On to Denali...

Woke up this mornin’, Denali on my mind……got moving about 8:00 a.m., heading down route 3 (George Parks Highway).  GPS says 118 miles to Denali.  Got about 10 miles down the road, and started hitting construction.  Large sections of torn up highway, gravelled and wetted down, construction equipment everywhere.  Alaska only has 3 months to repair all the winter damage, and they do it right!  Took us over an hour to cover 33 miles.

Grizzly Bear CG is about six or seven miles south of the little town of  Cantwell, alongside the Nenana River.  The kids are staying at Creekside Cabins which is another six miles down Parks Highway.  We arrived about 11:30 a.m., and called Lisa’s cell phone. They were North of Anchorage…didn’t hear anything by 1:30, called again.  They had taken a wrong turn on Glenn Highway and travelled quite a distance before realizing their mistake.

Called Lisa’s cell phone about 5:00, no answer.  Thought maybe they had gotten to Creekside, tired, turned off phone, took a nap.  About 15 minutes later they pulled up front of the MH.  Their cell phone is on Verizon, and they apparently have no coverage up this way. 

Everyone was tired and hungry, so we went out in search of some place to eat.  Not so easy!  We drove all the way up to Healy, bypassing all the “joints”,  and finally had to settle for quite a nondescript place along the highway.  The place was smoky, crowded, and loud, but we ordered anyway.  Big mistake…..food was not good at all, but we ate it anyway and complained amongst ourselves.  Spoiled Americanos!

Yesterday, we got out early, went up to the Denali visitor’s center.  Quite an impressive place, looks fairly new, and the employees all friendly and helpful.  Watched a movie about the Park, which gives an overview of what it’s all about.

Decided to take a 2–1/2 mile hike over to the Park dog kennels, where they breed all of the Huskies, that the Park Service use to patrol the Park in winter.  After hiking up hill and dale for quite some time, we came to a cross road.  No sign for Kennel, stopped a ranger in a pickup, asked how much farther….he said 12 miles.  Luckily, I knew he was kidding, but I started to get in the back of his truck anyway. 

We ended up spending almost the whole day around the kennels, petting the dogs, talking to the young lady rangers.  They take care of the dogs, give demonstrations with the sleds, and also patrol the Park during the wintertime.  On the patrols they can be gone for up to a week, staying in cabins that are placed around the Park.  They keep  trails open that are used by winter cross country skiers, and the concessenaires who use dog sleds to transport supplies for the Mount McKinley climbers.  Of course their primary purpose is to make sure that there is no illegal hunting or other trespassing in the Park.

It sounds like a really tough job to me.  Each evening they need 15 gallons of water for the 30 dogs that they use on patrol, needing to melt snow for this purpose.  For each 5 gallons of snow, they only get 1/2 gallon of water, quite a time consuming chore.  In the morning they feed the dogs, then melt more snow to water them.

The dog sled demo was pretty impressive.  They use a sled that has 3 wheels mounted on the runners to help on the dry surface of the course.  The dogs can sense (they’re still in the kennel) that the ranger giving the talk is leading up to a run, and they begin to howl.  This builds up until the helpers lead them up to the traces, hook them up.  They lunge against the harness like they can’t wait to get started.  As they “Musher” releases the brake, they take off at top speed (15 mph), and race around the course.  Of course in heavy snow, their speed is more like 3–5 mph.

We had lunch at Morino’s Grill ,which is right next door to the Visitor Center.  We had sandwiches that were just great.  I was shocked and dismayed!

Today we are going back to the Park.  Lisa and Wayne are taking a 7 mile hike that gains 1700 feet of altitude.  Shelby and I, Linda and Chase are going to do about 2 miles, then turnaround.  This is necessary for we don’t want to wear out Chase’s little short legs…LOL.   I want to visit the bookstore, then drive up to Healy to check out Otto Lake for kayak possibilities.  Lisa wants to rent canoes if they have them.

Today is Sunday July 31st, about 4:00 p.m.  We had breakfast with the kids, and they left for Anchorage about 11:00.  Sure do hate to see them go, was getting used to having them around.  Chase was bummed out, he didn’t want to leave.  I gave him my gold panning vial which had my one precious little fleck of gold in it.  He thought that was pretty neat….

We got up at 4:00 a.m. yesterday to catch the bus (6:00 a.m.) that would take us on our tour of Denali National Park.  You can only drive about 15 miles in to the park, and if you want to go further, you must take one of the numerous busses that are allowed to go in.  The weather was not cooperating, rainy and cold.  Not a good day for taking pictures, our driver/naturalist Kevin passed out paper towels for keeping the windows clean, but it didn’t matter for the animals were hiding away, trying to keep warm and dry.  A couple of hours into the trip, the rain kind of slackened, and we began to see some bear and elk, at a distance, certainly not close enough for photographs.  Just before we reached the Lodge at Kantantista, (82 miles and six hours later) a large caribou appeared right alongside the bus, and everyone rushed to that side, opened windows, and clicked away, recording that animal forever.  The bou cooperated, even turning around on cue, showing his good side……

We were supposed to be able to go gold panning in the river, or attend a nature talk by one of the Athabascan Tribe members (the Tribe owns the Lodge and surrounding land).  The rain came down in earnest, so everyone went to the owl presentation.  The speaker and her helper were holding two owls that had been taken in after road injuries (automobiles), injuries so severe that they cannot be released back into their habitat.  Pretty interesting…learned how they hunt, nest, etc.  We were served lunch which consisted of soup and a turkey sandwich, then released to go visit the gift shop.  All businesses in Alaska have gift shops….even a pizzeria will have some t-shirts or hats for sale.  I bought a baseball hat in the Yukon for $15.95, then when we went to the Walmart in Fairbanks, saw the same hat for $4.99….woe is me!

I have to describe the Denali Park Road….after you leave the Park Headquarters area, the pavement ends, and it becomes a gravel road.  The upkeep for gravel has to be considerably less than asphalt in this climate.  The frost heaves can be repaired much easier, just run a grader over the heave, and it’s fixed.  In most places the road is pretty smooth..they have graders stationed along the way, and they constantly level the gravel.  Where they haven’t graded in awhile, it becomes a washboard, and provides a pretty rough ride.

About 50 miles into the trip, the road becomes (for all practical purposes), one lane.  This is because of the way it is built up and around the sides of the mountains, carved out of what looks like solid rock.  Of course you have the busses coming and going, and when they meet it becomes a pretty dicey situation, when they try to pass….especially since there are no guard rails, and the drop is at least a thousand feet over the side.  It is not good to be sitting next to the window on the return trip.  Denali has not had a fatal bus crash since 1981 when a driver got his rear wheel too close to the side and the bus turned over, throwing several passengers through the windows.