June 7 The day started with the same routine as yesterday- up at 8:00 to start the generator and the coffee perking...dripping. Bacon and french toast was served by the chef extraordinaire (a.k.a. Peggy!). The plan will be to again take the shuttle up to Eielson the furthest point the buses go to find out if we can see all of Mt McKinley, also known as Denali.
The morning was partly cloudy with a chance of showers again and the clouds have been building since we’ve been up. I’m not overly optimistic that Denali’s summit will be seen by us. But, there is always the chance of seeing wildlife which is a big draw for us. The fact that we have seen grizzly bears has made coming to Denali worthwhile. These are the first digital photos of a grizzly I’ve ever taken showing a full view of them.
Since it was overcast during the morning again, Peggy and I decided to catch an afternoon shuttle in hope things would clear up. This gave us morning time for me to edit yesterday’s iPhotos and for Peggy to do some cleaning up and reading.
We then went for a walk around the campground and ended up on the river’s stream bed hiking. We went down stream quite a ways and used my iPhone to shoot some videos and use the panorama photo feature. To me, the panoramic photos had less than acceptable results which I chalk up to user error. The videos of the braided streams of the Teklanika River turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
We ate a light lunch and loaded our backpack for the afternoon shuttle ride up to the Eielson Visitors Center in hopes of seeing Mt McKinley. However, clouds are everywhere with on and off sprinkles.
The shuttle ride up is fairly nondescript. We did see one grizzly in a far off riverbed about 1/2 mile away. There were some Dall Sheep high up on a couple of mountainsides. The closest wildlife we saw were 5 Caribou along the road.
And yes, Denali was covered in clouds. We took our shuttle 35 minutes later back to our campground. We grilled our dinner and then had our last campfire in Denali NP.
Temps here have run in the 50’s-low 60’s for highs, and about 40º for nightly lows. But it is the persistent clouds throughout the summer that makes it nearly impossible to see the summit of McKinley. And it’s like fishing, you should have been here last week. Ya’, right!
Staying at Teklanika Campground has been different. You are sequestered with your vehicle. You can drive into the campground, park, and your vehicle stays put until you are scheduled to leave the campground. Your only other transportation is the shuttle. And, if you go back to the park entrance area you must by another shuttle ticket to get back. As long as you only go from your campground west on the shuttle and back can you reuse your original shuttle ticket. That’s just the way it is here.
And to a point, I can see why no private vehicles can use the Park Road. Farther up the mountains the road is one lane with no guard rails. I could see a distracted driver having his car go off a cliff and plummet 1/2 mile down mostly straight down.
Denali’s wildlife is worth the effort to come. We’ve seen grizzly bears, caribou, moose, fox, and ptarmigan. Of all the hundreds of square miles of park and wilderness preserve, you only see such a very small fraction. The only mild distraction is not seeing Mt. McKinley. Maybe another time!
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