Wild in Alaska

Denali Backcountry Lodge

       There's only one road that goes into Denali National Park.  It's about 90 miles long, and regular cars can only go on the first 15 miles.  After that traffic is limited to Park buses and a few local residents' vehicles.  
     The road is partially paved.   It's bumpy and dusty in the summer and snowed closed in the winter.  Some parts are single lane.   In a few spots, like at Polychrome Pass, it twists and turns and offers more thrills than an amusement park ride.   Bears, moose, and caribou graze within a few feet of it.   Some animals walk right down the middle of it.    Just riding the bus is a great adventure. 
        But there is more at the end of the road--four backcountry lodges--hidden away in the vast wilderness of Denali.   We were lucky enough to stay one night in the Denali Backcountry Lodge, although I wanted to stay there longer.   They were booked up so one night was all I could get.   This sign marks the turnoff.   

        The area is huge and very secluded.  One other lodge was visible from the road as we drove down a long hill toward our destination.  Later we looked up the mountainside from Moose Creek that ran past our lodge and saw the back of that lodge.   But the other two lodges were totally hidden from view.  I think one of them belongs to the Princess Cruise line, but I'm not positive.   If it's inside the Park, it has to be near here. 
      

 

      Here's the sign that marks the end of the road.   The air strip is a few feet past here.   Some people took flight seeing trips from here or flew back to avoid the long bus ride back.

       We went on a botany walk with one of the naturalists.  It may not be visible in the picture, but we were wearing mosquito netting and a ton of Dreet.   Fortunately this was the only place that the mosquitoes were really bad.  

       Not too far from the turnoff is this cabin.  A pioneer woman, Fanny Quigley, lived here for many years.  She was known for her pies and provided food for the miners and others.   The cabin was used by a few other people after her death, but now it has been restored as a landmark.   Every nail, board, table, etc., had to be hauled in from the outside!   She gardened and cooked, but it had to be a lonely way of life. 

 

 

         This area, Kantishna, was brought into the Park in 1980.  The private lands are "in holdings".  The Lodges remain, but the mining operations have ceased.   From this location the Park continues west to the sea, but there are no roads in that area.

      

       I loved the Denali Backcountry Lodge!   It's beautiful, spacious, and just rustic enough.   The main building is two story, with the main dining room downstairs and a library, fireplace, and small gift shop upstairs.  There was a wine and cheese party before dinner, and we enjoyed our  wine on the deck off of the library.  

   
             There are rows of "cabins" and a separate building where they serve lunch.   After dinner one of the naturalists gave a talk on owls in there, too.   Very interesting.   You can see that building in the picture below.   Even the swinging bridge was fun.   On the other side of Moose Creek was an old miner's tent, a maze, and a few other spots for reading and relaxing.

             A view of the buildings from the other side of the creek. 
 

 

      The Lodge was even better than I had imagined.   Lunch was very good and very informal.   Lots of options for sandwiches, soup and salad.   Many of the people were only there for a short time.   They had to return to town when the afternoon bus left.   
       Dinner, however, was gourmet quality.   It was only served to the overnight guests.   We were seated at tables for 6 so you had a chance to talk with other people.    Two of our table mates were from Australia, and the other two were from Washington state. 
        If you ever get the chance to go, do it!        

I Wanna Be a Bear

    

           Denali is so green and the air is filled with the scent of the pines.  

     For four days we toured the park on an Adventure Bus and took hikes along the streams and through the woods.    We saw lots of moose and caribou, a fox, a wonderful grizzly bear, and more.  



The first moose was off the road, munching away.   We saw it fairly soon after entering the park on the Adventure Bus.   Our bus driver was great.  He stopped quickly and stayed until we all got lots of pictures.

       Something was so delicious that this moose never raised his head long enough for me to get a picture of his face.  

Another one was right by the road near the Park entrance.

But our closest encounter came while we were on a walk very close to the park's Visitor Center.   Our bus driver had told us that the cows frequently came closer to the entrance, where there were people and more activity, in order to keep their calves safe from wolves.  

  Caribou were plentiful, too.  I like their other name best, reindeer, because it reminds me of Santa Clause and Christmas. 

       This one was sitting on snow to keep cool.   Denali was experiencing a heat wave, nearly 90F, which is really hot for them.

