DENALI HIGHWAY

Slept in this morning. All we did yesterday was ride 8+ hours in a bus and walk around the Visitor's Center for 45 minutes. WHY are we so exhausted?

ANYWAY, up and out too late for breakfast at The Salmon Bake so we backtrack down to Cantwell where we will head east on the Denali Highway. "Denali Highway"...really?... that is the official name for a 135 mile long road .... of which almost 24 miles is paved. Yup, 110 miles of gravel/dirt/mud road, open maybe 5 months a year, with a suggested top speed of 30 miles an hour - and that only in a few places - is a HIGHWAY ! Here is a third party description from www.dangerousroads.org
 I agree with all of it except where it says, "...no stretches of mud."

"The Denali Highway (Alaska Route 8) is one of most scenic drives in the United States. With a length of 135 mi (217 km), this gravel road leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway, in Alaska, USA. The road was opened in 1957.
The road's design, providing stunning panoramic views, is very curvy and fun for a leisurely ride. Of the 135 miles of the road, the first 21 miles on the eastern end, and first 2 miles on the western end, are paved. The rest of the road is gravel, not dirt, hence there effectively are no stretches of mud but there can be sharp rocks. The road is lightly traveled.
The weather on this zone is harsh and highly unpredictable and it does not take much time for the bright sun shine to change over to moderate to heavy snow fall. The highway is now little used and poorly maintained, and closed to all traffic from October to mid-May each year. Only the easternmost 21.3 miles (34.3 km) and westernmost 2.6 miles (4.2 km) are paved. A sudden drop in the temperature, even in summer, can trigger winter-like conditions.
Check weather forecasts before leaving home, and remember that it becomes cooler and often more prone to storms at higher elevations. The first 21 miles of the road are paved, and the entire 135 miles is two lanes wide. The route quickly climbs from the boreal forest to access the tundra and taiga along the foothills of the mighty Alaska Range. From the Paxson elevation of 2,750 ft., travelers eventually climb to the Maclaren Summit at 4,086 ft., the second highest road pass in Alaska. Many rental car companies will prohibit driving the Denali Highway, but a number of companies do allow travelers to take their cars on this road."

Before tackling it we stopped at JP's Coffee House a place that came highly recommended by locals for its meat pies. I've provided a link but the "Menu" tab is completely incomplete. They make whatever they feel like on any given day and put it on their white board.

Please note - a very popular spot on THE major North South highway in the state - in spite of the neon "OPEN" sign, there are NO POWER LINES. Propane for heat and cooking, generator for electric. Same for their house next door. People do have a different concept of "civilized living" up here.

That doesn't stop them from eating well though. Again I say, "Pictures don't do it justice." Fresh scrumptious fried dough, eggs, potatoes, bacon, ham, and goat cheese. Made to order and well worth the wait.

Now it's time to tackle the Denali Highway. We had been told to bring two spare tires. Fortunately Kris, like almost every Alaskan, has a set of four studded tires on wheels so it was easy to toss one of those into the back of the truck.

Miles and miles of ........miles and miles.

Those are snow covered mountains WAY off in the distance. But the near scenery is almost treeless tundra. It looks like beautiful grass from the road but a very sort hike off the road shows that it is waist to head high brush which will happily tear you to shreds if you try to make your way through it.
Travel through the tundra other than in winter defines the phrase "bushwhacking". Which is probably why most travel is on snow with dogs and sleds or snow machines (known as snow mobiles in the lower 48)

Not much wildlife viewing. A bird with long beak and long legs like a sandpiper. I'm pretty sure it wasn't but the tundra is very swampy and any low place becomes a pond so it would be at home here. In the summer.

And trumpeter swans.

About 90 miles in we descended from the high tundra to MacLaren River.

The MacLaren River Lodge has been here since the mid-1950's and the current owners, Susie and Alan Echols took over in 2003 after many years of living in the area. Wonderful hosts, builders and chefs.

Here is the view as we came down the hill to the Lodge.  The river is in the background. To the right is a small lake. Just to the left of center is our log cabin.

View from the porch

We got to talk with the owners while they took a break from the kitchen. They have three dogs that have the run of the place. Finn made friends with all three but Carol only got pictures of two.

We took a short hike to the top of the hill for these views

Finn is enjoying our trip too

Nice hike, big appetite. Question: "What kind of food can we expect when the nearest grocery store is 100 miles away. "  Answer: "Fantastic". Real home cooking with a flair.

