From our
window at the Grande Denali Lodge this morning, we looked down into the Nenana
River Canyon gorge under bright sunshine. In fact, the sun had been shining
since around 3:30AM. We packed our small bags with enough gear for the next two
nights, and left the remaining baggage with the hotel for when we return on
June 6.
After a quick
breakfast, we caught the shuttle down to the National Park Visitor Center to
wait for our bus into the backcountry. While waiting, we took a short walk on a
trail that runs along Riley Creek out to a pedestrian suspension bridge that
crosses the creek.
Then, it was
onto the bus for our 6 hour ride to the Denali Backcountry Lodge. The lodge
sits at the end of the 92 mile ride (most of it on a one lane gravel road) to
Kantishna. Our driver said this road is the furthest west that you can drive in
the continental U.S. I looked at a map, and it looks like that may be the case.
Although there is plenty of Alaska west of where we are, you can only get there
by boat, air, or dogsled.
It’s
impossible (at least, by me) to adequately describe the immense scale of this
place. The closest I’ve seen to something like this is the drive into Saline
Valley (Death Valley), or the Basin and Range section of U.S. Highway 50 in
Nevada. However, the towering peaks of the Alaska Range, the deeply scoured
glacial riverbeds, and miles of rolling tundra are like nothing I’ve seen
before. The road into Denali is tightly regulated, and no private vehicles can
go beyond the first 15 miles without a permit. After that, only authorized
buses can transport tourists by road.
Early on, the
black spruce, alder, aspen and birch forest gives way to vast expanses of
low-lying shrubs such as dwarf birch and some kind of scrubby willow. The
ground is a soft green mushy texture with lots of little ponds (I think they’re
called kettle ponds – a tarn-like glacial remnant) and streams. Our driver,
Earl, told us that the tree line in Alaska is much lower than it is in other
parts of the country. For example, in California the tree line is usually above
10,000 to 11,000 feet. In Alaska, it’s at 2700 feet. This has to do with the
combination of climate and soil nutrients. The permafrost is also a factor.
We hadn’t
seen much wildlife since our first day on the train in Anchorage. Today, we saw
some caribou lounging on a snow patch, a red fox running down the road ahead of
the bus, some Dall sheep sunning themselves on a slope, and a family of grizzly
bears foraging on a riverbank. The caribou and sheep were somewhat within phone
camera range. The fox out-foxed us shutterbugs. The grizzlies (a mother and two
cubs) were a half mile away and way out of range. But really, we did see them.
A little
before 8:00PM, we approached the lodge. Just a few miles before, we stopped at a
spot called ‘Reflection Pond’, which is where Ansel Adams apparently set up
some of his famous shots of Denali (this is according to Earl the driver). We
tried to tap into our Ansel Adams photo skills, but were thwarted by the
afternoon breezes that rippled the reflecting aspects of the pond, and by the
clouds that obscured Mt. Denali.
A quick word
about Earl: great guy, and very knowledgeable of the area. He told us at the
beginning of the ride that he would keep his narration to a minimum and let the
scenery do the talking for him. His narrative restraint lasted less than a
mile. Once he got started, he went into extended stream-of-consciousness
monologues that began with a simple description of the local weather, and ended
somewhere in Florida, where he spent his youth, or in the oil fields of Wyoming
where he worked before coming to Alaska. It was not until about mile 45, when
the P.A. system blew a fuse, that Earl was silenced. He really was a friendly
and gracious host and we’re glad he was our driver.
Riding
together for over 90 miles gave many of us on the bus the chance to get to know
each other. When we got to the lodge, all the staff was outside smiling,
waving, and cheering our arrival. It turns out we’re the first group of the
season to stay at the lodge, and they were anxiously waiting for us. Within
five minutes, we were in the dining hall having dinner with all our new travel
buddies.
There is no
cell service out here, so today’s and tomorrow’s postings may be delayed until
our return to the Nenana River Canyon area.
Next: Guided
hikes for Karen and I
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