June 22 Denali, Happy Retirement

Saturday, June 22

48 degrees this morning - feels great!  Back to Visitor’s Center to see what was happening. 

Happy first official day of retirement

 Joined a ranger-lead hike at 10:00 to Hidden Lake, an ox-bow lake with huge beaver dam. 

There were too many people in our group (38!) with lots of kids, so part way through we left and did the rest on our own.  Nice 2 miles with steep climb back.

We stopped at the Science and Learning Center on the way back and watched a film about Artic Dinosaurs.  They have found quite a few fossils and footprints here in Denali and even further north leading to questions as to whether dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded.

Checked in to our campsite at Riley and had a great ice cream cone for lunch and thought of Mom:) Did some wi-fi stuff and then drove back to Savage Creek.  Saw a few moose. 

  On way back we picked up a young man from California who was working here for the Summer building trails and gave him ride to town.

Relaxed a bit till dinner get-together at Ann’s.  22 of us!  Had worst and salads, etc.  Ann surprised Greg with a Congratulations Greg cake for is retirement!  Chocolate – yum! 

Nice get-together, did a group picture including John and Sally, who joined us late.

June 21, 2013 Denali

Friday, June 21.2013

Great night’s sleep. Temp this morning in low 50’s.  We headed into Denali National Park Visitor’s Center.  Very nice facilities!  We took the shuttle out to the dog kennels and listened to a 30 minute talk and exhibit about the dogs.  They are used frequently in the winter for transportation and hauling supplies, as snow machines (snow mobiles) are not allowed in the park.  These dogs are bred for strength rather than speed and they are bigger, stronger and more heavily furred than those we saw earlier that were bred for speed.

Next we decided to drive out to Savage River, which is the furtherest autos are allowed.  Walked a nice 2 mile loop trail with lots of wildflowers.  Nice wind made it cool and kept the bugs away.  Had a picnic lunch there before heading back toward the visitors center.    I know you've all been waiting for the flower pictures so here are a few.  This is tundra.

Saw a big cow moose on the ride out and this big bull moose on the way back.

Taking advantage of the wi-fi for a bit, Greg is catching up on phone calls. 

Watched a film on the park and took showers.  Did another drive to Savage.  On the return we picked up a hitchhiker who was a young man from California working here for the Summer building trails.  His group of 8 worked 4 days a week and lived in tents.

June 19, 2013 Fairbanks, Nenana towards Denali

Wednesday, June 19

Left fairly early, heading south and west towards Anchorage. Stopped at the small town of Nenana and bought a lottery ticket for the 2014 Ice Breakup.  They have been doing this since 1907 – you buy a ticket and choose a date and time when you think the river will thaw.  They plant a big wooden teepee on the river and when it falls over,  that is the winning time.  Last year paid over $30,000!  This is a VERY tiny town and they were selling furs as well as other local knives, pottery, etc. The lady at the visitor’s center welcomed us like long lost friends and was quite lively – she certainly had had her coffee this morning!

Depositing our winning ticket; model of tripod

 

Saw one moose and a lovely swan along the way.

We are driving into mountains and at times are surrounded by them, many with snow.  Beautiful.

We come around a bend and up a hill – and there is Denali.  Sure, it is still 50 miles away, but it still takes your breath away! At 20,000+ it stands out above the surrounding peaks. It is all white and we can see the top clearly, though there is haze and cloud lower, so that it appears to be floating above the other mountains.  Still, it is so large that it creates its own weather system which often involves clouds.

We make several stops for photos and to check out some rafters, a veteran’s memorial,  and scenery that you wouldn’t believe.J.  

  Later down the road there are some clouds beginning to gather around Denali, so that it is partly obscured.  Supposedly it is clearly visible only 20-30% of the time, but I think they tell tourists this so anyone who sees it feels exceptional.

Temperatures have cooled, compared to Fairbanks,  and we are seeing 60’s and low 70s today.  Perfect!

