Denali – The Mountain and Home to Many Animals

Leslie, August 13, 2010
Denali RV Park

Denali National Park and Preserve is the high point for many visitors to Alaska.  Although Brooks Camp will always be my favorite place, from views of Mt McKinley to exceptional wildlife spotting Denali did not disappoint this time.

Visitor vehicle access to Denali National Park and Preserve is severely limited.  There is only one road into the park.  For most people, vehicle access is limited to traveling along the sole road on a reconditioned school bus.  A small number of RVs are permitted to camp in the park, but we did not take that option this year.  We camped outside the park and took two 8 hr rides into the park to the Eielson Visitors Center, 66 miles each way along the park road.  Our driver on both trips, Elston Parks, was excellent.  He had eagle-like eyes and spotted much of the wildlife we saw along the way.

We’ve commented many times that despite spending a lot of time in Alaska, the only time we had seen Mt McKinley was in 2008 on a flight-seeing trip from Talkeetna.  This year we were treated to some excellent views of Mt McKinley from our second bus trip into the park.






At 20,320 ft. Denali Mountain is the highest peak in North America.  Its height is even more impressive because when measured from its 2,000 ft base, its vertical distance is greater than Mt Everest.  These pictures were taken about 70 miles from Mt McKinley.

We’ve learned that the animal sightings in Denali depend largely on luck.  Luck in the specific animal being visible from the road and luck in the driver driving slowly enough to enable someone to spot the animal.  As I mentioned earlier, our driver this year was fantastic.

For the first time ever we were able to watch a mamma wolf and two pups. Sightings of wolves are quite rare so we considered this a real treat.

Running along the hillside:


Play fighting:


Wrestling:



Mama supervising the pups:


In past years guides have pointed to small white specs on far off mountains and claimed that we were seeing Dall sheep.  Typically the Dall sheep stay up high to enjoy the mountain tundra.  We came across 9 Dall  sheep on a hill close to the road.  What made this sighting especially good was the fact that we were actually looking down on the Dall sheep.



Both ewes and rams have horns.  These are ewes.


Beautiful resting spot.


Caribou (also known as reindeer) travel in groups and both male and females have antlers.
A large rack such as this one might weigh 50-60 lbs.  It’s actually amazing they can hold up their head.

 


We found Mama moose and her calf  grazing in the early evening.  A baby moose weighs about 25 lbs. at birth.  Five months later they weigh nearly 500 lbs.  A moose gains weigh faster than any other animal.  During prime eating season, a baby moose gains 10-15 lbs a day.  Since their winter diet is largely twigs, they have to grow enough during the first summer to sustain themselves over the long winter.




We saw numerous grizzly bears, mostly sows with two or three cubs, but none as close as we saw them at Katmai National Park in July.  The bears in Denali weigh 400-600 lbs.  In contract the bears at Katmai weigh 800-1200 lbs. due to the availability of salmon.Click here for my camping with the Katmai bears post.



Sleeping Bears:


Sow & Cubs climbing:


Lastly we had fun watching this BFC (Bottom of the Food Chain), the lowly ground squirrel.  Isn’t he cute?


We spent our day in Denali when we did not ride the school bus visiting with the dogs at the Ranger’s Dog Mushing kennel.



During the winter forest rangers patrol the back country of Denali on dogsled.  There are about 25 government employees (dogs) who live at the Denali kennels.  The ranger who gave this demonstration joked that these are the happiest employees in the government.  These dogs love to run!

Talkeetna, AK – Float Trip, Flowers, and Decorated Moose

Leslie, Monday, August 9, 2010
Talkeetna Camper Park

After staying a few days in Wasilla to resupply in Anchorage before the next part of our adventure, we’ve stopped in Talkeetna for awhile.  The small town of Talkeetna is the headquarters for most services for climbers for Mt McKinley.  During the peek climbing season of late March through early June, climbers and their supporters congregate here.  The West End Cafe, a local bar and restaurant, is decorated with interesting climbing memorabilia from many of the early climbs.

We had great hopes of having an opportunity to see Mt McKinley but unfortunately the cloudy weather persisted. In 2008 we were able to see the mountain by hiring a bush flightseeing plane to fly around it.  This time we decided to try for a river view.

We signed up for a 4 hour float trip on the Chulitna River.  Because the water is so cold (approximately 34 degrees), the outfitter provided wet weather gear.  We each wore heavy rubber boots over our hiking boots.  Putting the rubbers boots on was difficult.  To slide over my hiking boots, they gave me a size 14 boot!  Here I am trying to walk with the boots that are several inches longer than my hiking boots.  Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!



By the time we were appropriately dressed, we felt like stuffed animals.



Had rain seriously been threatening, we would also have worn rubber fishing bibs.  Although the sun shone part of the day, it was chilly on the river.

Mt McKinley was never visible due to the cloud cover, but we were able to see many bald eagles, especially juvenile ones.



Juvenile bald eagles, up until 3-4 years of age, are mottled brown color.



As we floated along we saw a small black bear swimming across the river.  The current was fairly strong, but the bear swam directly across.





The brush was thick along the river and the bear quickly disappeared from view.

Back in Talkeetna all the rain that Alaska has had this summer has resulted in beautiful flowers.





The colors are beautiful!

Decorations are whimsical.  Decorated moose adorn many shops:



I don’t know what to call the moose above, but the  moose below might be “Mountain Moose”.



At our campground, the old vending machine is decorated with Tin Man.

