Alaska Day 3: Denali National Park Day 2 - Wonder Lake

I wake up to my 5:45 a.m. alarm.  I have to be at the park checked in and ready for my 7:15 a.m. shuttle call to Wonder Lake, the next-to-last stop on the ninety-five mile Denali Park road. I eat breakfast and am out the door by 6:45 AM.  I reach the shuttle depot at Denali in time and prepare to board my bus.  While I wait, it's briskly apparent that it is even colder today than it was yesterday.  The wind is also stronger and it’s raining. The dark gray skies, cold, and rain are giving me very serious doubts as to whether I’ll be able to hike at all today.  Even though I’m dressed in warm clothes, I’m not sure that I have on enough to be safe.

The bus arrives and I board.  Today’s driver is Jeremy, a red-headed Wisconsinite who still has his Wisconsin accent.  Jeremy has a slow, monotone delivery and a dry sense of humor.  He tells us that he would like to spend most of the twelve-hour drive describing the shrubbery in the park.  He pauses long enough for me to wonder in dread if he’s serious.  He tells us he’s joking.

  

Not long after we depart, we come upon two moose - a cow and a calf.  This is an unexpected strong start to the day.  

A moose cow and a bull moose in the early morning mist.

A view along the way of the braided river like the kind I encountered yesterday.

About three hours into the journey, we stop for a break at Toklat River, which is as far as I went on the bus yesterday.  It’s an interesting contrast from the day before. Yesterday morning there was no snow on the mountains in this area. By the end of the day, there had been enough snow to see a dusting across the peaks.  This morning, the mountains are almost fully covered with snow.

As we drive on another hour or so, approaching the Eielson Visitor Center, it begins to snow on us. It’s beautiful, a strong and steady shower of white flakes. We stop at Eielson for about an hour for lunch and to take photos from this vantage point over the valley.  

The Eielson Vistor Center

The green park bus I'm riding parked at Eielson Visitor Center

It's time to get back in the bus and continue west.  After driving  twenty-five miles further along theroad between Eielson and Wonder Lake, the weather changes dramatically.  It’s now sunshine, warmer, and beautiful. 

Wonder Lake

Wonder Lake closer to the shore

We get out at Wonder Lake to walk around.  It’s quiet and serene. I also get to see and taste wild blueberries for the first time.  Our driver Jeremy points them out to us.  They are abundant, beautiful, and delicious, like no other blueberry I have ever tasted.  I can see why the bears and the other animals love them.

This is the end of the line for my bus ride. In fact, I’ve come about a half mile too far.  I spend 30 minutes here, then catch the bus to the trailhead of the McKinley Bar trail.  This is one of the only marked trails in the six million acres of the park. In an effort to offset my cardinal rule-breaking of hiking alone, I figure a marked trail will at least have the chance of someone passing by if I were get into trouble.

This is a very different place from where I hiked near Toklat River.  There are golden grassy plains along the mountain side with fireweed and other plants splashing color amidst the gold.  The trail is often strewn with much larger, soccer ball size rocks instead of the gravel of the glacier bed.  The views here are stunning.  The sun is shining and the clouds are higher today.  That opens up a whole world of the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

A view from the McKinley Bar Trail

Fireweed

A quarter mile or so down the trail, I venture off-trail to a large area of blueberries.  I’m now like the Grizzly bears, foraging for my lunch.  I spend some time here, just grazing, enjoying this wonderfully tasty wilderness buffet.  Like a deer drinking water, I’m always raising my head, looking and listening to make sure I don’t have company that would not appreciate my being here.

I find the trail again and continue on my way.  It’s a beautiful downward trail into the valley across a small river into the woods.  On the trail back, near where I had my blueberry lunch, I come to a very sudden stop.  In the middle of the trail in front of me is a large pile of bear scat that wasn’t there on the way down.  I quietly look all around me, listening at the same time.  All I hear is the wind blowing through the grass.  I wait, still and silent.  With no bear in sight or sound, I start again and hike the rest of the way to the trailhead.

A fresh sign of company

Once I’m back up to the road, a bus comes by within the next thirty minutes.  I catch it and start the six hour ride back to the main visitor’s center.  After a stop at the Eileson Visitor’s Center, the bus comes to a spot where we see a multi-colored Cross fox, a color phase of the red fox.  He puts on a show, rolling around in the grass.  A little further down the road, we see more Grizzly bears.  It’s such a gift to enjoy and appreciate these beautiful animals.  As we’re stopped, a wolf trots past us. 

