Bill and Kevins Great Alaskan Adventure 2017: Denali- Part I

IN DENALI- PART I

The Tame Adventure

Denali Day One

It’s a little bit rainy and overcast today as we head for Denali up the Parks Highway. We get to see a few glimpses of mountains, but generally not much. We fuel up prior to going in since once we get past the gate, there is no turning around.

We checked into the Ranger Station on the way in to attempt to check off one of Kevin’s Bucket List items, to spend the night in the back country in a tent and wake up to the Mountain filling the door of the tent. The Rangers said it was doable and issued us a backcountry permit for Area 13, which is in a perfect location at Eilson, facing Denali. We had to watch a 30 minute about crossing streams, safe camping, and of course animal encounters. After this, we collected our bear proof food container and bolted for the road.

Our plan is to spend three nights at Teklanika Campground located 29 miles into the Park and now one extra night backcountry camping right in front of the mountain. Denali Park is basically one long road which travels into the heart of the park. You can only drive your vehicle a few miles unless you are camping in one of the parks campgrounds. To see the park you have to buy a bus ticket, which will take you all the way to Wonder Lake Campground. We were a little concerned about our fate here when all we saw coming into the park was an owl, a squirrel, and a Ptarmigan (kind of like a chicken).

We celebrated our first night in Denali with grilled steak and potatoes. You can see the food theme continues.

Denali Day Two/Three

Denali

Up at the crack of dawn, actually before, due to continued jetlag. We are catching the bus at the campground at 7:15 to head out. On the bus we meet Dor, an Israeli tourist who reminded me of what a true lumberjack would look like. We ended up riding all the way to Wonder Lake with Dor and did some hiking to Reflection Point with lunch overlooking Wonder Lake with Denali in the background.

Highlights of the Day:

Weather; incredible. Clear skies around Denali are rare, but today there were times when zero clouds were in the sky and views of the mountain were incredible.
Being chased by caribou. Leaving Wonder Lake we decided to start hiking back to Eilson until a bus came by for us to hitch a ride. Walking along the road Kevin heard a bus coming, turned around , and there was a huge caribou coming up the road being herded by the bus. It finally saw us and then didn’t know which way to go. It finally left the road and we were able to hitch back to Eilson.
Bears. Bears were out. We saw eight bears, 5 on the bus and 3 while hiking at Eilson. We were checking out the area where we were going to camp and heading back up the trail when we stopped to talk with a hiker who was camping that night. She told us that the trail from Eilson had been closed for about 45 minutes while a Mama Bear and two cubs were on it. We slowly went back up the trail, constantly yelling “Hey Bear” and finally spotted them a distance away sliding down a steep gravel slide. By the way, all the photos are of different bears.
New Friends. Besides Dor, we met two other hikers (Maya and Tamir) coming out of Eilson who were also Israeli. They had been backcountry hiking for 6 days. We all caught the same bus out and they were needing a place to camp so that they didn’t have to leave the park today. We had a large campsite with extra space so they ended up camping with us for the night. They set up tent and we all had leftover Moose’s Tooth Pizza and pasta. Maya claimed to be a vegetarian, until she tasted the pizza and then she became a Pizza Hypocrite. We sat up till late discussing philosophy, politics, science, music, God, the south, Israel, and how they can spend so much time on vacation.

Denali from Wonder Lake