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Denali National Park

As I said in my introductory blog on ALASKA, I didn't do a lot of planning. Instead I took my "coup d'envoie" from the following paragraph.

September is also a prime time to visit Alaska. Fall comes early to Alaska and many of the deciduous trees are blazing yellow and red by Labor Day. Combine the bright yellow colors of the aspen and willow trees with the blazing red tundra plants and you have the best fall colors experience Alaska has to offer. You will see why Polychrome Pass in Denali National Park earns it name! As a backdrop, the tallest mountains will have fresh snow on their peaks while the lower elevations are still dry. Wildlife search opportunities also improve in late season, as the larger mammals begin feeding in the lower elevations in an attempt to pack on as much winter weight as possible. Weather is characterized by large temperature swings between warm days and chilly nights. In fact, it gets dark enough in the Interior of Alaska to see the Northern Lights!

http://fairbanks-alaska.com/september-fairbanks.htm


So it became that simple . My first major destination was Polychrome Pass in Denali National Park.

Located 123 km south of Fairbanks, it was with great anticipation that I directed my trip to this renowned park. It is of immense size covering an area of over 24,000 sq. kilometers and is renowned for Mt. McKinley and Polychrome Pass.

Mt. McKinley or Mt.Denali, "the High One" in the Athabascan language, is the highest mountain in the Alaska Range and is also the highest mountain in North American.

Only Cerro Aconcagua located in Argentina near the city of Mendoza (see: Argentina: Blog 23) is higher at 22,841 ft.

The entry point to the park is near the hamlet of Nenema Canyon which, unlike the park, is very underwhelming. It is simply a collection of hotels on the west side of the highway with supporting strip malls on the opposite side. (photos of Nenema Canyon are in the next blog)

Many businesses were already closed at this time of year so I ate exclusively at Subway during my 2 and a half day stay at Nenema Canyon . This Subway was open 24 hours and even served breakfast.

The park remains largely wild and unspoiled and access is by one road only. It can be driven a distance of 25 miles to the Savage River control station.

Car entry beyond Savage River can be gained with a permit for two campgrounds located deeper into the park or with wilderness camping permits.

A third option is to take a glorified school bus for which a ticket must be obtained in advance to any point along the way. The gravel road ends at Kantishna, mile 89.

As I said, my aim was to see Mt. McKinley and Polychrome Pass.

I did this in three stages.

Stage One

I arrived late Sept. 11 (Monday) evening.

My first priority was to buy a bus tickets for the next day to get deeper into the park . Fortunately the bus ticket office located near the entrance to the park was open till 20:00.

My next priority was to see even at dusk if I could spot the elusive Mt. McKinley which apparently is only visible about 20% of the time.

So with Portraits by Vangelis as my background music I was off to explore this renowned park on the only road leading into the park.

Driving as slowly as I could, I was rewarded by rich scenery all around me. Frequently I was alerted to the presence of game by other gawkers who had stopped to partake of this wonderful experience. More often than not the intended targets were far way from the road and binoculars certainly came in handy.

Then out of nowhere, there it was - immense, majestic and snow capped - Mt. McKinley. It was a feeling of awe that overtook me and even to some extent, emotion. For here before me was North America's highest mountain visible to the twin peaks, albeit with a cloudy background . It did not quite match the impact of my first sighting of Machu Pichu in 2000, which elicited a few tears. Nevertheless, I was not optimistic at the prospect of actually seeing Mt. McKinley.

I felt like I already had money in the bank before the bus ride the next day for no matter what the weather, I had my photos of the mountain.

Stage 2

The six hour bus ride the next day to Toklat River and back proved to be an enhancement to the previous evening's sightings of Mt. Mc Kinley. I was able to see the mountain even clearer but also on three different occasions.

The mountain is after all 70 miles away from the road and a 6,000 ft mountain which is much nearer and which obscures most of Mt. McKinley seems to be just as high because it is much closer. So it is all in the perspective.

Another highlight of the bus ride was the opportunity to go over Polychrome Pass, one of the reasons for my coming to this park .

I must say when I read about Polychrome Pass in the paragraph at the very top of this blog I had my preconceived ideas.

The word polychrome of course means multiple colours. So putting two and two together, the second "two" being the fall season, I envisioned foliage of a multitude of colours rivaling that to be found in Vermont at this time of year.

I was wondering if anything could rival the many beautiful fall colours seen during many fall bicycle tours in Vermont. So the competitors were Smuggler's Notch Pass vs. Polychrome Pass.

Well it turned out to be a non-contest.

There are no leaves (other than on shrubs) on Polychrome Pass. There couldn't be any leaves because we were above the tree line and alpine tundra was the norm. This meant dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, lichen and mosses, all of which take on fall colours and hence the name polychrome .

Don't get me wrong. It may not have matched Smuggler's Notch Pass in a full kaleidoscope of fall colours but it was definitely spectacular in the majesty of the mountains around it and the precariousness of the gravel road leading to Polychrome Pass and beyond.

Our bus driver, who by this time had the whole "shtick" down pretty well, was quite animated and informative concerning the mountains and wild life.

The trip started with "my two eyes are for watching the road", yours are for finding the wild life". Considering the narrow and precarious road that was good advice. In realty she was the one to spot the wildlife in every case. It illustrates that it takes a trained eye because we are not talking about an African safari where the game just about drops into your car. On the contrary, it is usually three white dots up high which are the Dahl sheep or three larger black dots which are a black bear with her two cubs .

She had my attention when she talked about the two wolf (wolf in Spanish is "lobo") packs which inhabited the area and how the river separated their territories. Amazingly the packs only had "mas o menos" seven members in the pack

She also kept hammering away about the "big four" in the park. That turned out to be moose, bear, and caribou and Dahl sheep. "The moose were in the spruce" to quote her and the bear where usually in the higher meadows feeding, the Dahl sheep of course are at the nose bleed levels and the caribou had already moved to their wintering grounds.

It was all very interesting if you like that sort of thing, as I do.

Stage 3

The best part of my day was perhaps still to come. In the evening I drove back to Savage River to see this beautiful sight one more time.

The stage was set with "Portraits" by Vangelis playing on the car stereo system as majestic background music . There were frequent stops for animal sightings signaled by other cars stopping to allow for a better viewing. The beauty of the late evening sun threading through cracks in the clouds and striking the mountain tops to the east was a beautiful sight.

Then after one more turn of the road, there it was.

Nature, the artist, was painting the skies in the most creative brush strokes. Before me lay the peaks of Mt. McKinley topped by the most incredible cloud formations I have ever witnessed. Not only were the cloud formations extremely unusual but the rays of the evening sun were just enough to elicit the most subtle shades of yellows, blues and light browns to create this heavenly scene.

What could I do. I lost control of my index finger and just kept clicking away and turning Vangelis up louder and louder. The scene looked more and more like Zeus having fun in the Alaskan sky just at the moment when I was there .

All in all it was quite a day spent in a tiny bit of this majestic park.

There was still a bit more to be done tomorrow, but I just hoped the next outing wouldn't go to the dogs! Perhaps we will make that part Stage 4.

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