Camping in Denali State Park - Sept 2011

We were lucky enough to get a camping tag for Wonder Lake in Denali State Park. Wonder Lake is the farthest most point a gravel road can go in the State Park.  So off we went, Beth, her father, Niki and myself.  It was a nice weekend but it turned cold a few days before we left.

 

Inside the museum I am taking my picture with my Alaskan Totem.  A totem is your personal good luck charm. In my great adventures in Alaska, a moose has been a big part of my adventures. I have adopted the moose as my Totem.  Beth has adapted the Bear as her totem.

This is a 55 year old white spruce tree.  I placed a penny on the left side of the tree slice. The trees in Alaska grow quite quickly due to the huge amounts of sunlight and never ending glacier melting waters to feed the trees.

This is bear scat (poop) that can easily be seen in the spring.  Again I placed a penny next to it so you can get an idea how big their scat is.  If you remember we saw fresh bear scat on our canoe trip last weekend.  It was still steamy so we new not to waste time moving along to the lake.  This is the four of us and all our camping gear for our adventure.  We were at the bus stop waiting to take us to Wonder Lake. We took a bus, a very old school bus minus 8 rows of seats, where we put our gear and some placed their bikes in the back of bus as well.  The bus ride took about 5 hours (85 miles into the Park) to get us from the museum to Wonder Lake camp site.

It didn't take long on our bus trip to see some majestic Denali animals.  Denali means the "High One" in Athabascan native language.  It is the largest peak in the 600 mile long Alaskan Range.  The Alaskan State Park was named after president William McKinley who designated it as a National Game Refuge in 1917.

This bull moose was posing for us on a hill top near the bus.  The rack was amazing.

 

The three girls, Niki, Sheryl and Beth ready to take hundreds of spectacular photos and have fun camping.

Shortly after passing the East Ranger Station (about 2 hours into the bus ride) we were next to the river bed and saw these two bears. They were unknown to each other until we had been observing them for about 30 minutes.  This female grizzly was looking for berries and was very unconcerned about us.  Then enter the male grizzly and the female got alarmed.  She stood up and was very focused. Once she discovered a male nearby she got on all fours and ran to the wooded area on the river's edge.

There were plenty of Dall sheep to be seen on the mountain side.  The amazing animals have suction cups on the bottom of their hoof so they stick to the rock on even the steepest angle of the mountain.  This is a horn of an adult sheep.

This artist was on day 3 of her 5 day session.  She was from Oregon and loves the scenery that Denali Park has to offer.  It sprinkled a bit during the day and she just covered the canvas and then resumed her work a few minutes later.  She tries to complete a painting every time she comes to visit the park.

Goodness Gracious look who crossed right in front of the bus!  He was BIG!

Now we know why he was in such a hurry to cross the road.  He was going to have a confrontation with a few fellow bull moose.  This is rutting season for moose. Since these were all bull moose we concluded they were trying to determine who was going to be the "king" of herd when a female entered the area. We were close enough that you could hear the clanging of the horns with each other.

This is the Alaskan State Bird - ptarmigan.  It has a pretty good disguise.  What I think is so funny about the state bird is that it is hunted and eaten.  How many states can claim they eat their State Bird?  One of my students at Airport Heights went on his first hunt with his father when he was 9.  It is traditional for the hunter to give his catch to his "village" as a thank you gift.  His father told me how proud he was of his son but grinned and said, "You can imagine 20 people sharing this bird."  A ptarmigan is not much bigger than a quail.  There are about 160 bird species in the park.

 Our camp site.  Beth called Niki's and my tent, "The Charlie Brown Tent".  I think it looked pretty good. This is before the night rain. It did look a bit worse in the morning but it kept us very dry.

 This was our Bear Food Storage area.  It was a very large, metal closet with lots of shelves.  We took up the top row with all our our goodies.

The evenings have to end with a little refreshment.  This wine comes in a plastic container.  Remember, what you bring in you have to bring back out.   Of course you have eat and drink everything you packed into the campsite otherwise the load will be almost as heavy when you leave.  Now that doesn't make sense. So we ate, drank and had fun to make the backpacks lighter when we left.  Below was our morning breakfast.  yep, that is a roll of TP. We had flushing toilets in the rest area.

This is how you cook in a park that doesn't allow fires.  The jet boil heats up the water which we add to dehydrated package food - chicken and noodles or beans and pasta.  YUM!  I ate my bagels with peanut butter and jelly.  We all ate the Pringles.

Here we are bright-eyed and bushy tail ready to hike and take more pictures.

Denali National Park is 6 million acres and that makes it larger than Massachusetts. 

This is our Wonder Lake Camp Site. Can you find Sheryl among the pretty colors?

This is Denali in her glory.  There are thousands of visitors to the Park every year but only 15% of the visitors get to see all of Denali.  This is my 5th visit and it is the first time I couldn't see the entire Mountain. Mt. McKinley is measured from the 2000 foot lowlands at Wonder Lake and up to the summit at 20,320 feet and a vertical relief of 18,000 feet.  This makes Denali the highest mountain on the North American continent.  What I find amazing is that the mountain is gaining about one millimeter a year!

This was taken at Kodachrome Pass. It was spectacular.

I have been so blessed to have the privilege of living among Alaska's beautiful scenery every day.  Thank you Mother Nature and thank you David.

I felt sorry for this young man because he did not have waterproof boots and he had been hiking all day.  His solution was to wrap his feet in plastic bags.  I think I use to do that with my snow boots.

 This is Wonder Lake's famous reflection pond.  I have a print of Wonder Lake and the reflection pond hanging above my fireplace in Alaska.

Another Totem!

 The gravel road ended just past Wonder Lake.

Dew on the leaves early in the morning.

 We had time to pick blueberries and cranberries.

The early morning sunlight was peaking through to greet us.

 Denali is framed by a humongous caribou rack

 On our way home we stopped at Hurricane Gulch for one last scenic photo.

Thanks for viewing another great adventure in Denali.  I will post my halibut/salmon fishing trip next.  I have a big fish tale to tell you about.

Our weather is wonderful - sunny and about 60 degrees.  Our nights are getting colder which make for great sleeping.  We have just a bit short of 13 hours of sunlight.  We are losing about 5 minutes of sunlight a day. 

I am leaving for Chicago to attend the wedding of my nephew Christopher and his love of his life, Kerry.  It will be a fun family event and I can't wait to see everyone. 

Until next blog

Be thankful, be blessed and be save.

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North