Friday, June11, 2010.

Denali National Park was created as a Dall Sheep preserve in 1917 encompassing 2 million acres. Harper and Karston wanted to stop the extinguishing of the Dall Sheep. In 1970 President Carter had it enlarged to 6 million acres and is now the second largest in the US. South of here is Mount Saint Elias in Alaska which is the largest. We entered from the east side on the one and only road into Denali over Riley Creek. You are only allowed to drive to the visitor center, but from there you need to ride a bus driven by a Park Official. We rode in a school bus renovated with coach seats for 91 miles to the other side of the park. As soon as we were into the park we saw a huge moose just chewing happily on the side of the road, totally unaware of us all taking pictures of him. Then we rode along the Savage River.
Denali National Park has the highest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley has two peaks: northern peak is 19,470' and southern peak is 20,320'. The northern peak has the highest vertical rise of any mountain (17,000'); and then you can add to it the 2000' elevation that it sits upon; which makes it 22,320'. It is named after a Senator from Ohio who supported the gold currency over the silver currency in Congress. The gold miners in Denali liked that and named it after him. When the Fairbanks papers heard of it, they printed it and it stuck. The natives have always called it Denali, meaning "great one" or "high one".
The first 15 miles into the park are on an asphalt road; after that it is dirt and gravel. The original road was built in the 1930s. This road now is called the Parks Road built in 1970. At the very beginning of the park the area is called the taiga- gateway to the Arctic . The permafrost ground is only frozen to 1 foot; whereas the tundra has permafrost that is frozen to 2 feet down. Here in the taiga white spruce and poplar grow because there is less rain on the east side of the mountain. Within 20 minutes we were into the tundra (which is what most of the park is) following the Sanctuary and and Teklanika Rivers, and it is above the tree line. It is either too wet, too dry, not enough soil and/or too much wind for trees to survive here.
In the distance we could see Mount McKinley with clouds around it. The clouds today are called lenticular clouds and it means it is very windy up on the top. We can see snowshoe rabbits in the shrubs on the side of the road. There are bathrooms along the road and they are typical of Alaskan architecture that is sod roof; which insulates the building better. On the side were forget-me-nots flowers growing wild, which is the state flower. The state bug is the dragonfly; and I have seen oodles of them, much smaller than ours in Florida.
In many places the permafrost layers have been shifted and everything attached top it gets shifted; so that the trees look tilted. They call it the "Drunken Forest". It is tipped over at a 40 degree angle. The Teklanika River is an abraded stream with glacial silt flowing on its top. The streams change course constantly due to the silt clogging the original flow pattern. There are no salmon in these rivers because we are on the wrong side of the mountains. So the grizzly bears here do not eat salmon; instead they eat moose calves, roots, grass and Eskimo potatoes which are tubers that are high in protein. They need a lot of protein at this time of year since they have just come our of hibernation. We saw a whole herd of Dall Sheep high up in the mountains as they were grazing. They looked like little white dots. Sometimes we saw elk and moose grazing beside the streams. Check out our pictures.
At the bottom of the glaciers as they melt grass grows from the silt that was under the glacier. The glacier looks aqua-blue and is called the Polychrome Glacier. In 1896 the first white man here was George Wickersham from the Yukon Gold rush. He first went to Eagle River, then the Kahiltna Mountain, then on to climb Denali. At that time there were no roads, only dog sleds or hiking into Denali. There are lots of rivers and streams here and very rough going, so it was not an easy thing to do. He started in early June and by mid July had to stop because he came upon an ice wall that he couldn't get over or around. This is now called Wickershams Wall. The next few men weren't successful either. The northern summit actually looks higher, but it isn't. Harper and Karston tried it in 1930 and again in 1932. In the summertime the summit is -40 degrees and in the winter it is -150 degrees! Each year many people try to climb it and there are usually 3 to 5 deaths a year because of avalanches, unseen crevasses, frostbite, altitude sickness.
As the day progresses the weather is rapidly changing and Mount Denali is hidden in fog and clouds. It is raining a little. We saw a harrier hawk which are common here and golden eagles; the bald eagle doesn't live here. We came across kettle ponds where the glaciers dug out the dirt because it was weak and then filled it with melted glacier water. Up on the side of the road we saw a Grizzly Mama Bear and her two cubs. They were feeding on the hill. Of course the Mama Bear kept her eye on us the whole time. The little cubs didn't care, they played all around her. We sat and watched them for about 20 minutes being sure everyone was able to take a picture. I was able to take several good ones.
We ate lunch at the Kantishna Park and Lodge. They had a buffet set up for us with salads, cold cuts and desserts. The pilots from the Kantishna Air Strip came over to see if any of us would prefer to fly back to the entrance instead of the 6 hour drive back. We would have done it if the sky was clear enough to be able to see Denali, but it wasn't. On the drive back we saw a wolf who was walking in the road just in front of our bus. We followed him for a while then he ran off to chase a snowshoe hare. I'm glad I didn't see him catch it.
At the end of the trip we had not seen any red foxes. They must just be hidden. The bus we were on had in its itinerary to stop when ewe see wildlife; that was the whole point of taking this tour. The other buses just drop you off at different stops, but they don't narrate your tour. You can camp anywhere inside Denali, but you have to hike into Denali, not drive. They don't want us to leave much of a carbon footprint on the animals environment. The few buildings they do have , have been constructed over where the older ones were, and they were built using natural products from the land without depleting the land. One of the centers was built partially underground so from the back all you see is a hill. We probably spent 14 hours on this trip, but it was well worth it. The upgraded seats made the length of the trip bearable.