Denali, round one

Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly Mount McKinley National Park, is about 2 hours from our house in Fairbanks, and we finally made it out there to explore over Memorial Day weekend. The drive is a straight shoot and was gorgeous. Deep, green valleys that extended for miles, crystal clear rivers and streams—some even still bound by ice, and just one little town. Driving in Alaska is always an adventure. For long trips we often take extra gas with us as towns and gas stations are sparse. We also carry emergency supplies and make sure no matter what our destination is, that we have on appropriate hiking boots and clothing just in case. On this drive we saw a few fox, squirrels, and a couple moose.

When we left Fairbanks it was a beautiful sunny day, but we were not quite sure if it would hold in Denali, but it was a risk worth taking. Because of COVID-19, the park is open in a very different capacity. Memorial Day weekend is usually the opening of the park for visitors past mile 15. Typically you can drive to mile 15 within the park but then the rest of the way is by bus. We were able to stay in our vehicle and drive at our own pace all the way to mile 30. The only time guests are allowed to do this is in September when the whole 92 mile road is open to drive to those who win a lottery drawing months earlier. We were really lucky and had to go, even if the cloud cover took away views of the grand mountain. July 1 is the tentative date that the buildings in the park will reopen, but I believe since our trip the road has been closed at mile 15 like usual, but without bus access yet.

While the drive to the park was gorgeous, the park itself was a bit disappointing. I say that fully understanding that a HUGE piece of that was due to the cloud cover. It made for grey skies that weren’t threatening, but at the same time weren’t pleasant. We didn’t’ get to see the mountain at all :(.

In terms of National parks, Denali is not the prettiest I’ve been too (again remember clouds), and it certainly had the most unobtrusive entrance, but I think it is safe to say I will try it out again, likely with visitors. If you weren’t paying attention you would enter the park without even realizing it. I was expecting huge log pergola like at the entrance to Rainier National Park in Washington state, but alas just a wooden sign was all there was to alert your entrance. We decided to drive as far as we could, and then explore some trails on the way back so we just kept going keeping a mental note of all the trailheads along the way.

The landscape of the park was interesting. It was very dry and arid. Not much vegetation or trees, and very rocky. It still looked very dead from winter. Fairbanks “greened up” very quickly a few weeks ago, but it didn’t look like that had happened yet out at Denali. I am sure the park will look very different in the coming weeks.

The first 15 miles has a great number of trails, and a visitor’s center (closed). At some point the road turned into a dirt and gravel road, but I can’t remember when that was. Along the way we would stop and watch the caribou graze and then continue on our way. I was really hoping to see some grizzlies but alas, only caribou for us on that day.

On our way back Fil stopped to look at some more caribou and I told him I was over it. At this point we had seen about 10 groupings of them, so a total of 50-60 animals. Don’t get me wrong, they are fascinating, but when that is all you got, with grey clouds, I just wanted to see any other animal. A squirrel would have done the trick! He told me my privilege was showing.

With the possibility of better weather, we knew the day could have turned into a long one so we brought Poppy with us. She loved it! Once we got to the end of the road and started coming back we stopped at 3 short trails to walk. Poppy loved investigating the piles of moose poop that were everywhere (where were the moose though!) and she especially loved the rushing river! If it wasn’t for me pulling her back she absolutely would have jumped in!

The final trail we walked—I won’t say hiked because it was flat, was actually my favorite part of our trip that day. The walk wasn’t anything special but it was really informative about the early days of the park. You know I love history, so I just ate it up. Along the way there were signposts with pictures from the 1910-1920’s situated so that you could see the same view as the picture. Very little had changed, and that made me feel great. A place in America, where people invaded, and yet it looks the same 100 years later. The trail was a loop around what used to be a camp for visitors with platform tents. The camp has been removed, and nothing is left of its existence aside from the information panels. Since 1922 visitors have been able to come to the camp via train, and you still can. In 1924 there were 64 visitors, while today over 600,000 visit the park annually. The day we went wasn’t busy by an means, but it still seemed like there were a lot of cars coming into the park.

I won’t say Denali is my favorite National Park, but I am looking forward to giving it another chance, on a day with better weather. We have our annual National Park passes so we are good to go, and take you with us.

Back at home, my garden is finally planted. Hopefully not too early, but either way it was getting done. It is still quite cold at night so I was in the habit of taking my plants out during the day for sun, and bringing them in for the evenings. Having a garden like his makes it like having a pet that needs to be taken out and I was over it. I planted everything in large tubs and on cooler days and nights I keep them covered with plastic. I was going to keep my garden small as I learned about Alaskan gardening, but I got hooked and ended up with 10 cherry tomato plants, 3 cucumber, 1 chili pepper, 1 sweet pepper, 12 corn, 1 cabbage, 1 watermelon, 6 broccoli, a ton of brussels sprouts, mint, dill, and 5 potatoes planted in an extra set of tires we had. Now I’m just hoping to get some produce from it all. I’ve got some flowers on the tomatoes, and both pepper plants have peppers growing so we are off to a great start. The state fair has been canceled this year so we won’t be able to see the giant cabbage and pumpkins that people grow up here, but at least we can try to have a little success.

Fil has also started fishing regularly. This past weekend he caught a nice pike! Don’t ask me for details, but comparing it to pictures of other pike he has caught up here it’s the biggest.

Next on the list, Fil is going on a halibut charter like he did last year, and we are doing a salmon run/ camping trip on the Klutina River. Brock starts soccer and gymnastics this week, and I have tried to be more mindful of setting aside some quilting time every week to finish some of these projects that are building up. We have tried a couple local hikes around town, but the weather lately has been less than ideal. With Summer starting it is officially wild fire season too. I swear, if it’s not one thing it is another. Up here we have experienced more weather phenomena, seen more extremes, and live with the weirdest sun cycle. Fairbanks weather is unique to say the least!

For this blog I will leave you with our sun stats: Today, June 2, 2020 our sunrise was at 3:22 am and will set 14 minutes after midnight. I took this picture the other day at 1:00 am. It’s bizarre, but I will take the sun hands down over the endless darkness we had in the winter.