our camp, Matilda was happy to be our favorite "wildlife" sighting of the day!

June 22, 2011 - This was our last morning in Teklanika so we took our time packing up. The drive out was uneventful. We drove slowly and scanned both sides of the road for wildlife. When we arrived at Riley Campground we found a nice site and set up. We saw the folks from Minnesota we had met in Fairbanks. We hiked back to the visitor center and boarded the bus to the dog sledding demonstration. The ranger told the group we would be able to get our "dog fix" for anyone missing their own dogs, so we were allowed to pet and visit all the dogs. These Alaskan Huskies are used to patrol the park during the winter. Since these dogs were not racers they were built to pull loads and were stockier and a bit heavier than the racing Alaskan Huskies we had seen in Fairbanks.




After the program we opted to hike the 2 miles back to the visitor center instead of riding the bus. It was a nice walk through forest where we saw lots of wild flowers and animal scat. One scat looked like wolf so I took a picture and showed it to a ranger walking the opposite direction. We saw the ranger again back at the visitor center, and she confirmed the scat was canine, probably wolf. Cool.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying fine warm and clear weather.

Each evening we attended the Ranger led programs in the campground amphitheater. One Ranger in particular gave an entertaining talk on raptors. Check out "The Raptor Rap" to see a report of his presentation and also view the video which includes the dog sled demonstration.

Tomorrow we leave Denali after five nights and continue southward.