Alaska - Day 13 - Using our Magic Ticket to Drive inside Denali National Park

It was a cool night inside the motor home at our campground inside Denali National Park, and we were up early this morning. We fixed a big breakfast early enough that we could be at the Savage River Ranger Station at 8:45 a.m. If you remember back on Mark's birthday in April, he sat at the computer when the special driving permits in Denali National Park went on sale. He snagged us one of the coveted tickets that allow visitors to drive an extra 15 miles deeper into the national park. They were sold out within minutes, and he managed to get the best time--9:00 a.m. when the road opens. We checked in with the ranger this morning and got our magic ticket. We were the first road permit of the 25 they will allow in today.

Then we headed down the gravel road where only tour buses full of tourists can go.

After a couple days on the road in our motor home, we have figured out that the front two seats have great captain chair views. But the other two passengers have to settle for side views or must crouch in uncomfortable positions to see out the front window. But Mark figured out that the dinette cushions would fit just right between the captain seats to make a bench seat for the other two passengers. Now all four of us get front row seats! No one can gain any weight if the four of us are going to be able to ride this way too long!

We're pretty sure this seating arrangement is not legal. But considering we are driving on a dirt road with a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit, we feel pretty safe against high speed collisions. It did allow all four of us to make wildlife sightings at the same time. We're really missing our good camera already, but we took this blurry moose picture with the cell phone anyway. Later, we spotted another moose and a caribou, but they were far enough away that we didn't even try to take a picture.

After 15 miles on the park road, we pulled into the Teklanika visitor area. They have around 100 vault toilets in this parking area, to handle the tour buses that make a pit stop here. This is the bus's first stop after being on the road for 30 miles from the visitor center at the park entrance. 

Riders get their first look at the river valley, and we heard some riders exclaim, "Finally, a picture without the glare of the bus window!" We're glad we have our private ride this morning.

Teklanika is as far as our motor home can travel this morning with our magic ticket, but we can walk further up that gravel road. That is what the ranger recommended for us.

He also told us that a mother grizzly and her cub had been spotted on the river near the bridge. That bridge is a mile down the road, so we had our eyes peeled on the river basin as we walked.

He also recommended that when we got off the road, to stay out in the open so that we wouldn't surprise any bears. Denisa isn't sure how Mark managed to lead us through this thick forested area, since we all heard that warning.

In Denali National Park, there are few trails. Unlike other national parks, visitors are encouraged to make their own trails through the unspoiled tundra. This mossy spongy surface was an interesting surface to walk on.

Denisa mentioned that it looked like a very comfortable sleeping surface, and then she laid down to confirm that was true.

On the bridge, we surveyed the river bed again, but we still didn't see any grizzlies.

We were also looking for wolves, since we found the signs that showed that the wolf den area was closed to hikers on the west side of the bridge.

When we walked down on the east side of the bridge, we soon found tracks that let us know that those wolves don't always stay in their protected area.

We also found very fresh grizzly foot prints in the river mud.

If you look closely at this print, you can see the punctures in the sand caused by the bear claws that extend quite longer than the paw.

After an hour of exploring on foot, we decided it was time to walk back to the motor home. Connie and Steven chose the more predictable walk back on the road. But those crazy Engelmans decided to see if they could find a route back through the braided river bed.

We had to jump some streams and walked in some mud, but we did make it back to the parking lot.

We found plenty more wolf and grizzly prints on our hike back.

We are enjoying another clear weather day in Denali National Park, and it was fun to get to see the snow-capped peak of Mount Denali for our third day in a row. We have been blessed!

Our 15-mile trip back was rather uneventful. We spotted a caribou and a moose, but we were hoping for more inside this famous national park. 

As we approached Savage River again, we could see a more distant picture of where we had hiked yesterday. We first hiked to the lower rocky knob above the parking lot, then we made it to the peak on the right hand side for the Mount Denali views.

We saw cars pulled off the side of the road  ahead, and found out a grizzly was laying in the Savage River bed. Through the binoculars it looked like he was sleeping in that cold river. We didn't even attempt a photo since our good camera is gone now. It was a nice (though distant) sighting as we said good-bye to Mount Denali and the national park that is named after her. We continued down the road with more beautiful snow-covered mountain views ahead.

We stopped back at the park entrance to dump our RV holding tanks and fill up with fresh water. As soon as we left the national park, we started seeing moose. In fact, we saw four different moose in the next 30 miles back on the highway! 

But now we have a decision to make. Do we continue north on Parks Highway to Fairbanks? or do we head due east on the gravel Denali road? To Fairbanks is a safe highway drive through the plains of Alaska. Driving east on the Denali road is 136 miles of gravel through some of the most spectacular views in this spectacular state. What will we choose—the safe or the special? It will take another blog to find out.