Denali National Park
sept 8 - 10, 2000
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Denali National Park is the size of Massachusettes. It has one road - off limits to cars - that goes halfway in and that's it. You can buy a ticket to take a bus as far up the road as you like; I think it takes six hours to get to the center. To get back out you can flag a bus from anywhere on the road and ride it out but if you miss the last bus you're on your own and nobody's coming to look for you.
I reached the visitors center in the afternoon, bought a bus ticket for the morning, and had lunch at a cafe outside the park, one of very few dining options as there's almost nothing in the area at all.
I drove up the four mile winding rocky dirt road up to the plains of tundra that overlooked this end of the park. A moose wandered the shoulder of the road with its calf. A team of sled dogs pulled a man on an ATV (which is used until there's enough snow for sleds).
And here in the middle of nowhere is Earth Song Lodge, one of the most impressive places I've ever stayed. It's a huge log cabin, a series of small cabins, dog kennels, and some other structures all built by a former park ranger and New Brunswick native. We talked about New Brunswick a bit and I heard a lot of wild stories about park rangering. The cabins are beautiful. They're warm and cozy and incredibly comfortable, more so than most hotels I've stayed in. All the structures are raised slightly above ground so as not to interfere with the delicate ecology of the tundra. All kinds of thumbs up for this place.
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The kennels are full of genuine sled dogs, which the owners breed, raise, and train. I toured the kennels and met the dogs who are really friendly and have thick coats like sheep. Twice a day they howl at feeding time which is mysterious and beautiful. Some day I'll return in the winter for a customized dog sledding tour of the park. You get a day of training, your own dog sled team and sled, and the loan of sub-zero suit and boots and you can stay out as many nights as you want.
Winter was arriving quickly and that night I ate a small diner-like restaurant and fought off a cold with chicken soup, OJ, and tea. It snowed overnight. I woke up at 6:15 in the morning, drove to the park, left the car at the visitors center, and boarded the bus. My ticket would take me to Mile 66, the Eielson Visitor Center, deep inside the park. The bus drove slowly through the snow-frosted park and from its windows I saw red fox, dall sheep, snow hares, and an owl.
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At Mile 29, the Teklanika River, the road was closed because of the snow so I got out and walked two hours further up the road. The most prevalent form of wildlife in Denali Park is nature photographers. There are still photographers as well as film and video camera crews. They travel sometimes alone, and sometimes in large packs, shouldering loads of equipment and trailing photographers assistants. But most of the time I was alone on the road and in fact the most alone I've ever felt as this is the farthest I've probably ever ventured from civilization. From far away I saw moose, caribou, and a bear.
The roads further up must have been cleared as a bus came up behind me so I boarded and took it as far as Mile 53, the Toklat River, which wasn't far from where I'd originally hoped to go. The road took us over a high pass between mountains with a sheer drop just a couple feet from the wheels of the bus and high above a spectacular landscape of snow thawing over red fireweed.
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The driver told us about how a bus recently went over the side killing everyone on board. Kooky bus drivers. We got off in the high mountain pass where golden eagles soared overhead as I trudged about in the snow taking pictures. Eventually we got back on the bus and took it as far as it would go, which was to the Toklat River. There I got out and explored the area for a while before getting on one of the buses to head back to the visitors center.
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The next morning I woke up early again to photograph the sun rise over the mountains and the tundra. The plain was completely silent except for the howling of the dogs.
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I spent that day driving south for a last night in Anchorage with my B&B hosts. That's it for all the interesting bits, I was tapped out of adventurous spirit and my hosts tried to help by taking me to the earthquake museum which was informative and we pretended it was also interesting. That evening I drove to the airport and flew back to New York
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