Savage River, Alaska, United StatesDenali NP II - we enjoy the rivers
A Sunny Day in Denali NP
First of all it rained at night again – but when we woke up in the morning there was blue sky and sunshine!!! Yeah!!! Ok so you are in Alaska, that means when you get up it’s barely 8C in the Camper and as soon as the sun hits the camper it slowly goes up to 16C – wow it gets warm!!! And going outside and being in the sun for coffee is amazing!!!!
We then decided it’s time to air out our camper – windows open – carpets out – floor cleaned – litter box cleaned – hot water and outdoor shower for us (wow we are clean again too!!).
It’s breezy at the river
With always on the go – and so few days to relax and to do nothing we decided to make a lazy day – we walked to the river brought our chairs, put our faces in the sun and soaked up some Vit D. Paul was even brave enough to go into the cold water and cross the river… Gine kept her feet clean (as the river is full of silt). We still could feel the fresh cold breeze – guess we are in Alaska.
Our fellow campers
After a nice coffee in the sunshine we “wanted” to go for a walk around the campground and then we got stuck talking with our fellow campers. We learned where others went and what they did, what there plans are and we also were able to check out their RV’s which was kind of interesting as they one of them had a B-class and the other couple a super short A-class. What I also found is super funny, several people told us, that they are driving up to the Arctic ocean Prudhoe Bay – but you can only see the Arctic ocean on a tour – as this is the oil refinery…. Really!!! Why would you go there.
We then enjoyed a wonderful sunny evening outside with a last walk to the river to see the sun setting.
After a cold night
This morning it was cold: we had 5 C inside the camper – good thing the sun is fairly fast in warming up with the help of the furnace. Our neighbor told us, that he checked it was near freezing at the night. We had breakfast in the sun!!! and then went on the road again.
And we see Denali
When camping at the Teklanika rive, you can drive into the park until Mile 29 – and we had now a relaxed drive back on the gravel – with the sun out we had some amazing views. The land here is super open – as we are very close to the tree line – and the trees are far and few so you can see quite far – which is amazing – that makes you realize on how fast this land is. And as we drive along we get the glimpses on the snow-capped mountains. At one time we saw one of those Ranger cabins, they use in the winter when they are checking out the park on the dog sleds. And we had to stop twice because we could actually see the Denali – nearly in the clear only a tiny cloud was around the peak (ok we do have t
o say that the mountain is far away) – but we really could see how it towers over the already high mountains.
Sadly even we drove super slow – we couldn’t see any more animals.
Along the Savage River
Through the checkpoint and we are parking at the Savage River and decided to do a nice sunny walk along the river valley. It’s a bit windy and cool we take the wind jackets – which we had to carry most of the way. It is interesting as near the bridge the river bed is super wide and it is a braided river and as we go into the valley the river becomes a narrow river jumping over the rocks and the valley gets more narrow – beautiful green with some cool rocks – and like nearly everywhere – the beautiful pink flowers. We really enjoyed the walk and the views. It was funny once we came back the parking lot was so full, people were waiting, that we are leaving.
Good bye Denali
Before heading out – we dump at the Riley campground: that is when we heard a “plop” and when checking discovered that two of our jacks were loose – with all the mud on it, it was a bit a challenge to fix it. Time to head north, through the Nenana Canyon – a quick stop at the Moody Creek Bridge which spans the Windy Canyon (and yes we know it is a windy canyon, when we drove over here a few days ago it was super windy). We stopped and looked at the bridge – sadly it is not allowed to walk over the bridge.
2025-05-22