Approaching Eielson Visitor Center from the west

Even more snow on the mountains in this part of the park as the day progresses.

A multi-colored Cross fox

This young Grizzly stood up to get a look at whose looking at him.

We take a break at the Toklat River ranger station.  I get the chance to hold some moose antlers, which must have weighed fifty pounds or more.  We move on.  At a stop near Polychrome Overlook, a red fox walks nearly up to us as we’re looking over the glacier.  It’s getting much too comfortable around humans.  The ranger claps and shoos it away.  

The sun starting to break on the way to the Toklat River ranger station.

 Moose antlers at Toklat River ranger station.

Looking at Divide Mountain, my hiking destination yesterday, from Toklat River ranger station.

A red fox

More of Denali's spectacular views

At Sable Pass, we see more Grizzly bears!  Incredible.  The clouds are dissipating quickly now.  The evening sun is shining.  Colors are appearing in high contrast.  The park looks completely different and completely breathtaking.  

As I drive away from the park for the last time on this trip, my feelings are a mix of thankfulness, exhilaration, and melancholy.  It's been a wondrous experience, and I'm sad to go.  

Alaska Day 2: Denali National Park Day 1 - Toklat River Hike

I’m getting my first view of this part of Alaska in daylight this morning.  What a gorgeous place with thick rows of tall, green pines and the swift-moving Nenana River with its white caps breaking over the rocks.  I’m excited to get going for my noon bus call to take me into Denali National Park.

The view near my cabin at Denali River Cabins

Even just the few miles from the cabin to the Visitors Center Entrance ups the ante on majestic splendor.  I arrive early enough to visit the backcountry ranger at the park to get some advice on a good place to hike.  I tell him I’m on the Toklat bus today.  It’s a six hour round trip drive, taking me as far as the Toklat River ranger station.  Passengers on the bus can tell the  driver they want off at any time anywhere along this route except for Sable Pass, a protected area for Grizzlies.  They can exit the bus and just venture off into the wild.  That concept is mind-boggling to me due to the vastness of this place.  It’s almost like saying just drop me off somewhere in the ocean. 

The backcountry ranger suggests a good hike would be to head south from the Toklat River ranger station and circumnavigate the 5,195 foot high Divide Mountain.  He says that could be possible to complete in about six hours.  It sounds like a plan.

I get on the green school bus for the three hour drive to my stop.  Our driver Cindy is a park ranger, as are all the drivers.  She has a warm and enthusiastic personality.  Cindy tells me she’s been doing this many years.  Her attitude is one of excitement for having a job she loves combined with the confidence knowing her job and the area well.  Cindy gives us some park history as we drive on the bumpy roads and enlists us all to be on the lookout for wildlife.  She’ll stop whenever someone spots something interesting.

Shortly after departure, we spot a coyote stopping for a drink of water along the road. Not too long after that, we see white Dall sheep on a mountain side high above us. Further down the road, we see a herd of about fifty elk. 

Coyote

Dall sheep on the mountain side

A large herd of elk

We stop for a break at Polychrome Pass Overlook, overlooking Polychrome Glacier.  Gorgeous.  The scale of this place is almost beyond comprehension.

Not too much further down the road, we reach the Toklat River stop.  This is where I get off.  It’s raining now.  I’m prepared and put on all of my rain gear.  The backcountry ranger had suggested that the easiest way to navigate is to follow the glacier beds.  The glacier beds look almost like roads created by giant bulldozers.  The glaciers take off the top part of the soil as they move, leaving rock and gravel that has been placed under immense pressure.  Braided rivers move through many of these beds, which can be a mile wide.

I check in with the ranger here at Toklat River.  He warns me there has been wolf activity in the area today.  Vowing to keep on the lookout, I take off southeast, then due south in the glacier bed toward Divide Mountain.

The ranger station at Toklat River

Distances are visually deceiving here due to the scale of everything being so large. I walk a fair distance on this bed of stones of all shapes and sizes.  Progress is steady, but there is a lot of distance to cover.  The rain is increasing in intensity and volume.  It’s also cold and windy.

The view about fifteen minutes into venturing down the glacier bed

Divide Mountain.  The plan is to hike around the mountain counter-clockwise.

The patterns in these rocks have been created by the great pressure of the glacier moving over the earth.

