September 4: It is a cold rainy day that called for winter jackets, hats and gloves. We drove up the Parks highway, past Denali NP to Healy to get gas and propane. The Cantwell RV owner told us that we would get the best prices in the area. Gas was 30 cents a gallon less here that on the highway.
With everything we needed we returned to Denali. Checked in at the Mercantile Center to get our campsite and bus tickets. Good think we made reservations last January, as the campground was full. Then we were off to the visitor center. Heard a very informative talk about glaciers and visited the two level center. We then boarded a shuttle bus to the sled dog presentation, which included an entertaining talk, seeing the dogs and a demonstration of the dogs pulling a sled. The dogs are used in the park since majority is on accessible by motorized vehicle. This is due to it’s designation as a wilderness area. Dogs haul all the equipment, supplies and people to outlying areas during the winter. Surprised to learn that the dogs are not purebred Huskies, but a “well bread mutts” selective bred for friendless, speed, good bone, good feet, and endurance.
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| Note: dogs being carried by collar. To powerful to control if they have 4 legs on ground |
September 5: This was the big day, we mover to Teklanika Campground at mile 29. You are allowed to drive this far only if you are camping here. Then you park your vehicle until you leave. You must stay a minimum of three nights. You flag down the green shuttle if you want to go anywhere. Got to the campgrounds and found a campsite. We backed up to the river, which is a braded river, so we walked along the gravel bars. Beautiful country but did not see any wildlife, just tracks. I met another camera nut, the place is full of them. This guy was also a birder. He sure has seen a lot more birds than we have. Had a fire as the day warmed up as it went along. We had a Will Carter favorite type dinner, hotdogs and beans in a can over the fire. Somemores for dessert.
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| Wolf track |
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| Mushroom of the day |
September 6: This was the long bus ride to Kantisna. Roundtrip was a little over 10 hours. There are many stops for views, wildlife sightings and bathroom breaks. The weather was gorgeous! Wonderful views of “The Mountain” and it stayed with us all day. Only 31 percent of the visitors get to see the top of the mountain, as it is in clouds most of the time, and there are only a very few days that it is clear all day. We got both. We saw doll sheep, grizzles, a bull moose, wolves, red fox, spruce grouse, some camp robbers, scaups and a golden eagle.
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| "The Mountain" |
The shuttle buses are green school buses. The road is one and half lanes, graveled and well maintained by the park service, but there are no guard rails and very very steep drop offs. There were places where Edna could not always look. At some places it looks like the front end of the bus could not possibly make the turn and you would be going over the side as all you could see is air. When the busses pass, one has to come to a complete stop and the other passes at about 5 MPH.
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| view from our seats |
As we got off the bus at the campground, met a ranger, who told us he was giving a presentation in the camp amphitheater in an hour. We had a quick snack and went to the program on caribou, which was very good and entraining. He’s a musher here in the winter, one of the very few people employed in the park year round.
Edna cooked diner after program, back to our fashionable dinner hour of 10 PM. It was absolutely a wonderful day.
