Denali National Park Entrance. September 5, 2014
(no daily mileage here, total is 180mi/290km)
DAY 1
After getting my backcountry permit from the ranger station and planing out my 3 days in the Denali National Park, I took off. It was 7pm and unlike up on the Dalton Highway, it get's dark much earlier here.
Looks like I was back to riding in the clouds but it's not like I had any other options. As I gained elevation the green and red and yellow colors of the falls were replaced by evergreens, tundra and Czech tourists sitting beside the road, looking for wolves up the hill.
Vehicles are only allowed on the first 15 miles of the park road – and that's as far as the pavement goes. I wonder what those two are saying to each other?
Soon enough it was dark and I had booked a campsite (first time in a campground this year!) another 10mi ahead. I just had to ride in the dark but the good news is that there was no traffic.
DAY 2
As I crossed the Talkeetna river, the road narrowed. The entire 90 miles used to be single-lane dirt road but it was widened part-way. A decision was made to leave it as is for the remainder and preserve its unique, wilderness feel.
There will be 4 passes to climb over today. None were over 4000 feet and compared to the Dalton Highway's brutal hills it truly felt like a walk in the park.
While cooking lunch, I looked up to see a huge grizzly less than 100m down the road. Luckily the wind was blowing against me so he hadn't gotten a sniff of my noodles. I packed up waited for him to move (guess who has “right of way” here!). Here is a shot of him in the bush... my career as wildlife photographer is already over!
A shot at the bottom before heading up Polychrome pass. Denali Park, what a genuinely photogenic place! Even with the clouds.
Oh no… traffic jam on the park road. What could cause this commotion?
Bears of course! I was about 150-200 meters from them and really had no other place to retreat, waiting behind a turn and not knowing if they are heading toward me would be worse. However, once traffic resumed one of the rangers in the van let it loose on me! I don't think anybody has ever yelled at me like that before (except for my foreman during tree-planting: hi Trish!)
None of those were that steep, I managed to keep cool even with my rain gear on.
The valleys to the left were vast and wide. The clouds made them feel endless and unreal. My hands were wet and cold as usual, thanks to my Columbia 'waterproof' gloves - I managed to dry them in Fairbanks when staying with Sarah and Shawn but they got wet again.
It was amazing to see how much the scenery changed from pass to pass. Up highway pass it began snowing as I made my way around snow-kissed mountains.
click for full size
Got a glimpse of the sunset before setting up camp in hopes of finally getting clear skies.
DAY 3
I got up at 5am and peeked out of my tent. Wow. Clouds were gone and Mt. McKinnley stood across the valley.
It wasn't until 8am that the tour buses arrived. The sight of 30 people getting out and starting to take pictures was entertaining. Then they would walk around, check out the visitor center and 20 minutes later move on. Then the next bus would come. The frequency increased as the morning rolled on and I decided to take a break from the commotion by doing a hike nearby.
At the top
The tallest peak in North America from across the valley. 20 000feet of awesome!
The sun was shining, there was no headwind nor major climbs and the road was good. What more could I ask for. This is one of the three shots today that did not involve the mountain.
Reflection pond: as the day rolled on and the sun was high in the sky, it turned into a massive blob of snow. Think Baskin and Robins 3 scoop vanilla ice cream, except on a larger... much larger scale.
After reaching the end, I decided to ride on the way back as opposed to taking one of those green shuttles. I had permit for tonight but tomorrow I would need to cycle 80+ miles over 6 passes out of the park. The road was narrow but all buses made sure to slow down and not throw dust at you.
Day 3 camp, as you can clearly see my tent is almost bigger than Mt. Mckinley.
Today was the day while it's true that bad weather is fun it's important to enjoy the good things in life. To the west there was a “lion king” grade sunset.
To the east, scary moon shining over the mountains.
To the south – Denali (meaning The Tall one in Athabascan)
and to the north… oh this isn't fair!
DAY 4
If you ever want to visit here, I can think of one BIG reason to do it! Although I've been told you may be out of luck and not even get a glimpse of it and I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle or something yesterday from constantly turning to look at Mt. McKinley.
One of the rules for back country camping in Denali is to be out of sight of the road. The reason for that is the buses are full of tourists with binoculars, scouring the landscape for anything. Once they spot it they call the driver to stop and they all pile to the side to look and take pictures.
In this example, you can see everybody jumping over each other to look. One guy is actually winking at me, somebody is smiling, a woman is baring her teeth (window 4). This is truly a fierce environment, welcome to Denali: every man, woman and child for himself!
(worth looking at full-size!)
Here is what they were looking at and it was looking at me! Unfortunately it didn't say anything. One of life's greatest mysteries remains unsolved: "What does the fox say?"
Another day on the job. This trucker was making rounds back and forth, she stopped later to apologize that she passed me too fast even though it wasn't that bad.
The views were spectacular
And apparently I've been telling too many people that I haven't had a flat tire yet. So I finally got one. As usual I keep my repair kit in the bottom of one of the rear panniers.
It really felt like I was somewhere else, two days ago I could not see anything because of the clouds.
That little dot down there is me and this is that endless valley from Day 2
If you are photographer you may be able to get a permit to drive the road, or if you are friends with somebody living there. The only other way is via a yearly lottery. They let 400 Alaska residents drive the road on the weekend before it closes. Or you can just hop on a bike!
(yes those are Crocs!)
I met a man from Germany shooting wildlife footage for a documentary. After I passed them later his daughter was waving at me and I stopped to realize it was a bear! Without people stopping to look at the wildlife I wouldn't have seen as many!
Another shining example of my photography skills, I could have waited for it to leave the bush but I didn't. Just like star wars, I bet every time I take a picture, a professional photographer (yoda-equivalent) somewhere says "Oh...there is a disturbance in the force... something really bad must be happening"
Cresting around a hill a wolf was crossing the road. It looked at me and then ran off. I don't think my English is good enough to describe in more detail, so I won't bother...
After that I ate dinner as the sun set and made my way down to the nearest campground – there was no way I am making it out of the park today.
DAY 5
Not sure about the exact science behind this but tall mountains appear to be bigger and closer, the further away you go. I got another glimpse at Denali before I headed out of the park.
I was glad to descend into fall again, the bright yellow colors and some of the last bits of sunshine I get to see for some days.
I met two hikers from Arizona and Colorado. They were getting ready to spend a week hiking in the park, I too was hoping to do something similar but unfortunately I will need to hurry up if I want to make it to my ferry in Haines in time.
Skipping the remainder of the Dalton, Elliot and Parks highway in favor of riding in Denali National Park: best decision of my life! (right after coming to Alaska!)