Special Denali Page

16 August 2010Got up early today, had to do some shopping for the long stay ahead in Denali. We fueled up, made a couple stops and headed out. First stop was a halt at Nenana for road construction. It was only a 20 minute stop and then on to Healy then Denali. The weather was beautiful but turned ominous as we approached the mountains, it was threatening to rain and it was windy. The Denali town really has been built up. Large hotels serviced by tourist busses are all around. Tourist services, adventure tours, gift shops and eateries round out the other business. We entered the park and the sign said “All RV and Campsites Full”. Kim got in line anyway and asked about the sites deep in the park that required that you stay 3 days. Well, wouldn’t you know it there was one left. We got our permit to drive into the park, purchased some bus tickets for the park tour bus and headed 29 miles into the park. We were met at the campsite by the camp host and told all about the wildlife in the camp, the does and don’t with Gypsy, food, trash, the Lynx and wolves that hunt in the camp, and the sow and cub grizzlies that were spotted on the river, but not in the camp yet. We got settled in and took a walk to the bulletin board to read about what camp lectures and hikes were planned for the area.

We got to drive the 29 miles into the park to our campground. Once we arrived we were greeted by the camp host, Mike. He and his wife are from Florida and are staying here for the month of August as the host’s for the campground. He gave us the rundown on the animals. A lynx has been spotted in and around the camp. Also that Gypsy would make for a very nice meal. There has been a wolf around and in the campsite area and again, Gypsy would make for a very nice meal. A bear or two have been spotted down at the river just behind the campgrounds and that we would all make for a very nice meal. We need to be extra careful to make sure we practice safe camping etiquette and keep Gypsy close and on a leash at all times. They have ranger led hikes and talks daily. Tonight we went to the “who should care about Caribou”. It’s so nice that the rangers are all so passionate about what subjects they present. In no time he had us all talking like Caribou and singing!

17 August 2010 We are up and ready to go at 9:30 this morning. Part of the campsite cost is that you get to ride a tour bus into the park. Cars are only allowed so far and then you need to take a bus. Our campground is the last stop for cars or RV's with special permits. Of course you can walk anywhere you want and the bus will even drop you in the middle of nowhere so you can walk or take a hike. When you’re done you just hop back on another bus to go back. Some people are able to tent camp out in the middle of nowhere if you want to take the chance. Our bus was filled save our two seats. Everyone else had been on the bus for about an hour and a half by now. Our first stop was a restroom break at Igloo Mountain where we saw our first animals of the day, Dahl Sheep.

bears diet in Denali is vegetation. The wolves we saw were hunting in a large green meadow. These also were far away, but to see all of them naturally in their own environment was the best. A Golden Eagle was hunting, and soared right over our heads. We went to another talk this evening presented by a ranger. This talk was on the Grizzly Bear as an Omnivore. During both lectures, the rangers stressed how to react to an encounter with a grizzly bear.

18 August 2010 We caught the bus heading back out into the park, the same route and destination as yesterday. Today was misty and raining, and the windows of the bus were splattered with mud so you could hardly see outside. We met a Japanese photographer at the bus stop as we awaited the bus. He has photographed all of the US National Parks and has a book of his photos, but it is in Japanese. http://www.kaz-photography.com/ if anyone wants to take a look. At the first rest stop the driver went around and squeegeed all the windows. It

the camera and headed out to the road. We walked down the road a ways, hoping to see either the lynx or some wolves cross, but no luck. We did see tracks for both since it had been raining and the mud left good imprints. Kim wanted to walk into the forest a bit, she said it looked so inviting. The forest floor was covered with moss and lichens, soft and spongy. You could almost bounce on it. It seemed that it would be such a wonderful place to get out your sleeping bag and sleep, that is, until you start thinking about being eaten while you slept. We didn’t get to see the lynx, but we did see his favorite meal, a snowshoe hare sitting under a spruce bow along the way. I can't believe the luck we had at the park. All the bears! I thought we would be lucky to see one but three yesterday and four today, wow and so close. And the caribou in the middle of the road, excellent. Thank you to Bob for the fantastic photography. On Tuesday in the park it was sunny and cool. On Wednesday we saw snow had fallen over night. Fall has come to Denali. Some of the trees have already started to turn colors. We are not looking forward to leaving tomorrow. Denali has it's own ecosystem. It does not follow along with the rest of Alaska. The mountain range makes it's own clouds, rain and snow. It's like a step back in time in the park.

19 August 2010 It was chilly and overcast as we were leaving Mt. McKinley. We half expected it to be sunshine because the professional Japanese photographer had told us so yesterday, but what does he know, he got off the bus just before we saw the Grizzly bear. It was a little sad driving back the hour and a half to get back to the entrance of the park from our campsite. We drove slowly trying to catch any glimpse of any more wildlife in the park. We did see a long file of Caribou heading up a ravine and over the peak. We stopped a couple of times to glass for animals since it would be our last time. We had been out into the park 53 miles out of a total of only 85 miles of road into the park. 85 miles of road for 6 million acres of national park. We were lucky indeed. The wind was up and now it was really chilly. We headed south

towards the Denali State park and the sun started peeping out of the clouds. We had read that views of Mt. McKinley might be more readily seen outside the park then inside. And that was true today. Looking back towards the north we could see the park was completely socked in. We got some great shots of Mt. McKinley, Mt. Foraker and the glaciers. We saw a Spruce Hen and her chicks on the side of the road. They looked like they were waiting for traffic to pass. The weather had turned to full sunshine a light breeze and warm. We decided to go to Byers Lake, a part of Denali State Park, and found a nice campsite. As we walked to deposit our registration fee I saw a couple of guys who looked like they were getting ready to go fishing. However, they had just finished fishing. One thing lead to another and they gave me a fat sockeye salmon fillet. Since the salmon wasn’t getting any fresher and could by now be approaching an hour old, I started the grill. Kim prepared the filet with olive oil, salt and pepper. I slapped it on the grill, turned it once, put a little butter on, squeezed a little lemon, the skies opened, the butterfly’s danced in the air, birds sang, and I thought I was in heaven. Kim let me have the big piece and I gave her an extra bite of mine. We wished we had more. Gypsy got a few scraps and returned to her dish 4 times to lick it. We call this, “Quadruple Lickage” and this ranks any food an A+ in her book. I agree. I paid the guy with some mesquite chips and zip lock bags. It’s good to be in Alaska. We are now on the south side of the Alaska Range and even though we are not too far from National Park, the weather is very different. The trees are taller and plants are different also. We are out of the tundra area and into more forested area. We have been seeing mushrooms everywhere in Alaska. Some have quite distinctive shapes and colors. We took Gypsy for a walk around the campground tonight. She likes it here, she can get out and walk around without the fear of getting picked up and carried off by a wolf. Bob noticed all the berries growing on the side of the road and over by the lake. He always wants to try them to see what they are like. He found raspberry's in Canada that were very good. He was looking around our campsite when he said, hey look at all the blueberry's! As I was getting dinner ready he was outside picking a bowl full for me to have with my breakfast! Yum!