I just arrived in Anchorage after five awesome days in Denali. After getting my tire fixed, oil changed, and last minute supplies gathered in Fairbanks, I hit the road for Denali and arrived around 5pm. I basically arrived with no plan whatsoever, just flying by the seat of my pants, not knowing what to expect. My only semblance of a plan was to stay a night in the main campground at the gate, since it was too late in the day to head out into the park. Instantly upon arrival I had an obstacle to overcome: campground full. I went to check with the registration attendant anyways, and luck was with me, she had just had a cancellation minutes before my arrival, and I was able to snag the last spot in the campground. Step one, complete.
Next I went to the Backcountry Centre to seek the opinion of a ranger on where I should go in the park. I had thought of setting up a base camp in one of the campgrounds past the gate and doing day hikes from there, but the words "back country passes are free" changed my mind without question. I had all my hiking gear in my truck, anyways. I did the hour long course on back country safety and whatnot, and had my back country pass and bear-proof food canister minutes before the rangers went off duty. The plan was now to spend one night in the Igloo Creek Campground, and then two more in Section 9 of the back country, in the Polychrome Mountains. I went back to my campsite, cooked a much needed dinner, and packed my backpack for the next day.
The next morning I took the last shower I would have for four days, packed my cooler with as much ice as I could to preserve my food during my absence, and headed for the visitor centre to catch my bus. In my haste I nearly left my camera in my truck, which would have been disastrous, but luckily I remembered just before the bus arrived, and I was able to retrieve it.
Denali National Park is very well run. There's one road that leads into the park, and it's closed to public vehicles shortly beyond the park gate. Instead people must take the park campground or tour buses that run along the road and are driven by park staff. It's a great system; you buy one ticket and basically once you're inside the park you can get picked up and dropped off at will in any direction you want to go. I believe Parks Canada should be implementing programs like this in the tourist-bloated Banff and Jasper National Parks. On that bus ride we also happened to spot a Grizzly sow with two cubs!
I arrived in Igloo Campground around 2pm, immediately set up my tent and started hoofing it up Igloo Peak. Parts of it were really steep scrambles along scree slopes, which is always a little nerve racking, looking down a forty five degree slope of loose rock that you could cause to slide if you were sloppy. As I was hiking along the knife ridge, nearing the higher ridge that would lead to the summit, I happened to glance up and see the horned head of a sheep looking at me. Cool, I thought, I'll see a ram up there. I summit the ridge and not only see a ram, but a whole herd of Dall Sheep twenty feet away from me! What a great experience that was, to be that close to them, and not on the side of some highway. They were not habituated to people at all either; they stared at me for a good half an hour out of sheer curiosity, while I snapped pictures of them liberally. I then became engaged in Mexican Standoff with one that was blocking the trail leading to the summit. I wouldn't budge, neither would he. Eventually he recognized and backed off, and I summitted Igloo Peak!
The next day I caught the bus to I Scream Gulch, where I would get off to start my back country trek. On the bus I discovered another positive aspect of the Denali shuttle system: it keeps all the clueless tourists concentrated in one place. Denali is full of tourists from the lower forty-eight states, and a lot of them have never been in or have any clue about the wilderness. A bunch of them were utterly fascinated about my upcoming back country trek, and all the logistics behind it.
I stepped off the bus at I Scream Gulch at noon, and started my descent down a gravel drainage to the Toklat River Valley below. The day was warm and sunny, and I started making good time on the easy footing of the wide, gravel strewn valley. As I got further up the valley, the wind seemed to get more powerful. This was a prelude to my whole stay there; the wind never let up, and was always very strong. About halfway into my walk, I was hiking through some sparse willow groves when I rounded one and was thirty feet away from a male Caribou. Another repeat experience, this one equally as awesome. He watched me for a little while, I snapped photos, he trotted off. I arrived at a large meadow out of sight of the road (one of the rules about where you can camp) and pitched my tent. It was quickly apparent that clean drinking water was going to be a problem: the Toklat river is heavily silted. I didn't have a filter, so I resorted to filtering through a hand cloth, which took a long time. I had a quick nap and break from the howling wind, then hiked up a ridge directly above my camp. From there I saw the solution to my water problem: a small runoff stream coming from a small waterfall on the cliff face, about a kilometer from my camp. As I was looking at this, I happened to look to the right at a bluff above and noticed something grey. I brought up my camera and it's 200mm lens to have a look, sighting on the grey object. It was a wolf! I scrambled to click my camera on and focus on the animal, but it had turned and disappeared over the crest of the hill before I could snap a photo. Shit! I ran up the hill as fast as I could to get a view of it. I reached a high point over where it had been, gasping for breath, but could see nothing. I searched all over the ridge, moving to every vantage point I could find, but still to no avail. I figure it must have had a den up there, and disappeared into it when it saw me. Unfortunate that I couldn't get a photo, but still awesome to catch a view of those rare animals!
