Thoughts on Denali
I didn't really know what to expect when I decided to travel to Denali two years ago and I was going to be amazed with what I found. I got my hands on a book that people recommended for day hikes in the tundra, created GPS tracks and crossed my fingers. All my hiking up to that point has taken place in trails: well maintained, social trails, trails marked with rock cairns. I will describe a unique experience from start to end.
On my second day in Denali I knew I wanted to go deep into the park (the first day I left the bus a bit after the Teklanika River stop and hiked in the Sable Mountain area).
I arrived super early to the bus depot and planted my ass at the sign for “Eielson Visitor Center”, didn’t wait for the bus call because that was going to be too late: I wanted to sit as close to the front as possible and to the left of the bus. I was the first person in line, when the actual first call was made there were 20 people behind me.
Got on the bus, left side and seat just behind the bus driver. Turns out the bus driver is from Puerto Rico and recognized my name and engaged me in conversation once he knew I lived quite a few years in Puerto Rico. He was very engaging with the people on the bus, but firm when silence during stop was required.
I used a route from the book and it started going to go up a creek before Stoney Pass and then hike over a large hill east. Based on the one mile per hour rule at Denali, I planned that all I could go is follow the creek in and them come back to the road.
The ride to the first stop (Teklanika River) takes you on the first 15 and only paved miles of the road and moose was the animal to keep an eye for. Parts of that area are heavily forested so finding a moose is not that easy. On another ride a male moose decided to run parallel to the bus for about half a mile, quite a fun experience. At mile 15, the bus stops at the ranger station (Savage River) and the ranger welcomes us to the park. Then the road becomes a well packed dirt road.
The first stop is Teklanika River, get off the bus and make sure you get the bus number, lots of buses can be parked at the same time there. Once you leave the rest area, it was time for bear watching. The area where I consistently saw bears was the area around the Sable Pass Closure area (no hiking allowed in there). Mostly to the left you will see bears at a distance, possibly to the right too, high on the ridge lines. I recommend dispensing with cameras and just using binoculars, the bus will stop for bears and it is more fun seeing a bear for a few minutes than struggling to find an open window (and close it once the bus starts going), focus the long lenses while the bus is idling and make sure you are not blocking the people behind you. Most of the bears I saw were sows and their kids. And these bears are huge.
The next stop was the climb to the scary-as-shit Polychrome Pass. I don’t know why (ok, I know, the magnificent views) they decided to create the road in such a precarious place; there is space for only one bus one way during a 1 mile stretch of the road and even at that it takes skill to drive that narrow road. On a return drive, I was on the right side of the bus, looking at the valley below and I was sweating bullets. This is an area that for people afraid of heights to sit on the right side of the bus (on the way in) or close their eyes.
The reward comes at the top of the pass, where there is a quick ten minute stop where you get magnificent view of the Polychrome glaciers and the fields of Murie (Murie studied the wolves early on the 20th century in that area and came to the conclusion that they were needed in that ecosystem and were not a threat to the health of the caribou population). For me, that is the best view in the park (assuming Denali is not out). A mile after the pass, the road is leveled again with the valley (and that is an opportunity to get off the bus and explore that valley, which I did on another trip).
The next rest stop is at the Toklat River. At that point it was time to tell the bus driver to let me off the bus about 2 miles down the road. Well, at that point the bus driver told me that there was a big surprise, but he could accommodate my request. What was the surprise ? At the top of the hill a mile off the rest stop all buses were stopping and looking at the creek below …… a sow and her two cubs were feeding on a caribou carcass !!! What a view (I wish I had binoculars to see the movement; I did manage to take a blurry pic).
After five minutes, the bus took off again and the driver told me that he could let me off 1 mile off the kill (regulations), which coincided with where I wanted to get off. Suffice to say that someone people gasped when the bus driver stopped the bus to let me out (no one gets off the bus, I consider that a missed opportunity for explore no matter how short the exploring takes).
So, time to explore that dry creek. Once I had all my gear ready I started hiking and taped a funny video about bears down the road when it occurred to me that the smell of the carcass would attract bears from ALL directions; time to yell and have the bear spray at the ready.
I started exploring the area, no trails, just going up that creek. I reached the end and it was way early, I didn’t go that slow so it was time to find somewhere else to go and throw away the GPS (well, while bushwhacking in tall bushes later in the day I lost it). I could not go east (the rest of the path mentioned in the book) since that is where the bears were so I decided to start climbing hills west and see how far I could go before I needed to be picked up by the bus.
Turns out I could go pretty far. I climbed a hill next to that creek, went over it and crossed another creek. I climbed higher since there was a lot of high bushes that I couldn’t navigate. It is amazing that I got to decide where to hike, where to go, how to navigate. All of this within sight of the road (it is hard to go that far from the road anyway where I was hiking). I then reached Little Stony Creek (way past my distance expectation), crossed it and started hiking in the meadows leading towards Thorofare Pass.
And the fun was not over, oh no. That meadow is a place where caribou roam before going south via mountain passes. At that point I was done making noise for bears, the meadows were flat and clear until I noticed a bus parked next to the road coming back from Eielson. One thing that I read, but forgot, from the book that I used to research Denali was that buses coming back will only stop for bears. I thought the bus stopped for caribou …….
I must have been about 300 yards from whatever they were looking at so I used my zoom lenses to take a peek and it was not caribou, but a gigantic blond grizzly bear and her two cubs. Back in alert mode, I started walking towards the road in case I needed to be picked up by that bus in an emergency …………. but I decided to keep going and that reduced the distance to the bears to 200 yards (not smart). I wished I could say that once I got to the bus I got in, but I didn’t. I waved at it and kept hiking on the road, parallel to the bears, who hadn’t noticed my presence since I was downwind from them.
Now I sat my ass down and I was a bit past perpendicular to the bears, still about 200 yards. Another bus stopped by and the driver assumed that I was hiking towards Little Stony Creek and offered to drive me past the bears (I then realized my stupidity of getting too close to them, the bus driver knew the distance was too close to a sow for someone on the road). I pretended I was just resting without telling her that I actually came from there. So I watched the bears until …………. the bear smelled me. At that point I was upwind from the bear and from the zoom lenses I clearly saw her smelling the air and then looking at me. That was my cue to get on the next bus (I let about 6 buses go by before that) and get the heck out of Dodge.
Suffice to say that I love Denali and came back the next year, only to be mock charged by another gigantic grizzly on a range led Discovery Hike :O
Only on Denali. By the way, say hi to blondie.
