Denali Nat'l Park

 We entered Denali Wed, June 26^th. It was another extremely hot day, temps hovering around 90os. On to our back country camping experience. Our waste tanks empty, the fresh water full and supplies for 7 days inside the park. The park road is 92miles but private vehicles are only permitted 15 miles. We were permitted to drive to mile 29 since we had reservations to camp. Once in the park you must park and not move until you are leaving. This park wants to limit the impact of vehicles on the environment and wildlife. There is a shuttle bus system that takes visitors from mile 15 to 92. The wildlife do not pay attention to the buses and they are not running constantly on the road. Above you see a picture of us on a hike at mile 15 before we entered the “no drive” zone. A very nice 2 mile loop along a small stream where we saw lots of moose tracks, wildflowers and dall sheep.

 

 Some thunderstorms the first night cooled things down a bit (60's and 70's) but not enough to lessen the swarms of mosquitoes that attacked you immediately when you went outside. Everyone was bathed in repellent and lots were wearing head netting. Les was really not happy about the bugs but we found a great way to get out and not have them to deal with as much: biking! We were moving too fast for them. And we found the spray sufficient for our stops to take in the breathtaking views and wildlife.

Our first touring day we wanted to know what was west of us so we took the shuttle bus to the end, Kantishna. That gave us a good idea of what we wanted to do with the rest of our days and we saw some wonderful wildlife. That ride was 9 hours! With rest area stops, stops for wildlife and driving no more than 35mph, 63 miles was a very long way. We were anxious to get on our bikes to do our own exploring. We biked for 3 days. They call it the Denali Downhill: load your bikes on a shuttle, get off at the top of a pass and then ride down. One day we did ascend a 2 ½ mile section of road up 640 ft along with 5 ½ miles of downhill. This was wonderful! Due to the lessened traffic, much of the time that we felt we had the park all to ourselves. The roads were hard packed and most very good riding. 

 One day, after our bike ride, we were riding the shuttle back to the campground through the area we just rode through and we came across this mamma bear with 2 yearling cubs. Soooo cute but I'm soooooooo glad they were not there when we rode through, or were they?? Another day while taking the shuttle to a pass, we saw this sleeping bear on a hill side. We saw such great wildlife. We were so blessed. 

We were in the park 5 days and had not seen Denali mountain. It is covered by clouds most of the time and they say only 30% of visitors actually get to see the mountain out. We rode the shuttle out to the viewing sights and thank the Lord, it was out for us to see. How magnificent! This year is the 100 anniversary of the first ascent of Denali. A group of descendants of the original climbers is up there now trying to stand the summit as their ancestors did. Day 6 was very windy. We decided to hike the river by the campground. Along the way we saw a very large piles of scat and then very big bear tracks. Glad they were not fresh!

 We have been experiencing the northern days of light. It really never gets dark. They say the sun sets but not too far. This picture was taken at 1:30am. We could not have asked for more from our trip. We did not see any wolves, but we did see some tracks so they are here. What a great natural place.

We left Denali Tuesday, one day early, as the weather turned cold and blustery.  Not good for biking or hiking.  We are now just outside Anchorage.  On the way out we stopped by their kennels.  They patrol the park by dog sled in the winters so we stopped to see the dogs and were able to get a good look at some puppies.
    Tomorrow we will drive south of Anchorage to Hope where a friend from Shippensburg moved.  Denny is glad to have us come and visit and wants to take Les panning for gold.  He promises that Les will get some gold.  Maybe I'll get a piece of gold nugget jewelry out of that side trip??  ;-)  Then on to the Kenai where Les can try his hand at salmon fishing.