Denali and Mount McKinley are, by most peoples definition, must see, must do for Alaska. Many feel Denali, in a way, symbolizes the essence of Alaska. It is wild, it is magnificent, it is huge, and it really is awesome. And that, on the left, is a for sure, real moose, no stuffing here, in Denali.
Entrance to the park is limited, folks are only allowed to drive the first 15 miles , after that it is Denali buses only – except with reservations to a camp site you can drive in and out but may not move your vehicle other than that. We started our stay at a campground outside of the park and explored around that area and into the 15 mile limit.
We started our first day with a ranger led hike to Horseshoe Lake, just inside the park boundaries. It was pretty cool, the ranger handed out flower info cards and we had to find and identify our particular flower (mine was an Eskimo Potato). Made the hike most interesting and we really learned a great deal about the forest and fauna. At an overlook when we reached the lake we spied a big old moose dining in the lake.
When we hiked down she was still supping and we got some great views.
And then she had enough of people eyeballing her eating habits so off she swam to the other side of the lake.
And then we saw her baby!
How cool is this?!
We lingered on enjoying the lake and scenery and then hiked out by ourselves. Here are some happy campers, stoked about the moose encounter.
While walking through the forest, Shelle and Sally were actually singing, wham Ms Moose and baby were right there – almost too right there! But very exciting.
Great start, our critter count is really doing well.
The next day, despite a little rain we explored some more. We drove to the Savage River, the end of the paved highway and as far as we could go by our vehicle.
View from the bridge over the Savage River. These rivers do what they call “braiding”, the river brings down boulders that drop and the river has to divert around them, and this repeats. Eventually you end up with a typical glacier river with this so called braiding effect.
We hiked down the river to see some really different country and rock formations.
Weather was always changing and we did have lots of rain. We adapted and unless it was really pouring all day we ignored the weather.
Rich and Joan taking in the beauty.
I really liked this little bridge. It also epitomizes the amount of great trail work that has gone into this place.
Flowers everywhere, we definitely were at the right time for many of the wild flowers. Here a nice stand of lupine.
Don’t have a clue what this one is but, oh my gosh, was it ever pretty.
Spied this little snow shoe bunny along the way. Cute as these guys are, they are at the bottom of the food chain – everyone eats them. It is not unusual to be walking through the forest and spot a bunny foot (obviously not a lucky rabbit’s foot!). Apparently the foot is not that good to eat so is often left.
These are blue belles, really dainty and quite pleasing to the eye.
Here the buses that take people into the interior are stopped to check in – same place we will check in when we drive into our camp ground (another 15 miles over dirt road) in a few days. When we got back to the parking lot we were able to see the Alaskan state bird, the ptarmigan (the “p” is silent). These fellows turn pure white in the winter time.
Back at camp outside the park we also did some hiking and exploring, everywhere you look – beauty!
Driving down the highway towards our camp.
More of the ever present and ever beautiful fire weed.
Shelle catches Roxy and me taking a break in our evening hike.
This is a view from a ridge that we hiked to, the little bit of white matter in the center is our outside Denali camp ground.
So now we drive into Denali to our Teklinika camp ground – a basic, rustic CG with no hook ups but absolutely awesome. Naturally it decided to rain the day we drove in, ah but what’s a little mud among friends?
That is Mike’s rig disappearing around the corner and this is, of course, the road.
We took a short rest stop.
Pictures don’t do justice to the real dirt, but this gives you and idea. Wow, it was caked on everything and thick. You could grow potatoes on our running board!
Here are some shots around camp.
We were camped right next to the Teklinika River.
Here we all are out for an afternoon hike down the road.
Nice little pond above, below Rich got a nice shot of me on the other side.
We are told to really worry about bears in camp so everything is stored away at night and we use caution when hiking. They did not mention Lynx. One morning Shelle was walking Roxy and they came upon a Lynx. The camp host spotted the encounter and captured it (the picture quality lacks, but the drama is recorded).
The lynx above, and with Shelle and Rox below.
I borrowed this bear picture from the host, taken right in front of camp.
One evening we were blessed with a great, in fact a double, rainbow. First this is what we saw from camp.
and down by the river.
With many side adventures, hikes, and ranger camp fire talks we were well entertained. The big deal is to take a bus further into the interior. We had opted to wait a day behind the others since we were dog sitting - swapping with Mike and Sally. As fate would have it we lucked into a primarily sunny, clear day, at least for the most part. Following are some animal pictures from the day and a few panoramas, including Mt. McKinley.
Here are some Dahl Sheep, pretty far away – as they usually are. Still pretty cool animals really get around the mountains and rocks.
Mr. grizzly bear
Mom and cub napping.
Some of the mountains.
A long shot of McKinley.
They say that only one in 5 visitors get to see McKinley (due to the weather it creates it is normally shrouded in clouds), wow – we were in the 20%, how awesome and special.
And it is truly special, majestic and awe inspiring. It is the highest mountain in the North American continent. Even more impressive is that it rises from the lowlands by Wonder Lake at about 2000 feet to its massive 20, 320 feet. Its vertical relief, rise from the ground in front, of about 18,000 feet is greater than that of Mount Everest!
And my favorite shot (I think you might be able to double click this one and make the picture larger):
Meanwhile, back to our animals, here are some more moose.
There are actually two bull moose in this picture, egad, even seeing one at this time of year is rare. They won’t be such close friends once it comes to mating season, you know how those “horny” men are!
And some nice wolf shots, the first one here by Rich out of their bus. Caution this may offend some, it is real life. We called this Caribou sashimi.
The next day we saw the same wolf, but not from the bus. She was in front of a bus, we were at a rest stop, so I ran to see her (at this point no one else had spotted her) and she rounded a corner in the road and we were pretty uncomfortably close. She stopped and ducked out – thankfully – but reappeared and I was able to get some nice shots of her.
Sitting down for an old fashion ear scratch, just like all dogs. They say every dog in the world came from the wolf.
Geez, how good does it get.
And some Caribou.
Pretty far away, but on our last day driving out we spotted and captured this guy.
So, what an incredible experience and such untold beauty, such indescribable, heart moving beauty, so many thrilling animal encounters – a mind, heart, and soul fulfilling, enhancing happening.
Next off to Anchorage via Trapper Creek – and more great stuff.
I leave this post with one of my favorite flowers, the Blue Bells.