Burger with mushrooms, bacon and blue cheese. And a side of fresh cut fries.

But the real stars were the pies. Fresh Rhubarb and strawberry a la mode.

I asked about "fresh" so early in their season. Seems 20+ hours of daylight makes things grow really fast.

Not fresh, but wonderful mixed berry. 

Not fresh or local but equally delicious french apple.

And they make the ice cream on the premises.

Next morning.


Tourists not like me required that the helicopter slinging loads wait until 7am to start. I checked, pilot was not a Whirly-Girl.  A perfect use for a chopper - less than 60 miles to site but no roads of any kind.

Back to the main lodge for breakfast. Eggs, toast from fresh home baked bread and caribou sausage.

The 5 Musketeers.

Headed on to civilization. But as soon as we reach the paved road we are reminded that we are in Alaska.

Don't know where his Mama is, but he's too young to be on the road by himself.

Next stop, McCarthy.

A DAY IN DENALI NATIONAL PARK

Our cabins provided a free shuttle to the Denali Bus Depot so we got up and out early to get our tickets for the shuttle bus trip to Eielson Visitor Center.  There are two bus services. The Tour Buses go to a particular location inside the park, turn around and return. They are hosted by a Park Ranger. The Shuttle Bus follows the same road - there is only one - but stops and drops off or picks up people anywhere along the route. We took the Shuttle thinking that we would get off and hike. We didn't.

Our bus

Ready to go.

We had been told that the Park rangers on the Tour buses were excellent but if we got lucky, our Shuttle bus driver would be very good too. We got lucky. Tina had been driving the buses for several years and not only knew HOW to spot animals but knew WHERE to look. Like at a small den of foxes WAY off on a hillside.

Caribou were a little easier to spot. Early in the season so he's still in velvet but still impressive.

A little farther along Tina points out a Mama Grizzly with two yearlings or maybe two year olds. One Mama's boy - or girl - and one adventurer who will not be seen near Mama.

Again, WAY off across the valley but with Tina's good eye and Carol's great picture taking, here are some good pictures of them.

Beautiful views of the mountains from the Visitor's Center. Denali is in the clouds. So we're in the 60% who did not see it. BUT many days visitors sit through an 8 hour round trip bus drive in rain and 50 feet visibility. We had blue skies - except for the clouds over Denali - warm temperatures and unlimited visibility.


Eielson Visitor's Center - These moose were fighting and got their antlers locked. They could not get free and died together.

"The Seasons of Denali" -  a quilt by a local artist.

The Shuttle system allowed us to stay as long as we wanted at the Visitor's Center but we decided to return with Tina because we didn't think we'd be lucky enough to get another driver as good as she was.

Good choice. The three bears were still in the same area EXCEPT closer.

Mama

Mama and cub

Mama

Cub

Park etiquette, which Tina enforced vigorously, is for complete silence when animals are near the bus. They do not associate the buses with people so do not become acclimated to us. They really did walk right alongside the bus while ignoring it completely so I guess the park system does work.

Another bit of park Alaskan "wildlife"  -  ground squirrel. Not exactly a rare sighting. Tina says her training as a park bus driver included instructions to never brake severely or swerve to avoid a squirrel.

We saw so many Caribou that Tina didn't stop for us to see them. But a large group, with several newborn calves was worthy of our attention.

Glacier fed rivers are usually "braided" rivers which means the gravel and silt swept downstream is so thick that the river is a wide bed of gravel with water changing paths almost daily.

Traditionally, the "BIG FIVE" to see in Denali were Caribou, Grizzly, Moose, Wolves and Dall Sheep. We were told not to expect to see wolves. The number has been reduced from 350 to less than 175 over the past few years. Roaming over 6 million acres. Not good odds.

We thought, "Two out of five isn't bad," especially since we'd had the moose experience up close and personal in Kris' back yard.  And we were pretty sure we'd see Dall Sheep on out next excursion to Seward.

Tina did point out three Dall early on the trip but they were "those little white dots on that far slope." Too far for pictures. Our binoculars just made them slightly smaller white spots.

But as we were about to leave the park, this poor straggly fellow showed up on the side of the road. I hope he has a better spring and summer than his winter obviously was.

We missed the "on the hour" free shuttle by about 5 minutes. So I called The Crow's Nest and they sent a van to get us. It started sprinkling while we waited. We all had our rain jackets and hats, which we hadn't used yet, to keep us dry for the few minutes to took for the van to take us back to our cabin in the hill.

ANOTHER incredible day in the 49th.