 

     We saw a fox walking right down the road next to the bus.  In fact, she was so close I couldn't get a picture.  But she was beautiful.  Our driver believed she was a female because of her size, and he seemed to know a lot.    At one ranger station we saw Dall sheep up on the mountain, and lots of small squirrels.

 

   But the star of my show was this grizzly bear.    A lot of the grizzlies in Denali are blond.

 

 

      We watched him for quite a while.  At one point he stood up and scratched his back against a tree.   I was so busy watching I missed taking the picture!  I had been hoping to see a bear, and I wasn't disappointed.  We stayed until he ambled out of sight.

       Later I found this great description of a bear's life on I Love Teddies: 
    

"If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

If you're a bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, but cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate expects you to wake up growling. He expects that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup, I wanna be a bear."

- Author unknown

 

Me, too.

Denali

Denali

      We left early Monday morning to travel from Anchorage to Denali National Park, a 240 mile trip.    The motor coach picked us up at the Ship Creek Comfort Inn, where we were staying, at 6 AM.   We weaved our way through the Anchorage streets to three other hotels to pick up fellow travelers.   Altogether there were only about 12 of us.  The small size was nice, and a pleasant surprise.  I thought we might have a full bus.  The motor coach was huge, spacious and very comfortable.  By 7 AM we were on our way. 

      Alaska is amazingly huge.   One of our guides said it is twice the size of Texas!   Denali National Park alone is bigger than some East Coast states.    So it's no wonder that the trip would take several hours. 

       After the first hour or so we pulled into Wasilla for a bathroom break.  It's also the home of  the offices of our travel group, Alaska Denali Travel.   They do a great job organizing a variety of trips and adventures that let you pick and choose what you would like to do.   

        We wanted to stay our entire time in Denali, which we were able to do.   Other people we met were taking cruises and fishing trips as part of their vacation.   We met one couple who had been traveling for over a month, and they still had a few weeks left on their trip.    That's way too long a trip for my tastes, but I could understand why they did it.  They had flown in from Australia, and that's a l-o-n-g, l-o-n-g way to come.   No wonder they wanted to stay a while. 

        After a few minutes it was back on the George Parks Highway.   Alaska has three main highways.  We had started out on Highway #1, and somewhere along the way the name changed to George Parks Highway.    We continued along it  for another hour or two until we reached the Denali View South scenic viewpoint.   When we stopped here, I took the top picture of Denali.     

         Officially Denali is still listed on U.S. maps as Mt. McKinley, but most people call it by its Alaskan native name of Denali.  I was surprised to learn that only about 20% of the visitors get to see the mountain because it's normally shrouded in clouds and fog.  We were very lucky.  Alaska had been enjoying a stretch of clear, hot weather when we arrived that continued for nearly our whole trip.



       Denali is amazing!  The mountain is 20,320 feet high.  With its size and large areas of snow and ice, it can create its own weather!    At the point where I took this picture, we were miles and miles away from it.  

        As we continue to travel up the highway, I watched for wildlife.   We passed through a variety of woods, lakes, and open land.    My eyes were constantly on the lookout for bears or moose.   I saw a lot of float planes, but no animals.    I suspect that the heat and the noise of road construction may have caused them to be holed up somewhere.

       After another delay or two for construction--summer in Alaska means road construction and mosquitoes--we finally arrived at our destination, the Denali Cabins and Prey Restaurant. 



    By the time we arrived, it was early afternoon and we were starved.   The sandwiches at Prey were huge and tasty.

       The cedar cabins that dotted the campgrounds would be our home for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.  Our cabin had a TV, but we never turned it on.  There were walking paths around the cabins and a nearby airport that we wanted to explore.   We spent Monday afternoon and evening exploring and resting up.
        Early the next morning, on Tuesday, we would be traveling to the Backcountry Lodge.  We were to ride a smaller bus to the end of the only road that goes into the heart of Denali National Park.   We were leaving early again, a thing which has to happen in order to arrive anywhere in Alaska at a reasonable time.   We spent our night packing our essentials into one small suitcase for this trip.  Everything else would be stored at the Cabins.   We could only guess what clothes might be needed, but we knew two things that were crucial--Dreet and mosquito netting.