Getting out of the Smoke (Saturday, August 1, 2009) While we were anxious to visit Denali National Park, we were more looking forward to getting out of the wildfire smoke that had plagued us the last several days. Departing about 7:30 AM, we began driving south for the first time since leaving home June 25, and the further we drove, the worse the smoke.

We stopped in a small town, Nenana, named after the river that courses on the eastern border of Denali National Park. Nenana is famous for their ice break-up, and the person with the correct date and time wins over $100,000. Of course, Kay applied all of her science and math knowledge, and forked over $2.50 for a guess. The time and date are determined by tipping of a large tripod-looking device in the water, connected to a date and time clock. What will we do with the extra money? Back to the wildfires, Nenana had fires on two sides, and both were closing in. One had jumped the river, so we high-tailed it out of there heading south, and finally got out of the smoke about 75 miles south of Fairbanks. We arrived at the RV park too early, so drove to Denali National Park for a visit to the Visitor Center, and took a short ranger-led hike. Ranger Robb was very, very talkative, and was great for children; let’s leave it at that. We returned to the RV park, set up, and prepared for Day 2. A temperature check at midnight showed 37 degrees!

Day 2 in Denali National Park, AK (Sunday) We should have gone to church today, but both of us forgot it was Sunday. It’s hard to keep up with the days when traveling like this and we usually travel on Sunday! We got a late start, and opted to drive as far as private vehicles are allowed in the park, and hike a short trail at Savage River. On the way, we got our first glimpse of Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. It was awesome, and some 75 miles distant. After several photos from along the road, we finally reached the turn-around at Savage River, and began our hike. Immediately, we spotted a ptarmigan along the river bank. A little further, we saw skim ice in a side channel, a sign that fall has come to Denali National Park; it was reportedly 20 degrees at Eielson Visitor Center and we noticed some trees and shrubs taking on fall colors! We crossed the Savage River at the end of the trail, climbed a few feet for a better view, and began the return hike. We saw several ground squirrels, a bunch of ptarmigan, mew gulls, and another somewhat rare bird.

The afternoon saw us doing some T-shirt and sweatshirt shopping, returning to the motor home to get ready for a dinner theater engagement. Our caravan members attended Cabin Nite”, which included all-you-can-eat salad, ribs, potatoes, corn, beans, biscuits, salmon, berry cobbler, and coffee and tea. The meal was served family-style, and when your table ran out of something, everyone waved their checkered napkins and yelled for the waiter—kind of corny, but OK. The food was good. Following the meal, the servers put on a great show of storytelling and singing. It was our favorite of the three we’ve seen thus far.

Day 3 in Denali National Park, AK (Monday) Several titles of this paragraph came to mind, but the one I kept coming back to was “What A Day for A Daydream”. This was the best day of the trip so far, and it will be difficult for any other day to surpass it—it wasn’t a daydream, but a dream come true! We upgraded our bus trip into Denali National Park to add 19 miles, making a total of 85 miles one way, 5 miles short of the end of the road. We arose early, left the RV park at about 6 AM, and caught the bus at 6:45 AM; about half our caravaners upgraded. There’s only one road into the park; the first 15 miles are paved (to Savage River). Just after departing the “bus stop” at the Wilderness Activities Center, our driver spotted a large bull moose on the passenger side of the bus. The driver cut the engine, and bade everyone to be quiet so as not to disturb the animal. We all moved to the passenger side and took photos. This was a sampling of the whole day. Mount McKinley came into view about 6 miles into the trip, and we saw the “big one” intermittently the rest of the day. (The left peak is the south peak and the tallest at 20,320 feet. The north peak is on the right and a few hundred feet shorter at 19,470 feet.)

As we continued the bus ride, we saw our first grizzly of the day. Then, we saw a wolf on the road in front of us. Our driver said that it was extremely rare to see a wolf during a Denali National Park visit. As we round a corner, Mount McKinley again came into view, and almost took our breath away, literally. It is beyond our ability to describe the scene.