That evening I learned of my first mistake of my trip: both packaged dehydrated meals I brought with me were loaded with beans. Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans, and Mesquite Back Country Chilli. Those nights were the only time I was thankful for the wind to air out my tent. It was a good thing I was alone in there.
The next day I woke up and started trekking further up the valley. I passed the campsite of some other trekkers and waved a brief hello. The valley I was in is very wide, about a kilometer, flanked on both sides by high mountains of beige, red, grey and black rock, many of them crumbling into the valley below. About ten kilometers up the valley the river forks and snakes up to it's feeding glaciers. The clouds were hanging around raining on the glaciers themselves, so I didn't try to hike to them. That wasn't really what I was there for anyways, I've seen many glaciers and have many close to home, I was in Denali for the wildlife. I hiked up to a ridge and had some amazing views of the valleys and the glaciers, and happened to see a Hoary Marmot. By that time the incessant wind was starting to get to my, so I retired to my tent and chilled out there for the evening, killing off a book.
Today I awoke early and collected all my gear up for the trek out. I departed camp and the beautiful valley at 9am. The trip back was a little more complicated; the rain at the glaciers had obviously increased the melt a little, and the rivers were higher, forcing me detour on the high bluffs above, across scree slopes and through thick willow groves. Despite these setbacks, I still arrived back at the road in exactly three hours. I waited about half an hour to catch the bus. During this wait, the driver in a bus heading the opposite way was nice enough to throw me a sucker! The bus ride back was uneventful, except for sighting a Falcon in the distance. I arrived at the parking lot, stowed my gear in my truck, grabbed a quick shower, dropped off my bear proof canister, and hit the road for Anchorage. And here I am, back in the same hostel I stayed at when I was here last. I'm going to see about getting my shocks fixed on my truck, and go from there. My birthday is in four days, and I hope to spend it on the coast in Seward.
Next I went to the Backcountry Centre to seek the opinion of a ranger on where I should go in the park. I had thought of setting up a base camp in one of the campgrounds past the gate and doing day hikes from there, but the words "back country passes are free" changed my mind without question. I had all my hiking gear in my truck, anyways. I did the hour long course on back country safety and whatnot, and had my back country pass and bear-proof food canister minutes before the rangers went off duty. The plan was now to spend one night in the Igloo Creek Campground, and then two more in Section 9 of the back country, in the Polychrome Mountains. I went back to my campsite, cooked a much needed dinner, and packed my backpack for the next day.
The next morning I took the last shower I would have for four days, packed my cooler with as much ice as I could to preserve my food during my absence, and headed for the visitor centre to catch my bus. In my haste I nearly left my camera in my truck, which would have been disastrous, but luckily I remembered just before the bus arrived, and I was able to retrieve it.
Denali National Park is very well run. There's one road that leads into the park, and it's closed to public vehicles shortly beyond the park gate. Instead people must take the park campground or tour buses that run along the road and are driven by park staff. It's a great system; you buy one ticket and basically once you're inside the park you can get picked up and dropped off at will in any direction you want to go. I believe Parks Canada should be implementing programs like this in the tourist-bloated Banff and Jasper National Parks. On that bus ride we also happened to spot a Grizzly sow with two cubs!
I arrived in Igloo Campground around 2pm, immediately set up my tent and started hoofing it up Igloo Peak. Parts of it were really steep scrambles along scree slopes, which is always a little nerve racking, looking down a forty five degree slope of loose rock that you could cause to slide if you were sloppy. As I was hiking along the knife ridge, nearing the higher ridge that would lead to the summit, I happened to glance up and see the horned head of a sheep looking at me. Cool, I thought, I'll see a ram up there. I summit the ridge and not only see a ram, but a whole herd of Dall Sheep twenty feet away from me! What a great experience that was, to be that close to them, and not on the side of some highway. They were not habituated to people at all either; they stared at me for a good half an hour out of sheer curiosity, while I snapped pictures of them liberally. I then became engaged in Mexican Standoff with one that was blocking the trail leading to the summit. I wouldn't budge, neither would he. Eventually he recognized and backed off, and I summitted Igloo Peak!
