July 23: Denali, Alaska: Walk around Wonder Lake
Bob: Having a dry morning, we explored the campground, hoping to catch sight of Mt. McKinley, named by the natives Denali or "The High One" (which it really is!). All the Alaskan folks I talked with used Denali for the name of the mountain as well as the name of the National Park. We saw glimpses of mountains through occasional breaks in the overcast, but I just wasn't sure if any of the partial peaks we saw was really Denali or not. |
Monika: It had rained all night, but by morning it was dry an we ventured out and looked around. Our campground was across the river from the foot of Mt McKinley or Denali, The High One. The campsites are arranged in a semicircle down a small slope so that every site can see The High One, if he ever decides to show himself. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes. It was cloudy and overcast. But for a brief moment a mountain peaked through and gave us a glimpse what it would be like on a clear day. |
Bob: We then decided to try to walk to the other end of Wonder Lake and maybe on to Kantishna, where we hoped to snag a lunch at a roadhouse or maybe even purchase some food to eke out our meager supplies. The scenery was fantastic and the walk out delightful, but otherwise our plans went awry. |
Monika: We then decided to walk around a bit since it was overcast but not raining. We first walked down to Wonder Lake and then up to the street. The weather might have been dreary, but the wildflowers next to the road where still colorful and cheerful. |
Bob: We stopped at the Ranger Station about midway down the lake, and a surprisingly unfriendly park ranger told us that the roadhouse in Kantishna is private and does not serve the public. It also turned out that no food was purchasable out there and clearly, in fact, strangers were NOT welcome anywhere down the road. (Being used to having small stores and cafes everywhere we travel in Germany, this lack of any services of any kind for travelers rather surprised me.) Giving up our original plan, we continued to the end of the lake but then turned around, hoping to catch a lift on a bus to get back to our campground. But true to what the ranger had told us, none of the private lodge busses that passed us would give us a lift. Unfortunately, we were in the midday "hole" in the schedule for camping busses and would have had to wait 2 hours to catch one of those. Instead of waiting, we forged on back to our campground on foot, which resulted in our walking over 10-11 miles in 5 hours, and so were very weary and hungry at the end. But we felt better after dinner and were able to retreat into the tent before it started raining again, which it kept on steadily doing during the night. |
Monika: We walked towards Kantishna, the endpoint of the park road where there are several lodges and an airstrip. We thought when a bus came by we would get on and drive to the end, have lunch at a lodge and take a bus back. After two miles we got to a ranger station where we found out that the first camping bus would not get here until 2 pm. We walked on a bit, but when we found out that Kantishna was another 6 miles, we decided to turn around. We figured if we walked back slowly enough we might yet catch a bus on the way back. But the only buses we saw were from a lodge or specialty buses. We finally reached the Y that was the branch to the campground when we saw the first camping bus. By now it was almost two and of course we were starving and thirsty. One of the things Martin had us buy was Gatorade mixes, and that tasted really good after all the walking. The afternoon we spent in the tent. I worked on the Ipad while Bob took a nap. |
July 24: Denali: Eielson Visitor Center
Bob: Just as we were getting ready for breakfast the morning shuttle bus came thru, and we impulsively decided to skip breakfast but take some gorp and fruit bars and hop on the bus rather than take another hike in the rain. The bus first went to Kantishna, where I got a look at the airstrip, which was a nice packed gravel runway in the middle of the valley at least 600 feet long, so I could land on it no problem. The bus turned around and went back past our campground to the Eielson Visitor's Center, about 1 hour back to the East on the park road. |
Monika: It rained all night but stopped in the morning. We had slept in and after morning tooth brushing we discovered the bus to Eielson left in 8 minutes. So we decided to forego breakfast and take along some cereal bars and gorp. We caught the bus. It went first all the way down to the end of the road, mile marker 92.5. There we drove past the Kantishna airstrip. All the planes were grounded since a fog shrouded the mountains. We also drove past the several lodges that have been established in this area. On our way we had to ford two creeks that were rather high because of all the rain. During our drive, the clouds parted every now and then to give glimpses of the snow-covered mountains. |
Bob: We had our gorp and energy bars at the Visitor's Center, and then caught sight of a grizzly bear as he wandered in our direction. The rangers first put out signs blocking people from walking on the trails around the Visitor's Center, and as the bear came closer they urged us all to go inside for a while, which we did. The bear exhibited no particular interest in us or the Visitor's Center, but instead ambled past it about 70 yards away. Finally he passed us and continued on over the next hill and was lost to sight. Once the bear had disappeared, the rangers re-opened the short trail that loops around the knoll upon which the Visitor's Center is located. We took advantage of that to take a short hike on the trail on the tundra. |
Monika: At Eielson we had our meager breakfast. Then there was some excitement. The rangers had spotted a large grizzly ambling on the tundra by the visitor center. They closed the trails and kept us far enough away. We watched him for a long time as he ambled around the center and then finally crossed the street and headed up the mountain. First we were only a few people watching him, but then a few buses arrived and a lot of people joined us, who immediately forgot to be quiet around wild animals. So he hurried off a little faster. |
Bob: The small loop trail led over to the edge of the valley, which gave us some nice views in the general direction of Mount McKinley, which was unfortunately still shrouded by clouds. Back in the Visitor's Center, we took some time to view the video on climbing Mt McKinley, which is quite arduous and dangerous due to the extreme winter/blizzard/ice field climate at the top of the mountain. Having exhausted things to do at the Visitor's Center, we took the next camping shuttle bus back to our campground for a nice lunch. |
Monika: After that excitement we took the nice tundra walk before watching a movie about climbing Denali. What a trek that is! The mountain is over 20,000 feet high and the park service has rangers stationed at camps at different altitudes to help in emergencies. Catching the bus back to the campground, we had coffee and a nice noodle dish with chicken and relaxed with our Ipads. |
