The MOUNTAIN

Denali National Park 

June 20 - June 24, 2016

The Great One

(group meet up!  Yay.  Love that we are all so independent with our itineraries, but also love seeing everyone together for a few nights - plus, we have excellent Cocktail parties!) Thanks to Nancy Murphy in her diligence to get these reservations last December. :)

Denali - The Great One (the true old Athabaskan Indian name)  Tallest mountain in North America standing at 20,310 ft.  President Obama just signed the bill changing the name from Mt. McKinley to Denali.

The locals refer to Denali as ‘the mountain,’ or the ‘high one.’ It is not uncommon to hear one of the park employees asking us if we have got the chance to see the mountain.  Denali makes it’s own weather. We shall see.

Polychrome mountain

Unfortunately, and as happens most of the time, the weather is not allowing us to see the mountain.  We believe we saw it as we were driving on the Top of the World highway from 100’s of miles away, but not inside the park, yet. We are hoping for a weather change soon.  

View from our campsite

Bedroom window!

Staying in Savage Campground. Lots of Bear activity.  You need to take your bear spray with you at all times, even to go to the restrooms.  Walking the dog is a bit nerve racking.  There was a Bull Moose near our campsite yesterday.  Moose can be extremely troublesome because of their kick.  Stay away from them for sure. 

Wednesday, June 22- my day for the bus.

School buses are the only mode of travel within the park, actually you can personally only drive to Savage River which is mile 14.7.  Beyond that the remaining 70 some miles of gravel road are only accessible ONLY by the BUS. 

These bus tours must be booked well in advance, but I would HIGHLY recommend it.  You won’t be bored and to really see the animals and the mountain, this is the way to go. The bus stops to pick up backpackers and researchers and anyone else that finds themselves out in the middle of nowhere!  After Savage River you begin to climb and after about 4 hours of driving and seeing all kinds of amazing wildlife you reach the Tundra and the majestic view of the mountain. I can’t believe that I was never once bored on this day trip.  We saw Dall sheep, lots of them, many rams and ewes with their babes.  Hundreds of Caribou, some cow moose with their babies, 2 great BIG Bull Moose and 4 Grizzly bears - one was a Mama with 2 cubs.  It was spectacular.  A day I will never forget.

Around 9:30 that evening we had a knock on our trailer from the Ranger that a Grizzly had threatened a backpacker not far from our campground.  Bummer. She did all the wrong things and threw down her backpack and that’s that.  Now the bear has had the scent of human food and we are all on alert.  They have closed all the trails leading from our campsite and the road.  They need to find the bear and the back pack.  Everyone visiting Denali does get to watch a quick movie on how to respond and what to do with various types of moose, wolf and primarily bear encounters.  Easier said than done, I’m sure.  Playing dead with your backpack covering your neck and head doesn’t sound pleasant.  So here we are AGAIN….in a National Park with a bear incident.  (Glacier, Yellowstone and now this????  I have bad Bear Karma) 

Thursday, June 23 - Kevin’s day for the bus.

This is our last full day in Denali National Park we have been lucky to have a weather shift and WE SEE THE MOUNTAIN!!!  It’s spectacular.  Definitely can see why this is the symbol of Alaska.  It towers over the Alaska Range, which in itself, is pretty impressive with many peaks rising about 18,000 ft.  

Well, Lucky Kevin.....he got to see the mountain from the best spot in the park, and if any of you know how many photographs Kevin takes, you will know that he came back pretty empty handed. Well one or two!  He was fortunate to also see all of the BIG 4 in Denali - Dall Sheep, Moose, Caribou and 7 Grizzlies.  He came back with lots of good stories as his bus driver was super cool.  

Bull Moose

Dahl Sheep

More drama around our Grizzly incident in our campground.   We are staying at Savage (1 of 3 campgrounds in the park).  A small, rather remote campground.  We chose that for that reason.  The backpacker that was charged and ultimately threw his backpack at the bear (???) had coke, cigarettes and snickers in the pack.  So now we have a grizzly that is addicted to caffeine and sugar.  Great.  Closed all the trails in this end of the park as they look for the bear.  Second incident (maybe same Bear?) occurred just later that same day as a Grizz attacked a Mamma Moose and killed her but NOT her calf.  The park is hopeful that the calf will be adopted by another Momma Moose.  so sad.

backpacker

CLOSED!

Jeanette in the Tundra 

So now I really believe that I have some bad karma with Grizzly Bears.  First Yellowstone, then Glacier and now Denali.  What the heck?  This incident even made the national news???  Oh well, we had a wonderful 4 days in the park and would go back again....just not too much hiking. :)

  

Rivers and glaciers wind through these beautiful mountains all around you in this valley