The next day I caught the bus to I Scream Gulch, where I would get off to start my back country trek. On the bus I discovered another positive aspect of the Denali shuttle system: it keeps all the clueless tourists concentrated in one place. Denali is full of tourists from the lower forty-eight states, and a lot of them have never been in or have any clue about the wilderness. A bunch of them were utterly fascinated about my upcoming back country trek, and all the logistics behind it.
I stepped off the bus at I Scream Gulch at noon, and started my descent down a gravel drainage to the Toklat River Valley below. The day was warm and sunny, and I started making good time on the easy footing of the wide, gravel strewn valley. As I got further up the valley, the wind seemed to get more powerful. This was a prelude to my whole stay there; the wind never let up, and was always very strong. About halfway into my walk, I was hiking through some sparse willow groves when I rounded one and was thirty feet away from a male Caribou. Another repeat experience, this one equally as awesome. He watched me for a little while, I snapped photos, he trotted off. I arrived at a large meadow out of sight of the road (one of the rules about where you can camp) and pitched my tent. It was quickly apparent that clean drinking water was going to be a problem: the Toklat river is heavily silted. I didn't have a filter, so I resorted to filtering through a hand cloth, which took a long time. I had a quick nap and break from the howling wind, then hiked up a ridge directly above my camp. From there I saw the solution to my water problem: a small runoff stream coming from a small waterfall on the cliff face, about a kilometer from my camp. As I was looking at this, I happened to look to the right at a bluff above and noticed something grey. I brought up my camera and it's 200mm lens to have a look, sighting on the grey object. It was a wolf! I scrambled to click my camera on and focus on the animal, but it had turned and disappeared over the crest of the hill before I could snap a photo. Shit! I ran up the hill as fast as I could to get a view of it. I reached a high point over where it had been, gasping for breath, but could see nothing. I searched all over the ridge, moving to every vantage point I could find, but still to no avail. I figure it must have had a den up there, and disappeared into it when it saw me. Unfortunate that I couldn't get a photo, but still awesome to catch a view of those rare animals!
That evening I learned of my first mistake of my trip: both packaged dehydrated meals I brought with me were loaded with beans. Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans, and Mesquite Back Country Chilli. Those nights were the only time I was thankful for the wind to air out my tent. It was a good thing I was alone in there.
The next day I woke up and started trekking further up the valley. I passed the campsite of some other trekkers and waved a brief hello. The valley I was in is very wide, about a kilometer, flanked on both sides by high mountains of beige, red, grey and black rock, many of them crumbling into the valley below. About ten kilometers up the valley the river forks and snakes up to it's feeding glaciers. The clouds were hanging around raining on the glaciers themselves, so I didn't try to hike to them. That wasn't really what I was there for anyways, I've seen many glaciers and have many close to home, I was in Denali for the wildlife. I hiked up to a ridge and had some amazing views of the valleys and the glaciers, and happened to see a Hoary Marmot. By that time the incessant wind was starting to get to my, so I retired to my tent and chilled out there for the evening, killing off a book.
Today I awoke early and collected all my gear up for the trek out. I departed camp and the beautiful valley at 9am. The trip back was a little more complicated; the rain at the glaciers had obviously increased the melt a little, and the rivers were higher, forcing me detour on the high bluffs above, across scree slopes and through thick willow groves. Despite these setbacks, I still arrived back at the road in exactly three hours. I waited about half an hour to catch the bus. During this wait, the driver in a bus heading the opposite way was nice enough to throw me a sucker! The bus ride back was uneventful, except for sighting a Falcon in the distance. I arrived at the parking lot, stowed my gear in my truck, grabbed a quick shower, dropped off my bear proof canister, and hit the road for Anchorage. And here I am, back in the same hostel I stayed at when I was here last. I'm going to see about getting my shocks fixed on my truck, and go from there. My birthday is in four days, and I hope to spend it on the coast in Seward.
Very impressive trip Kyle.. you are so adventureous. I would have stayed on the bus ..lol
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