Alaska - Day 12 - Denali National Park and the day the camera died

Our first night in the motor home got a late start, but we slept well with the sound of rain hitting our metal roof all night long. We were all so tired that we slept late the next morning, fixed a big breakfast, and finally left our camping spot at Denali State Park at 11:30. Most people have only heard of Denali NATIONAL park, but we have to say that we are fans of the state park of the same name after our great hike last night.

The Parks Highway we are driving today actually goes right through Denali State Park. We thought it was interesting to learn that Parks Highway did not get its name from the very famous Denali state and national parks that are on this road. It is actually named after George Parks, a territorial governor from 1925-1933. This stretch of the Parks Highway has many beautiful viewpoints and turnouts where we had planned to stop. But it continued to rain and the mountains were socked in with fog. Even though we are driving to Denali National park, we obviously aren’t going to get to see Mt. Denali on a day like today. Denisa was just glad to take a picture of the closer mountains in between rain drops as we drove the 100 miles towards the entrance to Denali National Park.

The highlight of the drive was a grizzly bear that ran beside the highway. But it happened so quickly we didn't get a picture. We also saw a moose, but didn't get that picture either. But we did get gasoline, when we stopped at one of the few stations along this route. We filled up in the tiny town of Cantwell for $4.32 per gallon. It was our most expensive gasoline of our trip.

We drove the motor home into the national park, where it was time for us to buy another annual park pass. We checked in with the campground office at the entrance, and got a little advice from the rangers working outside at the visitor center. Then our next stop was to see the park’s sled dogs.

These dogs have the summer off, but they work hard during the winter months here in the national park. Because most of the park is in a wilderness area, vehicles aren't allowed. So the rangers use these sled dogs to get supplies and tools needed in remote areas during the winter. They used to have demonstrations during the summer, but the new Covid-protocal just allows visitors to circle the sled dog compound in one direction, staying outside the ropes. We are allowed to pet any dog that we can reach from the rope.

Rangers that work with the dogs told us their names, and stories about them. This young female named Royal, is one of their favorites, and they think she is going to be a star sled dog. She’s still young, and these dogs range in age from one to eight years old.

It looks like the dogs are just putting up with us tourists. But they really got excited when a ranger approached and took one of them on a leash. They love to work and to go for walks, and they all howled and stood at attention for the chance to go with that ranger!

Since no demonstrations have been done for the last two years, at least they set up a photo opportunity with wooden sled dogs and a sled.

Since we are now inside Denali National Park, we should explain a little about how this park works. We entered off the highway at the Denali Visitor Center on the far right hand side of the map below. Visitors may drive their cars straight west on the paved red national park road for the first 15 miles. That will bring you to Savage River.  Then the park road becomes gravel and continues 77 miles deeper into the national park. The only vehicles allowed further are tour busses and RVs that have extended camping reservations. We will only be here one night, so we couldn't camp deeper in the park. But we made reservations to camp at the Savage River campground, so we are now headed 15 miles to set up camp.

With slow speed limits on the national park road, it's easier to stop for wildlife pictures. We found one moose on our drive today, even though he chose to be shy about getting his picture taken.

The real find was this caribou close to the road. We have been looking for one of these guys for eleven days, so we were excited to see one so close.

Caribou are the only member of the deer family in which both the males and females have horns. We also learned that a caribou that is domesticated is then called a reindeer. Santa obviously has a herd of domesticated caribou.

This is the only camping reservation we made for our entire trip. We know how busy national parks are, and it was the only way to secure a place for sure. In the reservation system, you don't pick a specific site--just a particular size of site. We reserved a small site, and then on arrival we picked the one we liked best of the ones open. We actually backed into three different sites before we found one just right!

Greeting us was an arctic ground squirrel, standing at attention to watch Mark's backing skills with this new motor home.

It was chilly today, so we cooked up a big pot of Mexican Chicken Soup and ate our dinner. Then we headed out to try some Denali National Park trails. We started at the Savage River trail.

That trail starts by hiking one mile down on the right hand side of Savage river.

We got into some snow that had turned into a slippery patch of solid ice.

Sure-footed Mark had to help the ladies over the ice.

Then we crossed the river bridge after one mile, and headed back to the parking lot on the other side of the water. It was a nice walk, and we all enjoyed it.

But we all had our eyes on the rocky outcropping that headed straight up the mountain. That is the beginning of the Savage Alpine Trail. After Connie's knee was hurting her last night, she decided to wait this one out at the motor home. So Denisa, Mark and Steven headed straight up.

We made it to that rocky outcropping, and you can see Mark's bright blue jacket in the middle of those rocks. After a very cloudy morning, we have been blessed with a clear sky this evening.

This trail gains 1,500 feet in elevation quickly, and we continued our ascent. We are counting 100 steps up, then having to stop to catch our breath. It was a lot of 100 steps to get to the top, but the views kept getting better as we climbed higher and left the Savage River far below us.

We finally got high enough that we saw it! There behind the big mountains in the foreground, is the massive top of Mount Denali!

Remember how it was so cloudy that we thought there was no way to get a clear view of the mountains today? Well we were certainly wrong about our weather prediction!

We had two wildlife sightings on our way up the mountain. One was a pika (that we didn't get pictured) and the other was this ptarmigan. These birds have all white feathers in the winter to help them hide when the ground is covered with snow. Right now they are transitioning into their brown summer feathers that will help them to hide in the shadows of trees and brush.

This ptarmigan stayed close to our trail, and he was keeping his red-browed eye on us.

As we continued higher, we got into banks of snow along the trail.

The river is getting smaller as we climb higher through the snow.

We finally made it to our destination today. We're at the top of the ridge with great views all around us. 

It's from here that we had the very best views of Mount Denali. We had read that 70% of the people that visit Denali National Park never get to see the mountain. There are so many days where clouds cover this peak that is over 20,000 feet tall that it can't be seen the majority of the time. 

We feel super-blessed that we got to see it from a distance yesterday, and now closer today. It's not visible from the highway below us, but the view was great from up high.

We have definitely wandered God's wonders at we look around at His beauty from atop that ridge.

It was so windy at the top that we could barely stand up! 

Those winds were probably the reason that Mark stumbled and fell while we were at the top. The good news is that he stumbled toward the mountain--and not off the mountain. He caught himself with his hands as he hit the ground. The bad news is that the good camera was on a strap around his wrist at the time. The force of the fall smashed the camera against a rock. We are glad that Mark is safe, but it looks like the camera is dead.

Denisa will have to be content with taking pictures of little flowers along the trail with her cell phone, because we no longer have a camera with zoom for those wildlife pictures she loves.

The parking lot is in the shadows by the time we make our way off the mountain to the motor home and Connie that are waiting for us. 

We got our last peek at the Denali peak on our way back down the trail. Denali isn’t visible from the road so Connie never saw it today. Then we headed to the campground for showers and ice cream. It was a day that started with rain and ended in glorious sunshine in Denali National Park. We'll also remember it as the day the camera died.