Hi, everyone! Did you
miss me? I’ve been unconnected since we
entered Teklanika Campground within Denali National Park, where there are no
hookups, no internet, no television, no radio—just us and the wilderness!
Back in December when we made reservations, The Park agent
said that there were only a few sites within this campground that could
accommodate truly big rigs. We were
encouraged to actually purchased two sites—one for our 42” fifth wheel and one
for our medium duty truck, “Big Boomer.”
However, there are no “reserved” sites—it is first come, first served. They would not even guarantee two sites next
to each other so we could hook up our solar to the rig. So we
got all our permits a few days early and headed into the Park by 6 a.m. Along the route, we see Linda and Steve,
folks who traveled part of the way to Alaska with our mutual friends, Kelly and
Bill. They scouted the campground before
they left it earlier that morning and provided us with a list of available
sites suitable for our setup. And thanks
to their efforts, one site is long enough and wide enough to fit both the truck
and rig, and it is close to a site that accommodates the 40’ bus of
Claudia/Mike. So, we blew $154 for a
second site and received no refund.
Bummer—I could have bought me a ton of cheese with that kind of dough!
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Site 42 at Teklanika Campground |
The weather was mostly damp, cloudy, and rainy. We even experienced sleet while participating
in a Ranger-led hike on Monday near the Eielson Visitor Center. Good thing we had the opportunity to view
Denali (a.k.a. The High One) three times last week, ‘cause she hasn’t been seen
since! The little sunshine we experienced
usually occurs about 10 p.m. Makes me
want to sleep during the day and be active during the night!
But the weather did not hinder our ability to explore,
although I can’t say the same for the shuttle bus system! The system is very limiting, and much more
complicated and convoluted than need be. As I mentioned in my previous post, you cannot
go to any point east of your campground.
You must determine how far into
the Park you wish to travel at the time you make reservations. You are scheduled for a specific bus to get
to that predetermined point on your first day of shuttle bus service. After that, you can take any bus to any point
between the campground and your predetermined final point, but there is no
“reserved” seat for you. Every shuttle
bus guarantees four empty seats when it leaves the Park Entrance, so you just hope
a seat is available when the bus reaches you!
Furthermore, not all locations are serviced by every bus. For example, there were only two buses to get
us to Kantishna, our pre-determined final point at Mile 92.5 (the end of the
Park roadway) and only two to get us back, one of which left within 45 minutes
of arrival, leaving virtually no time to explore the area. The other return bus did not get back to the
campground until 10 p.m.! One day we
went to Wonder Lake, about 55 miles from our campground. It took us 5 hours to get there just so we could do a 7 mile hike, which took less than 3 hours to complete. Then back on the bus for another 5
hours! And did I mention these are not
luxury buses, but instead school buses.
It is insanity. We were glad we
took “The Kantishna Experience” Tour when we stayed outside the Park, since we
never did make it back to Kantishna this week.
The only good thing about the bus system is that the drivers
are excellent at spotting wildlife! Although
we viewed tons of animals, most were too far away to photograph. From the bus windows they looked like little
dots in the distant hills and mountains. However, we hit the jackpot on Wednesday,
seeing a total of nine bears, including two cubs romping around! One bear in particular decided to give us a
real show! After scratching his groin,
counting his toes, and washing his face, he came off the mountain and walked
right next to the bus!
I learned all kinds of cool animal trivia, which will come
in handy when I apply to be on Jeopardy for Rat Week! For instance, did you know that moose antlers
weigh eighty pounds and can grow as much as a foot a day! Or that when bear cubs are born, they are
hairless and their eyes are closed? Yet,
by the time they emerge in spring, they are furry and ready to see the
world. Or that the arctic ground
squirrel is the only animal that truly hibernates. Unlike bears, who just go into a deep sleep, arctic ground squirrels’ body temperatures decrease to freezing and they
have a heartbeat of only one beat per minute.
If you were to dig one up out of its burrow, it would be frozen like a
popsicle and look quite dead!
Unfortunately, the arctic ground squirrel is at the low end of the food
chain. They are breakfast burritos for
bears, and are a source of protein for ravens, golden eagles, foxes, etc.
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An arctic ground squirrel--every animal's favorite treat! |
We logged some hiking miles this week, including trekking
through several different ecosystems along the McKinley Bar Trail. However, there are few developed trails
within this Park wilderness. We created
our own, as the Park encourages, including hiking along the sandbars of the
Teklanika River. I’ve never walked across a river before!
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View of McKinley River from trail at Wonder Lake |
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Donning the latest mosquito net fashions at Wonder Lake |
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View of Alaska Range from Wonder Lake |
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Hiking along Teklanika River |
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View from Teklanika River |
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Our reward for tolerating all the rain--a beautiful rainbow! |
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Polychrome |
Good thing we got to hike along the Savage
River at the eastern end of the Park last week—upon re-entering civilization,
we learned the area is now closed down due to bear activity.
Since campground guests are a captive audience, the Park
offers a Ranger Program each evening in our campground amphitheater, which we
attended regularly.
We met some great folks at the campground, including
Christie and Art, mutual friends with Nancy and David from Amazon. It is a small world sometimes!
With what we know now about Denali National Park and if we
did it again, we would stay longer outside the Park and camp at Teklanika only for
the minimum requirement of three nights.
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing!
As it turned out, we left Teklanika a day early anyway—Mike
has not been feeling well and wanted to get to a V.A. doctor/hospital in
Anchorage. Unfortunately, our reserved campground
in Wasilla could not accommodate our early arrival. So we
are now boondocking in Walmart for one night.
Makes for a very short trip to get to the campground tomorrow--just three miles. At least we got to see a bit of Denali again
when we visited Denali State Park along our planned route to Wasilla.
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My favorite flowers--daisies reflect both beauty and simplicity |
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South View of Denali from Denali State Park |
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North View of Denali from Denali State Park |
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Alaska Veterans Memorial - Denali State Park |
OK, I’ve got to sign off now. Walmart is running a special on Swiss cheese
I don’t want to miss!
