We were lucky enough to be able to see Mt. McKinley on the way, which is hidden behind its own clouds much of the time.
Located in the interior of Alaska, Denali National Park and Preserve is massive, containing over 6 million acres – an area larger than the state of Massachusetts! At the heart of the park is Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak on the continent at 20,320 feet. Considering the size of the park, surprisingly little of it is accessible by private vehicle. There is just one road in the entire park, beginning at the northeast corner extending west about 92 miles and ending far before nearing the western boundary. To get a visual perspective, take a look at the park map. You are allowed to drive your own vehicle only as far as Teklanika Campground at mile 29, and that is only if you are camping at Teklanika, which you must do for at least three nights. Your vehicle must remain in your campsite for your entire stay, and it can only leave your campsite when you head back to the park entrance. If you are not camping at Teklanika, you are only permitted to drive to mile 15 at Savage River, where you must turn around. Accessing deeper regions of the park can be done by hiking, bicycling, taking a tour bus, or by being one of the very lucky winners of the annual Denali National Park and Preserve's Road Lottery. These restrictions on vehicular traffic are in place in order to limit the impact on the wilderness itself and the wildlife which inhabits it. Needless to say, this also serves to enhance the experience for park visitors.
We had made reservations to camp at Teklanika Campground, so after checking in at the park entrance we headed to the checkpoint at Savage River.
The Ranger there checked our paperwork and we proceeded toward our destination, catching another glimpse of Mt. McKinley on the way.
 |
| Mt. McKinley in the distance |
The campground was very nice; the sites were modest in size, but did have a fair amount of vegetation to provide a little privacy and shelter. There were spigots for potable water, bear-proof trash receptacles, well-maintained vault toilets, a sink for dishwashing, and even a bear-proof food storage space.
Each evening at 7:30, a Ranger gives a talk at the amphitheater – a small clearing with several rows of wooden benches which filled up each night. We attended all three nights of our stay, and all three Rangers gave excellent interactive presentations on different topics pertaining to wildlife within the park’s boundaries. The one that made the biggest impression on me was the talk given by a male Ranger, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties, who was an excellent speaker and clearly passionate about his work and about conservation in general. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, so of course he spoke about it, explaining its purpose which is summed up nicely with its own definition of wilderness: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” This, to me, was profound and right on the mark! This Ranger also spoke of other things, including the wildlife populations within the park and various agencies’ efforts to manage and keep balance within those populations, with particular concern for the moose. He also described how Denali National Park came into existence mostly due to the efforts of one man – 38-year-old Charles Alexander Sheldon. Sheldon was well-off and could have retired, but he was also a hunter, conservationist and adventurer. He travelled to Alaska initially out of curiosity about Dall Sheep, and fell in love not only with them, but with the whole area and all of its flora and fauna. It was this from which the concept of Denali National Park was born. You can find more detailed information about this part of the history at the website. All three Ranger talks were fun, informative, and very well presented. They provided a deeper understanding of the place, and certainly enhanced the experience of being there.
One other thing we learned was that, given the 6 million acre size of Denali National Park and Preserve, the estimated populations of moose, bears and wolves are surprisingly low, at approximately 1800, 300 and 50, respectively. Perhaps this is why we didn’t see any of them here! We thought we would see tons of the larger wildlife in Denali, and we saw none of it. People in our campground who had taken bus tours spoke of seeing moose and bears, and one group even saw a grizzly take down a caribou calf. We had opted not to take any bus tours for many reasons, expense being one of them. I suspect that the further into the park you go, the better your chances of seeing the larger animals. We did see the little critters – gray jays, red squirrels, sparrows, a collared pika and a ptarmigan.
As always, most of the critters were bent on being uncooperative as if it were their sole mission in life! The gray jays had been eluding me since our first day on the Dalton Highway. They would land within two feet of me while I set up tents, as if supervising my work and checking to see if I’d left any morsels for them to eat. Then they’d fly off just as suddenly as they arrived, disappear for a while, and wait just long enough to catch me off guard when they returned. I’m pretty sure I caught one laughing behind my back, too!
I finally got a few decent pictures after prolonged periods of sitting with a death grip on the camera.
The collared pika was also particularly tormenting. I first saw one as I was getting ready to go to sleep, at about 12:30 am. I was in the Jeep and the camera was right there, but he was so small and far away. All I got were a few blurry pictures in the dusk-like light of the midnight sun.
We actually saw him a couple more times in the middle of the day, but the camera was not with me. He taunted me, rustling around on the tiny paths he had made through the sparse grass about five feet from where I sat! As for the ptarmigan, I only caught a fleeting glimpse of one as we were driving on our way out of the park, so no pictures of him.
We took walks along the Teklanika River next to the campground on our second and third days.
We never imagined wearing shorts in Alaska, but it was downright hot. I wore shorts both days and Ken even wore shorts the second day!
We had such beautiful weather – it was fantastic! We really lucked out with the weather for once. The views along the river were amazing, although it did prove quite challenging for me to take decent photos of the dark mountains in bright mid-day sunshine.
The third and final night we were there, it seemed to be threatening to rain. Not wanting to pack the canvass tent wet in the morning, we took it down and put up our mid-sized tent. It ended up not raining, but at least we didn’t have much work to do on the morning of our departure. We broke camp in the morning and reluctantly made our way toward the park entrance, marveling at the stunning landscape.
We got really lucky a second time and had a nice clear view of Mt. McKinley.
Once outside the park, we drove south heading for Anchorage, enjoying more of the same perfect sunny weather.
We stopped at Denali Viewpoint South on the Parks Highway hoping to get another view of the mountain. By this time some clouds had formed obscuring McKinley, but leaving the neighboring peaks mostly visible.
We continued on to Anchorage in preparation for the next segments of our journey.
I took plenty of pictures in Denali, so take a look at the rest of them!
No comments:
Post a Comment