Hiking in the real frozen tundra in alaska, none of that Lambeau Field crap

This weekend I drove north to Denali National Park, about 300 miles from Anchorage. The drive to Denali is beautiful with colorful fall trees and mountain peaks covered with snow. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the drive because I was riding with 3 other guys from work.

Denali National Park is approximately the size of Massachusetts. The only road driving into the park is 90 miles long with Mt. Mckinley, the largest mountain in North America, at the end of the drive. We could only drive 30 miles into the park. During the summer season, you can ride a bus all the way to the end of the road, but the busses stop running September 15. We had to get a permit to drive into the park, and we had to get a permit to hike and camp in the “back-country”. We were the only people staying overnight in the entire park…..which means we were the only people staying overnight in an area the size of Massachusetts. Pretty cool stuff.

Soon after driving into the park, we saw a moose eating near the road-side. So we got out and took a few pictures, then tried to follow the moose up the hill-side until we lost sight of it. Funny story about the way wild animals perceive cars in Denali. They think we are big, stupid animals that constantly follow the same “game” trail. In case you didn’t know, animals have to constantly change their game trail or their prey would just stay away from the oft used trail.

Soon after seeing the moose, we turned the corner and saw a red fox hunting some birds. Most of the birds saw the fox and flew away, but one of the birds hung around. The fox saw us coming and started walking away, but he kept looking back at the bird still wanting to make a meal out of it. I got a good picture of this. We continued the drive all the way into the park, and parked on the side of the road close to mile 30. Then we got our hiking packs out and started our hike up one of the mountains.

We didn’t bring a lot of water with us since every bit adds weight. So we filled up often in streams. Well, the water supply was pretty limited on the mountain we were on, so we used some slow moving streams out of necessity. I hope I don’t get Giardia, which is caused by micro-bacteria usually found in still-water. Wikipedia tactfully presents “explosive diarrhea” as a common symptom of Giardia. It’s not deadly, but it’s not pleasant

This was a very difficult hike, not because of steepness, but because of tundra and brush. Tundra is a very moist, squishy, grass like growth that grows in cold temperatures with short seasons. Every step I took on the tundra, my foot sunk 6 inches or more into the ground. On top of the tundra were bushes between knee and waist high. On top of a 50 pound pack, we had to hike through these bushes and overcome that extra 6-12 inches with every step. We were very surprised that it took us 3 hours to go 2 miles. But we finally found a suitable site to set up our campsite. To be clear, there was not a pre-determined campsite. The entire mountainside was covered with this tundra and brush. But we finally found an area about ¾ up the mountainside next to a boulder with enough open space to set up our tent and cook dinner. So we cooked pasta alfredo and little sausage and cheese sandwiches. After dinner we relaxed on a nearby rocky structure, and then we decided to hike to the peak of the mountain. Well, the peak we thought we were hiking to was a false peak. The real peak was a bit further. By the time we made it to the peak, it was snowing/sleeting on us pretty hard. We were soaked. We made our way back to the tent and went to bed.

That night was interesting because we heard some footsteps outside of the tent for a little while. We thought it might be a bear for a moment, but I don’t think it was. We were in the tent for about 14 hours, from 9 PM until 11 AM. We woke up the next morning to a beautiful, snow covered landscape. Unfortunately, it was still a bit cloudy, so we couldn’t see the mountains in the background, including the big daddy Mckinley, but it was still very pretty. We were wet and cold from the snow the night before, so we hiked back down the mountain and made our way back to Anchorage. It was an awesome trip, and Denali is a beautiful place. There are a lot of rolling hills amongst towering mountains, and the wildlife is amazing. I would love to come back sometime one summer and take a bus ride all the way into the park.

One last note, it is estimated that Mt. Mckinley is only visible 1 out of every 8 days. So, it wasn’t a surprise or bad luck that we didn’t see it. However, the first day back at work after the trip, 300 miles from Mckinley, I could clearly see the mountain and its surrounding range. Ahhhh, the irony. Mckinley literally looks double the size of the other mountains.

Tundra









Railroad Brige





Our living room



Snowing on September 19!



Our front porch





Moose





Fox hunts bird





Giardia lives here?



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