John and Petra's Alaskan Diary
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28th September, 2001
Exploring Denali National Park, Alaska
One of the major tourist attractions within interior Alaska is the Denali National Park. The park is about 18870 square kilometres big, and is approximately 240 miles north of Anchorage and 125 miles south of Fairbanks. Denali is part of the 900 km long Alaska Range. Its Athabascan name means the "High One". More modern explorers named the peak "Mount McKinley". With a height of about 6200 m Denali is the highest mountain in North America. In 1917 the "Mount McKinley National Park" was established with a size of about 2 million acres. In 1980 the park was enlarged by 4 million acres and its name changed to "Denali National Park".
Mt McKinley and surrounding mountains as seen from the air.
A large number of animals can be found within the park limits, where they are protected from hunting and not to forget from being involved in a traffic accident. Single moose or cow moose with calf/s are regularly seen in the valleys in and around the park. Bands of caribou or dall sheep are travel the park. In recent years the number of wolf sightings has gone up, and this year several campgrounds within the park have been closed for tent camping due to wolves feeding nearby. Grizzly bears (also called brown bear) are a common sight. Sows are often accompanied by one or two cubs.
John and I decided to visit Denali National Park on the last weekend it was in operation before shutting its gates for the winter. Yes, park's services are generally only available from mid or late May till early or mid September. During summer the National Park Service operates tour buses, which allow one to travel inside the park along the only road (about 150km long). Private vehicle traffic is not allowed past "Mile 13".
We had booked ourselves on a park bus departing the park entrance for Denali Park at 7am on a Saturday morning. In order to get there in time, we drove down to the park's entrance on Friday night. It was raining and sleeting part of the way. As we got to "Glitter Gulch" (where commercial tourism left a big imprint on Alaskan nature, located about 1 mile outside the park) we were wondering if we would get any good views on the next day.
Saturday morning was frosty. We quickly made our way to the bus station. Even though the peak tourist season was over, the bus was nearly fully occupied. Within a few minutes of boarding we left, and our trip into the park started. The Denali Park road winds its way along a valley north of the Alaska Range. A snow shower set in but just a few kilometers up the road we got our first view of THE mountain: The base of Denali was surrounded by clouds but both peaks were visible. The road then goes through patches of forest and bush. Once past Salvage River the road is above tree line, and the views are superb.
Tundra in autumn along
the road through Denali NP
Soon we got our first sighting of a species of the "charismatic mega fauna". A lynx made its way along the brush on the wayside. The sighting of this lone animal was soon to be followed by sightings of grizzly bears (sows with 1 or more cubs) and caribou herds. We were lucky enough having a caribou herd travelling parallel to the road at roughly the same speed as our bus. This gave us an opportunity to study the individual animals of the herd. There were several bulls, one was extremely big and his horns had many, many tips. The velvet (skin) was just peeling off the horns, and the exposed blood vessels underneath gave the horns a red look.
A bull moose takes his meal from a small lake
Autumn color everywhere
Further on we saw another grizzly cow. This time with two cubs. The three were way up a steep hill side, where they were searching for berries. The cubs were about 60% of the size of the adult, and their little legs were carrying them quickly up the slopes.
After about 4.5 hours driving and sightseeing our bus arrived at Eielsen Visitor Center. From there one can take grand views of Mt McKinley and several surrounding glacier capped mountains. Denali itself stands out by about 5000 m from the surrounding valley. Glaciers and permanent snow cover more than 50% of the mountain. None of its glaciers reaches the ocean.
The weather had mostly cleared, and sun and wind were attacking our skin. John and I took a walk down to a river that is fed by the glaciers, and that also carries water off the Muldrow Glacier. This glacier is coming down the northern side of Mt McKinley. The parks service reports that this glacier has retreated severely over the last decades.
John hiking down to the Toklat River.
Petra hiking down to the Toklat River.
Petra hiking along
the river
Later on John and I went up a steep hillside, enjoying the grand views. It was magnificent, and from the upper part of the hill one could oversee the complete northern valley as well as the mountains and glaciers of the Alaska Range. I felt as if I was up in the sky....
Unfortunately the time when we had to board a bus for the return trip came much too soon. Reluctantly I got on the bus. For good luck we were rewarded with several bands of caribou and another couple of bear sightings.