As I walk, I search for a place to cross the river running through the glacier bed between me and Divide Mountain.  I soon discover that it’s not “a” river.  It is multiple braided streams of the river like the ones I saw from Polychrome Overlook.  When I finally find a place to cross one stream, I find that it just puts me between another two streams with no ready place to cross.  This is also a place with visual challenges.  Because the distance to the edge of the glacier bed is so far, I can’t see how many more streams there are and thus plan a course to cross them.

The Toklat River, which is actually one of many strands of the river.

After an hour or so of attempted crossings, I come to some conclusions.  First, I can’t take the chance of walking through the streams.  I can’t tell the exact depth and can’t risk getting water inside my boots.  It’s too cold.  It could lead to hypothermia.  Secondly, I’ve already broken a cardinal rule of hiking:  never hike alone.  If I get hurt or hypothermic, I’m out of luck.  Finally, I know that the number one cause of death in the wild is falls.  The second most frequent cause is drowning.  By attempting to cross these rivers, I could fall and end up in the water.  That sounds like upping my risk too much.  I finally decide that I’m not in a position to attempt the same hike I had planned.  I make an adjustment to continue hiking on the west side of the river towards an unnamed mountain in front of me, then backtrack to the ranger station.

The going is tough on the rocks, but it is amazing being here.  I observe and learn some things.  Even without seeing them, I can tell something about the width and depth of the streams by the pitch of the rushing water.  The lower the pitch, the greater the volume of water; the higher the pitch, the shallower and likely narrower the stream.  As I’m walking and thinking about this, I see three moose cows walking in a single file line in the same direction as me on the other side of the braided streams.  It’s just the four of us out for a walk for a while.  They disappear around a bend up ahead.

I reach the unnamed mountain I’ve been headed for.  I decide to climb up it for a ways.  I leave the glacier bed and start walking through the tundra.  What a difference.  The tundra is spongy and springy, like walking on giant blocks of foam rubber.  It’s tough going in its own way.  It takes a great deal of energy to navigate as one foot sinks low in the softness of it while trying to plant the other foot in the next step.  It’s a bit like walking on a trampoline without bouncing. I hike this way for a while, but I know my energy levels are dropping.  I have just as far to go back as I’ve come.  It’s time to turn around and began my return hike. 

I had hoped to take many more pictures here, but it’s raining so hard that it would surely damage my camera.  As I hike back, I began to have my fill of walking on the rocks of the glacier bed.  It’s tough on my feet.  I decide to climb up a four foot high ridge just to the west of me to see if there are better conditions there.  It’s tundra on top, which as mentioned is a different type of challenge.  However, I see a very narrow trail up here.  It’s a well-worn dirt path only a few inches wide surely made by animals that walk in a pattern of one paw in front of the other.  I have my suspicion of which animal, but don’t have confirmation of it for another fifty meters.  It’s there that I come upon wolf scat, or feces, alongside the trail with a three inch length of small animal bone sticking out of it. 

I calculate my risk.  I now know it’s a wolf trail.  I've already been warned that they are about and active.  However, my line of sight is visible for at least two hundred more meters before the trail disappears back into the glacier bed.  Even just two hundred meters of solid ground underfoot in this cold, wind, and rain would be incredibly welcome right now.  I decide to continue on the wolf trail.

The last forty-five minutes of the hike is all on the glacier bed rocks.  The thought of tearing open the pack of peanut M&M’s in my pack when I reach the end helps keep me going.  Sometimes just a little thing like that is a great motivator.  I’m certainly hungry enough.  I decided not to eat on the trail so as not to attract any unwelcome visitors.  The heavy rain would have also made it extremely difficult.

The Toklat River ranger station is a welcome sight.  Upon arrival, I go into a Porta-John for a dry place to eat a pack of Tuna and those wonderful peanut M&M’s.  It’s been several hours since I’ve eaten.  They taste especially good, even in a Porta-John.

When returning from the trail, one can catch any bus they see.  I’m delighted that the bus I catch is being driven by Cindy, the driver who brought me out this morning.  She is returning from the much further destination of Wonder Lake.  I climb aboard for the trip back to the main entrance.