Further along the road, we viewed Polychrome Basin, and again were almost breathless at having seen the widest expanse of landscape and openness, either of us had ever seen.

Our stop at Eielson Visitor Center (mile 66) offered the best view of Mount McKinley for the day, and an opportunity to eat a quick lunch. (We thought of our friend, Joey, and the photo he took of Mount McKinley some 30 years ago on his hiking trip here.) The upgrade took us from the Visitor Center to Wonder Lake (mile 85), where most magazine photos of Mount McKinley are taken. Unfortunately for us, smoke from the wildfires completely obliterated the view of the north side of the mountain. We saw several caribou on the way out, and a grizzly up high, and our best view of a wolf, but were so awed by the morning’s views that all we saw in the afternoon was anticlimactic. Statistically, Mount McKinley is visible only about 20% of the time; we had a great view. We saw the Big Three in Denali animals: bear, moose, and wolves. It is doubtful that this day can ever be replicated, but we’ll keep on trying!

Our Recommendations for Denali National Park, AK We didn’t spend enough time in Denali National Park; none of the RV parks could accommodate our caravan schedule for even an additional day. We disagree on how much bus riding to do. We would buy a 3-day pass and ride the bus all three days; for Kay, one day was enough. We would like to dry camp in the park at Teklanika River Campground (mile 29) for several days (it’s dry camping, no tow cars, and you can only make one trip in with your RV and one trip out)—but you’re on foot or shuttle bus! Both of us would have liked to hike more; however, there are only a few marked trails in Denali National Park—most hiking is done in open country. We both enjoyed the Cabin Nite dinner theater, but probably wouldn’t do it again because of the expense, though we would like to have eaten out at least one time.

Kay’s Take Several of our fellow RVers added a river raft trip on the Nenana River. They did wear wet suits and didn’t paddle/row any. It was supposed to be class 4 rapids, but most said it was calmer than that. They did say the water was really cold! I would probably like that but on a warmer river!! One other couple took a flight-seeing tour of Mount McKinley and said it was fabulous. I wish we had had time to do that; I would have liked to see the mountain and park from the air. I loved the views of Mount McKinley that we saw today. I felt like giving a standing ovation with my first clear sight of Mount McKinley. It’s enormous and magnificent. The animals in this park are magnificent too. I really like how we were the ‘strangers/interlopers’ on this park trip; we couldn’t hang out the bus windows to take pictures; we had to whisper or not talk at all in order not to disturb the animals. It was a major push TO DO NO HARM. Maybe that’s why this park is so natural – it hasn’t been tainted much by mankind. Watching a bull moose munch on brush and stop and look you in the eye, is pretty special. It reminded me of my ‘place’ in the grand scheme of things; and it’s not as high as I like to think. A good humbling experience we all need every once in awhile. Today was a glorious day – cold at the start, clear, blue skies, warming into the afternoon. We had a really good bus driver who spotted animals well. It was a blessing to see the mountain on a clear day. Several people in our group have been to Denali before and they all said this was the best and clearest view they had ever seen. How lucky is that? Only 20% of visitors ever see a clear view of Mount McKinley. Thank you, Lord!! What a glorious day.

Campground Denali RV Park and Motel is a decent park with full hook-ups—30 amp electricity, water, sewer, cable, and wi-fi. We did not use the laundry or the showers. Our site was a back-in site which was OK since we had to unhook the Saturn anyway. As with all the parks recently, dust was a problem, and it seeps in every nook and cranny. The RV park was too far from Denali to be convenient, but there are few good choices. We would dry camp in Denali National Park at either Riley Creek or Teklanika, if given the choice.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 13,602.7
Beginning Time: 7:30 AM Alaska DST
Ending Mileage: 13,742.8
Ending Time: 4:00 PM Alaska

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 140.1
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 4,351.3