Denali National Park

We got the heck out of Anchorage (which, as far as we can tell, is a pretty sketchy town) and drove the 4 hours to Denali National Park. As we passed through scenic Wasila, we couldn't help berating John McCain and his campaign advisors.

We spent 2 relaxing days car-camping at Riley Creek campground in Denali National Park while plotting our attack on the Denali backcountry. On Sept 4th we jumped aboard the 'camper bus' headed towards Wonder Lake - 86 miles down the only road running through Denali. Six hours, 5 bears, and several Dall sheep and caribou later we hopped off the bus, picked up our bags, and set off to find our a place to sleep for the night. We found a gorgeous spot:

View of McKinley (tallest peak in North America) from our tent front door.

Carissa at the cook site (above) and the view of McKinley from the cook site (below).

Rich pumping water for breakfast at Moose Reflection Pond.

Moose Reflection Pond (which according to maps is a little blip without a name) is so called because shortly after this picture was taken we were kicked out of the area by a massive bull moose and his two lady friends. At their closest they were about 50 yards from us. Moose -who can weigh up to 1600 pounds- have a large sense of personal space, and can be particularly aggressive during mating season (when we were in Denali; we think we overheard and witnessed some shenanigans of this sort).

Moose quenching their thirst in Moose Reflection Pond after we skedaddled.

Later on the 5th we rode the camper bus to the Toklat River where we began our 4-day circumnavigation of Cabin Mountain in the Polychrome mountains area of Denali. We were really lucky and had awesome clear weather (except for a brief rainstorm on the 2nd night) although we had some chilly nights that left us with ice on the tent in the morning.

We avoided any encounters with bears perhaps at least in part because we were shouting"hey bear" every few seconds while tramping through thick brush (in an attempt not to surprise/get eaten by a bear; see previous post about Bearanoia). We did have some fun wildlife events: 2 wolves ran through our camp as we were setting up on the 1st night; in the middle of the 2nd night something snorted loudly at us (we laid very still and hoped it would ignore us - it did); and we saw lots of Dall sheep, in particular a 3-some that covered an area it took us 2 hours to cross in about 10 minutes, resulting in a bit of Dall sheep envy.

We also got lots of practice at crossing very cold rivers (36F). Fortunately at this time of year they aren't that deep (nothing over mid-thigh on Carissa). However, crossing 36F river water at 9am in frozen boots feels pretty much the same as walking with a refrigerator on your feet - it took hours to get warm toes back.

Sadly, the backpacking came to an end and we left Denali for Anchorage (and a few final travel vaccinations). Here are some pictures:

We're off to Exit Glacier and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula now!