The people on the bus are a mix of sightseers, hikers, and backpackers.  One of the hikers, a guy in his early twenties from somewhere in Europe, is soaked.  His outdoor clothes are obviously not made for these conditions.  They are dripping wet.  He is pale, shaking, and his lips are slightly blue.  Some experienced outdoors people might have a level of disdain for someone who’s gotten themself in this state.  They know the respect and education needed here so that you don’t die.  They don’t have much tolerance for those who don’t.  That’s not our ranger/driver Cindy.  She is full of compassion.  She has him get his wet coat off, takes off her coat and puts it on him.  We round up some food from people within the bus to get some calories in him and give him some water.  It will be a while before we know more about his condition, but the right first steps have been taken.

It’s late in the evening, but there is still plenty of daylight even though there are dark clouds in the sky and fog.  It won’t be dark here until after 10:30 p.m.  We see more elk along the way.  As we come to Sable Pass, our driver makes a sudden stop.  Up on the ridge to our left are three Grizzly bears foraging for food.  These are the first Grizzlies I’ve ever seen in the wild.  It’s moving and exhilarating.  It’s a sow and two cubs.  The sow has the lighter color fur.  We spend time here just enjoying this special moment with these amazing creatures.

The rest of the drive is pretty and also quiet.  Many like me are exhausted.  For me at least, I’m tired in a good way.  The drive ends perfectly as we see a bull moose feeding near the road.  We stop and watch until he wanders into the woods.  A little farther is a moose cow.  What a day.

Alaska Day 1: Anchorage

It’s departure day for Alaska!  This trip started with the show in St. Paul on Saturday, and then continued with visiting with family in Carver, MN and Waconia, MN on Sunday.  It’s now Monday and time to head for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. After so many days of research, planning, and consideration of all of the options in Alaska, the plan is set and the day finally here.  I’m completing the journey of seeing all fifty states, and doing it with one of the most exciting states of all.  I am eager to say the least.  

My 11:50 a.m. flight is a long one at six hours, but it worth it as the water and the acres of tall pines rolling from the water’s edge come into view during the descent.  Once on the ground at about 6:00 p.m., I have an amusing incident (amusing later, not at the time) at the rental car counter.  I get in the express line while others are lined up in the non-express line.  The one attendant working asks if I have an express card with me.  I tell him no, but that I have the number and it’s on my reservation.  He says that I have to get in the other line, adding in all seriousness that since I don’t have a card, I might not be telling the truth about being an express member!  He was a bit sheepish about it when it was finally my turn.  No harm done, except to my possible reputation among the other car renters!

Approaching Anchorage

I’m now on the road exploring Anchorage before heading north to tonight’s destination.  I stop by the Fred Meyer grocery store to stock up on food supplies for my hiking ventures.   I then grab a tasty bacon burger and onion rings at a Fodor’s recommended diner called Arctic Roadrunner.  Every condiment here packs a little heat, from the pickles to the variety of salsas.

The Arctic Roadrunner

Now it’s time to hit the road for Denali National Park.  Much research has gone into this part of the trip, in part because it is very different from any other national park that I know.  For instance, one can’t just drive into the park.  You can drive up to it, but you must make a reservation on a park bus to take you into the road accessible areas of the park’s six million acres.  Another unusual characteristic is that the park only has one marked hiking trail.  For the entire rest of the park, you’re on your own. 

I take Alaska State Route 1 north to Wasilla, AK, home of Sarah Palin.  I have to stop by the Wasilla Target for another supply item or two.  The thought does go through my head as I scan faces in the store that it’s not impossible that Ms. Palin or other Palin family members might be doing some shopping as well.  We don’t run into each other at Target.

From Wasilla, I turn onto Alaska State Route 3 north.  It will take me all the way to Denali.  It’s an interesting drive.  The feeling of entering one remote area that leads to another area that feels even more remote is giving me exactly the feeling I was hoping for.  It’s a sense of excitement, of discovery, of seeing something very special that few people get to see, the satisfaction of the extra work and commitment given to gain the privilege of seeing this. 

About halfway between Wasilla and Denali, I take a quick break at a country convenience store.  There are photographs on the wall of bears in the area.  They only stoke my wildlife fever.  There are two animals I am on a mission to see in the wild in Alaska: Grizzly Bears and Moose, two of the biggest, most majestic animals in North America.

I reach Denali River Cabins.  Sunset was just after 10:00 p.m.  It’s nearly midnight and there is still some twilight.  The sound of the Nenana River is one of power and one of calm all at the same time.  The cedar log cabin is perfect – small and simple with just what I need.  I’m almost too excited to get to sleep, but I better.  It’s a big day tomorrow with my first hike into Denali National Park.