Well I said I would get up early to go to Denali – And I
sure did – Thanks to my iPhone not auto- switching to Alaska time so it was an
hour fast !! So I got up at 6 am, and
realised about 40 minutes later when I looked at my watch that it was still actually
only 5.40 am !!! Ha Ha. No wonder it was so cold – Minus 1.2 deg C
when I got up – Which was at least a (little) bit warmer than the day before –
Maybe God was away looking after someone else who needed attention more, and
forgot to turn the cold knob down far enough !!
I had rugged up well before going to bed, and actually survived pretty
well, although you do wake up a number of times during the night – Usually when
you get strangled in your sleeping bag cord when trying to roll over !!!
Rofl. Anyway, beautiful blue sky, so
once I was all packed up and showered to thaw out a bit, had said goodbye to
the 3 US Navy guys from Fresno on their Harleys/Gold Wing (Russ, Bob, and Ken) I
hit the road to Denali, one of the prime targets of my trip.
I have dreamed of seeing Denali NP and Mt. McKinley, at 20,320
feet, America’s highest peak. Many people come to Denali all their lives, and
never get to see the whole of the mountain – Usually either the top, the
middle, or the bottom of it is covered in cloud. Thus the attraction at the
moment of this bitterly cold weather at night, which is producing clear blue
skies in the day – I honestly have not seen one single cloud today. Not one.
The drive down 120 odd miles from Fairbanks was easy, and
strikingly beautiful, with the scenery just getting better the closer we got to
Denali. I am sorry that my cheap cameras
just do not do the scenery justice, but take my word for it, it was absolutely
amazing. Leaving Fairbanks I noticed how
quickly the trees are turning green with all the new shoots, even though we have
only had a few days of warmish / sunny weather. I guess plants and animals can’t
afford to waste time dithering about what to do otherwise in a blink of an eye
summer will be over and they will have missed their chance !! Anyway, almost immediately we start climbing
up a beautiful sweeping road over a range of hills, and suddenly to our left we
had the amazing vista of just miles and miles of flat plains of trees and
muskeg or tundra or whatever they call it – With a ridge of snow capped mountains
stretching right across the horizon in the distance. Look carefully at the photos and you can just
see the mountains in the background !! I have enlarged one of them so you can
see the mountains more clearly. There are
4 photos there which I took as a sequence from left to right, one after the
other, to show you the extent of the scenery.
Then as we wound our way south west towards Denali, the
mountain range slowly got bigger and bigger as they got closer. We crossed several rivers with the usual wide
rocky (and waterless) beds, waiting for the snow melt to come. It was
just such a magnificent day – Still cool, at about 12 deg C showing on my
outside temp guage, but just clear and sunny.
Perfect Elising weather !! And I
was getting more and more excited as I got closer, because the chance to see Mt
McKinley clear of cloud is just so rare.
I think if you just click fairly quickly through the photos until you
get to the one of the Denali NP sign, you will get a better impression of what
it was like than if I try to explain it – But then you need to multiply it by
about a factor of 10 to get a true sense of how beautiful a drive it really
was !
It just kept getting……better, with every mile. Even Elsie was enjoying it – She really goes
well up those long snaking mountain passes, and it is a true joy to drive those
kind of roads in a car that is just so capable, even after more than 8000 miles
of almost non-stop travel in the past 2 months.
Approaching the park itself we went through the village
itself – a 2000 room hotel, and lots of restaurants and tourist / gift
shops. As is so often the case – All
maybe a little bit OTT ? But it does
give you some indication of just how crowded it must get here in the summer –
In fact, starting this coming weekend, I believe. Maybe
good reason to come in May / September, and risk a bit of rain ?
Anyway, then we turned into the Park, and I went in and
registered for a camp site. No problems at the moment, but in high summer you
would need to book weeks in advance. My
site in the camp ground is beautiful, in a heavily wooded area, with red
squirrels running around pinching any food you leave out for two seconds
!! I have put all my food in a bear
proof food box for the night – The box on the back of my car might be a good
sealed storage area, but if a bear wanted to get something, he would make a bit
of a mess of the car even if he couldn’t open the box !! Hey – New experience – Use a bear proof box
!!! I cannot see another camper from my site, it is that empty. Absolutely beautiful.
So after I had pitched my tent, I took the golden
opportunity provided and drove up to mile 29 of the 80 mile park road. The rest of the road is being prepared for
the onslaught of visitors next week so is a no go area at the moment, but most
people cannot drive past th park gates before they have to catch the shuttle,
so the opportunity to drive into the park was too good an opportunity to
miss. So off I went – Some 14 miles of
sealed road, and then about 15 of dirt road, although with all the work they
are doing on the sealed road, the dirt road is actually a better surface to
drive on !! Where you transition to dirt is a Ranger station,
and when I got there, all 4 girls piled out – Allison, Laura, Rebecca and
Antoinette ! A motor home driver later
complained that not one of them came out to his vehicle, but they all came out
for mine !!!! Rofl. Anyway, saw no bears or moose (really
starting to believe there are only 3 or 4 of each in the whole of Alaska - I mean, WHERE ARE THEY ???? Are my Roo Shoos really working that well
? Should I take them off ? Or maybe take just one off ?
But the scenery on into the park is great, and there are
campsites every few miles along the road (not open until the weekend !!!) so
lots of opportunity for hiking or cycling in the park, and still staying in a
camp site every night, which would be fun.
A few hardy souls were taking off on their bikes, and I had a chat with
them as I reckoned they made me look positively sane !! I noticed they had plenty of bear spray, as
well as those compressed air horns – I guess to scare them away, or at least
let them know you are coming !! Also, at
the Teklanika River turn-around at mile 29, I met Peter and his wife Christa
from Germany who are in a motorhome – We have seen each other several times –
In Sterwart- Hyder, on the Skagway-Haines ferry, and a couple of times on the
road, but this was the first time we had had a chance to talk.
One major disappointment is that Mt McKinley is SO far away
it is almost hidden in its own haze – You will need to look very carefully at
the photos to see it. So I determined
right then that the money I saved by not doing the Vancouver Island / Ferry to
prince Rupert would be well spent on this once in a lifetime opportunity to fly
round Mt McKinley and see it properly while the clouds stay away. So I drove back to town (still no animals) and
went straight to a tour booking offie and booked a flight for the morning. All this afternoon’s flights were booked –
Due to the fine weather, people are flocking here for the chance to see the
mountains in all their glory. So a bus
picks me up in the morning at 7.30 am and I am off on a flight over the
mountains !! So excited !!!
I also tracked down Lambert and Heinrich, my German friends
from Skagway who I had bumped into yesterday in Fairbanks, and they decided to
come with me on the same flight tomorrow.
So we have just run into town and booked them, so now all three of us
are on the same flight. Hopefully you will have some clearer photos in my
episode tomorrow !!
Now I have to run up to the tourist centre to get onto wifi
and send this blog out before my computer battery goes dead !! So apologies for any spelling mistakes – Want
to get this out, and again, sorry about the photo quality – I now understand
why professional photographers can charge so much – They are good !!!
More tomorrow about the park – But once again, a fantastic
day both driving here from Fairbanks, and in Denali NP itself. I just can’t recommend Alaska enough to every
one – Not just the Inside Passage Cruise, but this whole northern part. It is truly fantastic. DO IT !!!!!
Photos here – I have not sorted them or put titles as just
cannot do that sitting outside in the cold !!
It takes too long – Will do it later !!
:- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/FairbanksToDenaliNP?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrGsuLN2aSQFg#