Return to Williwaw and Portage Glacier

Leslie, Sunday - Monday, August 1-2, 2010, Portage, AK
Williwaw Forest Service Campground

We returned to a favorite national forest rustic campground, Williwaw, located near the Portage Glacier.  We had stayed in Williwaw for three days in mid-July but the weather was very rainy then.  This time we were treated to wonderful weather. 

Williwaw has almost all the attributes we seek in a rustic campground.  The sites are large and surrounded by trees and campfires are allowed.  An added bonus is that the views are fantastic.  This is the view from Connie and Stan’s campsite.



On the other hand, there is no facility to fill water or dump holding tanks at Williwaw.  Although those facilities would be helpful, our 100 gallon fresh water tank and Honda generators enable us to live quite comfortably off the grid.

On Monday we took a one-hour tourist cruise on Lake Portage aboard the Ptarmigan.



Ptarmigan is owned by one of the cruise lines and provides cruise ship passengers with a short tour to the Portage Glacier.  On the trip we took there weren’t any cruise groups so the ship was almost empty.  That always makes the trip more enjoyable.

Portage Glacier has receded dramatically since we first saw it in 1988.  At that time we hiked to the glacier, today the boat trip took 20 minutes.



Although the glacier did not calf while we were there, I always like to photograph some ice burgs that float away from the glacier.  The blue color is beautiful.



The day was so warm (for coastal Alaska) that it was actually enjoyable to be on the top deck.



From Williwaw we’re headed to the Anchorage area for a few days of re-supplying before we leave for Denali.  We’ve heard that the northern lights may be visible over the next few nights; we we’re hoping for clear night skies.

Hoping for Sunshine in Hope, AK

Leslie, Saturday, July 31, 2010
Alaska Dache RV Park

After a rainy night the sun actually shone today.  We went to downtown Hope to check out the funky scene.
It appeared that combat fishing was the major activity:

 

Most of the fisher-people didn’t seem to be catching many salmon, but nonetheless they were having an enjoyable time.

We had heard that the town of Hope is “funky,”  YES, whatever funky means, Hope is that.  It appears to be a one (or slightly more) street town with most buildings from approximately 1900.  The only difference between this building and many currently occupied buildings is that the latter usually do not have broken windows.  They do, however, have an outhouse.  Notice that this building does have a connection to the electrical grid.



The central location is a bar/cafe/restaurant known as the “Sea View Cafe”. 



Friends had camped in the bar parking lot several years ago and strongly recommended the location.  Because we were coming from a location without hook-ups, and we are going to another location without hook-ups, we elected for a full service campground in the Hope vicinity. [Note to non-RVers – Rving is very GREEN.  We can go for about 7 days without hook-ups.] 

The Sea View Cafe features live music on weekend evenings during the summer.  However by the time the music started we were safely back in our campsite.

Homer, AK – A Small Fishing Village

Leslie, Friday, July 23-Thursday, July 29, 2010, Homer, AK
Homer Spit Campground

Homer is located on Kachemak Bay on the south western tip of the Kenai Peninsula.  The Homer Spit extends 4.5 miles out into the Bay and forms a protected deep water harbor.



We stay at the end of the spit in a small campground along the rocky beach. We have a wonderful view of the bay and the mountains along the opposing shore.  We like being close enough to walk to the shops and fish markets.

 

The Seafarer’s Memorial to sailors lost as sea is at one end of our campground.



The Alaska Marine Ferry makes stops in Homer.



Unfortunately for the first 3 days we’ve been here, the weather has been terrible – high temps in the low 50s – windy and rainy.  That’s given us the opportunity to get caught up on inside chores and computer work. 
A week ago, back in Palmer, Robert tried to scalp himself.  Really!  Robert took a short-cut under the nose of Stan & Connie’s trailer, stood up too soon, and tore off the top of his head on the bottom edge of their bedroom slide.  Instead of a simple split head he ended up with a 3” by 5” gash, tearing off the skin and attached flesh.  UGH!  I took Robert to the local hospital emergency room where the doctor used 10 staples (stitches) to patch his head back together.  On Saturday Robert visited the local Homer Hospital to have his staples removed.   Prior to removing the staples, the ER doctor used his Droid phone to take a picture of Robert’s wound just to show him what it looked like (it’s hard to see the top of your own head).  Robert was pleased with the medical care he received in both places.

Fishing is the major activity in Homer. On Tuesday Connie & Stan took a half-day halibut charter and returned with their quota of two halibut each (approximately 30 lbs of filleted fish). Robert and I spent the day enjoying our first sunny day by taking pictures of the local scene. There are three raised boardwalks with small shops (mostly fishing charters) along the right-side of the spit.



The boat harbor is along the left-side of the spit.



For those of you familiar with the Discovery TV show, The Most Dangerous Catch, the F/V Time Bandit with the Hillstrand brothers calls Homer its home port.  When they return to port, you’ll often see celebrations at the Salty Dog Saloon, reportedly one of the most photographed locations in Homer.  The Salty Dog is very close to our camping spot. There is a working light in the tower that is listed on charts for mariners.

Midnight Moose

Leslie – July 22, 2010  Soldotna, AK
Klondike RV Park

It was near mid-night when I heard a light knock at the door.  Stan was knocking to alert me that there was a Mama moose about 20 yards from our rig.  A month ago I was writing about how light it was at mid-night.  By this point in July, darkness has returned.  I ran out to capture these pictures as Mama moose grazed in the weeds behind our Rv park.









Someone else had told us that there was a Mama moose with a calf hanging around the park, but we didn’t see the calf. I understand that Mama moose will leave a calf someplace she thinks is safe while she eats.  This Mama was clearly aware that we were there but she didn’t see to mind our picture taking.