We drove past the turn to Denali National Park, and found a quiet campsite at Byers Lake in Denali STATE Park. Nice lake, but too buggy to do anything outside.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Rose early, smushed a few mosquitos and headed to the South View of Denali at Denali State Park.  It was a crisp 48 degrees and Denali was clear and beautiful!

Took lots of photos, then headed back up the Parks Highway toward Denali Highway.  Unfortunately both gas stations at Cantwell, where you get the Denali Highway, were closed, so we had to drive back up to the town of Denali for gas.

Stopped at  Creek Side Café for a birthday breakfast of hot cakes and reindeer sausage.

(Tastes like Kielbasi to me!). Happy Birthday, Greg!

Back down to the Denali Highway.  This is the original road to the park, and is still gravel and not frequently used.  Many good dry camping and fishing sites.  Probably our worst road yet, as Greg had to slow to 15-20 quite often but the vistas are amazing.  The road leads into the mountains and at times we are surrounded by peaks.  Scattered spruce trees of the taiga, where trees are mostly stunted by the permafrost, short cool growing season and long cold winters. 

We bounced along to Brushkana Creek Campground, thinking maybe we would spend the night here, but wow – the van was surrounded by hungry mosquitos so we didn’t even get out.  The campground hostess, wearing hat, mosquito head net, gloves, etc.  waved at  us like she couldn’t believe we weren’t going to stay.  We turned back at this point and jingled and jangled back toward the Parks Highway.

Saw one lovely moose and a bald eagle  on this journey.  We turned north to Denali National Park and saw three more moose on our way to the park!

We don’t have reservations till Saturday and weren’t able to get in earlier, but we did get literature on what’s happening so we can spend the day at the park tomorrow.   We ran into Margaret and Jim while at the campground registration area (great internet btw) and decided to boondock with them at a large pullout about 5 miles south that we had noticed earlier.  We are right next to the Tenana River and between two ranges of mountains – gorgeous!  Thankfully there is a good breeze so those pesky ‘squitos aren’t an issue.  Lovely evening and great conversation.  Another friend, Anne, stopped to join us.  A sightseeing plane practically buzzed us as it flew low over the river, between the mountains – must have been a thrilling ride! Cooling off nicely.

June 18 Fairbanks area 11:45 sunset

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Decided to spend one more night here as there are a few things we’d like to do.  First was a tour at the Large Animal Research Center close to the University.  We saw several muskox and reindeer (caribou) and learned a lot about them from our tour guide, Amy.  The under fur of the musk ox is called qivuit and besides being an excellent scrabble word, it is the softest wool you will ever feel – better than cashmere!

Drove over to The Museum of the North, on the UA campus.  Fabulous museum with a mixture of artifacts, animals, native culture, and current Alaskan art.  Here are a few examples.

Picked up a few more groceries and did laundry while trying to get the blog up-to-date, as we anticipate being out of contact for a while around Denali.

Decided to drive out Chena Hot Springs road to a trail called Grand Tors.  There is another trail close to it called Angel Rocks, but per the person at the Information Center earlier, it is closed due to bear activity.  The drive was pretty boring for the first 30 miles but then got interesting as we  came across several moose.  The moose can eat under water, as its nostrils automatically seal off.  Two of these were in pretty deep water and would totally submerge their heads to munch away.

We also saw a small forest fire that was still smoldering.  Lots of fire and emergency folks still around, but it didn’t look like it had spread too far.

Back to River’s Edge, visited with some of our group down by the river, showered and called it a day.   I was on the computer for quite a while and when I turned it off and went to  bed at 11:45,  the sun was just beginning to set.  Summer solstice is coming!  I heard someone say that Alaskans celebrate like crazy on Summer solstice, and the next day they are depressed because winter is coming.  They lose about 7 minutes of daylight a day till darkness  is 22 hours or more of the day.