Dunfey Alaska Journey

We were at Denali’s Teklanika Campground on our second full day 30 miles into Denali National Park. It had rained all night and was still drizzling in the morning. We decided stay put in the camper and hope the weather cleared.

A little before noon with the weather still dreary, we decided to go for a hike up the Teklanika River riverbed. We put on multiple layers of clothing and our wet weather coats and headed out. We didn’t bring our camera which was a mistake. We took a trail to the river and it led us up onto a ridge above the river that had a wonderful view of the braided river down below. We came down to the riverbed and followed it upstream for about an hour. We also took a short walk into the woods on the edge of the river. We posted a rock piling and drift wood into a signal so we could find our way back to the trail.

When we got back, Milly cooked soup for lunch. The weather appeared to be clearing up. We decided to get on a shuttle bus. Our plan was to get off when we got to a high alpine tundra area and take a hike in that environment.

We boarded a shuttle bus heading further into the park. We asked the driver where there was a good spot to get off to hike in alpine tundra. She told us to get off at Polychrome Pass about an hour up the road. When We reached another alpine area that looked good to us, we asked to be dropped off. The driver told us it was a restricted area and that we had to stay on the road. When we got off, we didn’t know where we were except that it was beautiful and that alpine tundra was all around us. We quickly realized it was at Sable Pass where we had seen bears and a caribou herd the day before.

The weather had pretty much cleared. There were clouds around but it was mostly sunny.

We did take a very short walk into the fields to get a feel of walking in the tundra. It was a restricted area because it was an area frequented by many animals. We did stick to the road, hiking thru Sable Pass towards Polychrome. We saw many animals. It started with Dahl sheep and a squirrel.

Then, we came upon a caribou standing out in the field by himself. It appeared to be transfixed in the same position for several minutes. We passed on, when all of a sudden, another caribou came racing across the field to our left and up toward the road. We continued walking towards where we thought it went. Then, the caribou came up on the road and started towards us. It seemed we were going to face a battle of wills. We held our ground and the caribou stopped, looked us over and headed off up the hill on the other side of the road.

Shortly thereafter we came across 3 grizzly bears eating at the side of the road in front of us. The mother of the 2 cubs looked at us before heading into a wooded patch. One of the cubs decided to take a look for himself. There are  pictures of the bears looking us over in the slide-show below. Keep in mind that we were about as close to these grizzlies as you ever want to get when out by yourself hiking. 

We also saw two other grizzlies a little further down the road.

We decided to take the next shuttle bus that came along. We got on. We were headed back across the same area we had hiked. Two different sightings of bears were seen. One was a mother and two small cubs that were playing with each other.

When we got back, Milly asked Fred if he had seen the two cubs standing looking at him when he was taking a picture of their mother? He hadn’t.

In the morning of August 1oth, we decided to stay another night in Denali National Park. We moved from Teklanika campground at 30 miles mark to Riley Creek campground near the park entrance.  On our way back to beginning of park, we went on two hikes off the road.

We climbed a small dome or mountain near primrose ridge between Sanctuary River and Savage river. The tundra we climbed upon felt like walking on a real soft mattress or set of pillows. You sank quite a bit. We had to work to get to the top. We stopped to rest several times. Once, Fred laid down and enjoyed the tundra softness. Once we got to the top, we sat down and looked for wildlife in the valleys below.  We didn’t spot anything. We also waited for the McKinley cloud cover to disappear or lesson so we could get a clear view.  The McKinley clouds almost lifted a couple of times but we finally gave up as more clouds appeared. We did get some partial photos of McKinley.

When we got to Savage River, we hiked up a gravel tourist trail along the river for about a mile. We saw many, many ptarmigans, the Alaskan State bird. They walk most of the time but show pretty white wings when they fly. We could never get a photo of  them in flight as much as we tried.

On our final night in Denali, we attended Cabin Night dinner theater. It was great! We had already seen the cabins and read the stories of the people that were portrayed in the theater musical. The songs of Alaska were heartwarming. We had now seen so much of Alaska and Denali, we were feeling much more apart of it. The food was served family style with all the Ribs, salmon, beans and corn that you could eat. We had blackberry cobbler for dessert. No one left hungry.

On the morning of August 11th, we left Denali and headed for Fairbanks. We checked into the full service Riverside RV Park for 3 days. We both took long long, hot showers. It felt so good!  Our campsite is very nice for an RV Park. We are about 100 feet from a boat put in on the Chena River. We plan of kayaking the Chena and Tanana Rivers for our campsite. We are resting and taking it easy for now.