Denali National Park, Part One

Like many other tourists, we came to Denali National Park to experience the wilderness, see the animals and of course, see Mt. McKinley.  Since Denali at six million acres is the third largest park in the entire national park system, we knew that it would take several days for us to get a glimpse of a true wilderness where human impact is kept to a minimum.  If you are a hiker, you can go and camp anywhere you like.  The trick however is that you are limited in how you move about.  Basically, you must travel by foot or bicycle.  Oh, there are buses that will drop you but only as far as 93 miles into the park.  Given its vastness, that is only a drop in the bucket.

We decided that our first day in Denali would be spent visiting the Wilderness Center and the Visitor Center and perhaps hiking one of the trails in the visitor complex.  Both of these facilities provide all sorts of educational information from films to exhibits that tell the history of humans in this wilderness and how they survived.  Of course, the exhibits also tell about the flora and fauna and how the park actually became a park.  It was all quite interesting and educational too, but after several hours of learning, we decided to was time to see some of it for ourselves.  The park has only one road that takes visitors to a small portion of the park.  From mile 15 forward, only park supported shuttles and tour buses are allowed.  This keeps human impact on the wilderness at a minimum, good thinking I’d say.

We took off in hopes of seeing a moose or a bear and to get a taste of the park.  I was immediately struck by the beauty.  Before we had gone even five miles, we passed a number of bicyclist.  One was a family of three.  The mother was pulling a small bike trailer filled with camping gear.  The father was pulling a young boy in a baby trailer.  Dear me, they must certainly be a hardy pair as the terrain is hilly to say the least.  The second was a young man alone with his bike loaded with all his camping gear.  We passed him and waved in greeting as we did.  Further along, we stopped to take some pictures and he passed us by, again waving in greeting.  We resumed our drive and, yes passed him yet again and waved again.  At our next stop, he arrived and stopped next to us.  We shared a short conversation and he bid us farewell and peddled away.  We continued to leap frog for a couple of miles smiling and waving each time.  I do hope he made it to his destination.

Jim and I shared the overwhelming feeling of smallness.  Here surrounded by this vast wilderness, we can better understand why Alaska is called the last frontier.  The forest is so thick one would have to hack a trail in order to pass.  And yet, it is fragile.  The nature of the permafrost causes the trees to be small in diameter and in may places they lean as if a slight wind could cause them to topple.  We have learned this is called slumping, and is a common sight in the boreal forest land.  In the distance, the Alaskan Range rises once again showing the power of nature.

In the first section of the park road, we got an up close look at the land.  Here, we were in boreal forest with the mountains in the distance standing guard over all.  The small camper in the picture is a common sight all along the way.  Lots of tourists fly into Alaska and then rent these class C motor coaches.  It certainly saves time traveling the Alaska Highway but boy, they certainly miss a great deal of beautiful country.

The further in we drove, the more lush and green the land became.  It is more or less late spring/early summer here.  Wild flowers abound and the tundra is covered in lush, new growth.  The bears and caribou and other animals are busy feeding on all these young, tasty shoots.

Further still, the forest thins and there are more and more ponds and streams.  Water is everywhere and so are the mosquitoes!

 As you can tell by the smile on Jim's face, he is not having a good time.  LOL

At the end of public vehicle access, there is a lovely turnout that hugs the river.  There is a bridge that spans the river and a walking loop that goes downstream, across and back up the river.  The mountains are getting closer and these smaller hills loom overhead.  Out of frame, is a large rock outcrop that can be climbed.

Our first animal sighting within the part was a Ground Squirrel.  This fella was running around in the vegetation near the river.  He had two entrances to his burrow there and was quite a character.  In this pic, he stopped to preen so I could take a picture.  Well, I can imagine can't I?

We started to walk the loop trail.  Downstream, the view into a valley was so pretty.  I wondered how we would cross the water since my shoes were definitely not waterproof!

A short distance down the loop trail, we heard someone from the rock call out, Caribou coming down the river.  We hurried back (no need to worry about my shoes any longer) and in the distance could see two Caribou walking down the river.  One of them, veered into the water and crossed to the embankment under the bridge.  He emerged at the top and walked into the center of the roadway.  We could see him walking in the middle of the road, stopping the buses as he ambled along totally unconcerned about the traffic.  The second animal, seen here, continued along the river and walked directly in front of us.  What a thrill to get a close-up look at one of the creatures.  The antlers are covered in a soft velvet and are quite large.  He can do a good deal of damage with them if he wants too.  We watched him walk along and finally cross the river and disappear into the distance.  As if Mother Nature was saying, that is all, the rain began to fall.  Time to back track and ponder the beauty we have seen today.  Tomorrow, we fly!