June 17, 2015

Denali National Park.  What a beautiful place!

As we were driving in yesterday we had to go through a checkpoint, as personal vehicles are allowed only so far in to the park.  The ranger was very excited for us when she heard which campground we were staying in.  As we arrived rather late, there were only two sites left to choose from, and one had a park ranger vehicle on it so we took the other.  It is a very nice campground along the river, and is a very popular place to stay.  We had made our reservations back in March, and by then the reservations were filling up.  So plan early - especially if you plan to come in July or August when there are even more tourists in the area.

There are several other campgrounds in the Park.  There is one right at the main entrance, which was also full already, and there are several you are not allowed to take your vehicle to.  Basically you have to plan to tent camp there, packing everything in with you on a Park bus.  

On of our desires was to do some hiking in Alaska.  We have found the distances between destinations along with the scenic stops to eat up quite a bit of time, and have not yet had the chance to do many hikes.  So, the Park was it.  We were going to finally get some hiking in!

As Bob mentioned, we picked up topo maps when first arriving at the park.  These maps have one inch representing about one mile, verses the one inch representing about five miles.  So, after spending some time the evening before planning our first day hike, and packing our backpacks for the trip, we were excited to get up and get started in the morning.

We first caught a bus at the entrance to the campground (which is about an hour into the park already), and took it about an hour to the trailhead of the hike we wanted to take.  Along the way we did manage to see some Dall sheep, and four bears.  One bear was by itself and the other had two year-old cubs with her.  Of course, we saw these bears in the last few  miles of our bus ride.  It felt rather forlorn getting off the bus in the middle of the wilderness, alone, knowing you really are in bear country.  

Our goal on this hike was to climb Sable Mountain.  This rises to about 5900 feet, with the road starting you at about 3200 feet.  Using the topo map, we followed a creek up the valley for quite a ways, then started climbing a ridge which would take us to the top of Sable Mountain.  The hike we were attempting actually is rather popular, and we were able to follow a trail for most of the hike.  We were sure from the prints we occasionally saw that these trails are shared by animals as well as humans.  

For the time we were walking along the creek bed, there was quite a bit of brush around us, so we did the bear call rather frequently.  As we got further and further up the valley, the trees thinned out around the creek, and as we climbed away from the creek were found ourselves on soft, spongy tundra.  The views changed constantly and were each equally stunning.  The wild flowers we had heard so much about before our trip were everywhere!   Some were the same as we have seen along the roads, others were new and different to us. We started taking pictures of some, but as time went on there were just too many to keep stopping for.  As most would expect the flowers on the tundra were extremely tiny, and were just beautiful!

Well, at around 4900 feet up I started feeling a bit dizzy.  This was a new feeling for me to experience while hiking.  We had been going up a fairly steep ridge, which narrowed to about three or four feet wide in places.  As we looked down to find where to step next, we would see the mountain drop right down on both sides of us.  While never feeling afraid, as it was not really a cliff, I figured the drop off in view as I was looking down was causing the dizziness.  We had to stop frequently to catch our breath, and during these brief stops the vertigo would calm down, so I climbed on.  We went this way for another hundred feet or so, when I finally had to tell Bob I felt I should not go on farther.  He went on up to a rise we were just below and took some pictures of the view we did reach, however we were still about 900 feet from the top.  

As we were descending Bob said he had been hearing voices, and sure enough we were able to see two other hikers coming up the creek bed below us.  By the time we got down, we happened to cross paths and they said there was a better ridge just a bit further up the creek we should have taken.  By this time, we were concerned that we get back to the road in time to catch a bus, and truthfully did not think we had it in us to do another climb like that just then.  So, upon reaching some shade, we stopped for lunch and a rest, then made our way back to the road.

Just two brief side thoughts here:  One: It is very hard to get lost here.  The hikes most people do overlook the road and are mostly tundra.  The White Mountains, where we do most of our hiking, are heavily wooded and it is very easy to get lost.  Secondly: the weather has been very warm.  Warmer than we anticipated for this time of year.  The rest time in the shade was great, and packing layers of clothing was the smart thing to do.  

Once back on the road we started walking toward our campground as we were not sure when the next bus would come, and hey, maybe those bears would still be along the road!  I don't know whether to feel relief or disappointment in the fact that we walked two whole miles along the road and did not see any bears. Finally a bus came along with two seats left and we hitched a ride back to our campground.

In later discussing the hike with a Park ranger, he said the people attempting to climb Mt. McKinley define a hike successful if they come down alive, regardless of whether they reach the top or not.  So I guess you could say we had a successful day in spite of not reaching the peak.