August 14-19

Denali National Park and Preserve is not a particularly easy park to visit. The Park and Preserve are over 6 million acres, yet there is only one road into the park – about 90 miles long and personal vehicles are only allowed on the first 15 miles. We camped at the entrance area at Riley Creek Campground to prep for 5 days further into the park at Teklanika Campground which is at mile 29- this is the only campground beyond the pavement that allows vehicles and RVs, however once you get to your campsite you may not use your vehicle except to drive back out on the day you leave.
There is a great shuttle bus system for the road. Busses come and go constantly and make frequent stops for wildlife and rest areas. To go from the park entrance to Kantishna is 92 miles and takes 12 hours round trip! Staying at Tek Campground cut 3 hours off trips further into the park. Even so, since Rhylee had to stay in the camper, we limited ourselves to Eielsen Visitor Center at mile 66- about a 5 hour roundtrip.
Wildlife is awesome here- there is the Big Five and we saw four of them- Grizzly, Caribou, Moose and

Dall Sheep- we did not see a Wolf- very elusive. Bus drivers know where to look and stop whenever a passenger spots something. We also saw golden eagles, Harrier Hawks, Gyrfalcon, Merlin Falcons, ground squirrels and hoary marmots.

The grizzlie bears here have blonde fur! Apparently, in Denali these bears eat mostly plants and berries, where others eat mostly salmon and this impacts the color of their fur.

One group of a sow and two cubs were intently eating berries on the hillside- one cub though would run up and down the hillside checking out his mom and sibling and looking for the best berries. Another day, a very large, healthy male was wandering along a river and decided to lay down in the river to cool off a bit- it was sunny and maybe 55 degrees that day.
We road the bus into the park 3 days of our five at Tek, with the inbetween days hiking the on the gravel bars in the Tek River. Each day we did see wildlife, sometimes closer than others- twice we had fairly close looks at Grizzlies, and once a caribou decided to run down from the plains to the bus, along the bus, in front of the bus and then down the other side of the bus.
Alpine plants, including lots of flowers still in bloom, berries- including wild blueberries!- and shrubs and tundra plants were very unique to see and admire.

 
Of course, the one thing everyone wants to see, but only 30% do see- is Denali Mountain. It can be sunny everywhere around the area, but Denali makes it’s one weather. There are spectacular views in every direction, from every corner on the road, yet it is hard to not be focused on getting a view of “The High One”.

We lucked out on our last trip into the park- an incredibly clear day at the campground that stuck with us all the way to Eielsen Visitor Center- base to summit views which are even more rare than just the top of the mountain. It is majestic!

We sat and just “communed” with the mountain, while others ran around taking selfies, rushed up a trail, spun through the visitor center and jumped back on their busses…Hardly anyone spent more than a few minutes really looking at the mountain…
Geeks that we are- we learned that Eielsen Visitor Center at mile 66, is powered by the sun and a small hydro-plant in the little creek! Passive solar on the roof- where the roof is not a walkway or a garden and solar panels on the southern roof edges generate half of the power needed. The hydro plant generates the rest. The creek also supplies water, which they filter for the water bottle refill station.

 

We truly consider ourselves fortunate to have experienced Denali under sunny skies. And we had some great conversations with Park Rangers about their roles here (one works here to study dinosaur fossils), the park and mountain and even met two “artists in residence” who are allowed to drive their vehicle all along the road and camp 50 miles in.