Byers Lake, Denali SP to Denali National Park 8/4 – 8/6, 2009
We left Talkeetna around noon after updating our blog. We travelled up the Parks Highway. Views of Mt. McKinley mountains appeared frequently as the road snaked its way north. When we reached the South Denali Viewpoint, we noticed that clouds were beginning to form around the mountains.
We arrived at Byers Lake at Milepost 146 on Parks highway to find a great state park. The campsites were located quite a distance from the highway down in a valley. Each campsite was nestled in the woods with good separation from each neighboring campsite. It was quiet and relaxing.
Our first night there, we built a campfire and went for a short walk to see the path around the lake. We did see bear poop on the trail which supported the warning posted that a bear had been seen in the campground the previous day.
We woke up the next morning with a fairly heavy rain falling. It lasted all day.
We did take a hike in the rain about half way around the lake. At the end of the lake, the trail left the lake, went up a hill and down to a walking suspension bridge over a large creek. While standing on the bridge, we heard a loud splash in the water upstream. Fred’s first reaction was its a bear. We could see nothing there. Then, we saw heard another splash and saw it was a fish jumping upstream. We waited for more action to no avail.
As we were leaving the bridge and starting to climp up, we looked back at the stream. We could see about a half dozen red salmon swimming in pairs. The more with watched, the more we realized that we were watching salmon spawning. Anytime another salmon came near a pair, it was chased off. We watched these rituals playing before us for about 10 minutes before we headed back to our campsite to dry off.
Back in our camper, we started the generator and watched a suspense movie before Milly prepared a great spagetti supper.
On morning of 8/6, we left Byers Lake in the rain and arrived at 11:30 am outside Denali National Park at Rainbow RV Park. There was still a slight rain falling on and off. We took in exhibits at Visitor Center, viewed 2 good two Denali movies, picked up our TEK campsite and bus tickets, watched a sled dog demo, got some Denali Hiking advice, bought book “Denali Walks” and prepared for our Denali Wilderness Adventure.
Tomorrow we will go to TEK campground 30 miles into park for 3 nights. The weather forecast is for showers for several days. Hope that changes. We will do short hikes at various points along the Park Road. We will be out of cell phone and WIFI range for at least 3 -4 days.
We did not take our camera on our Byers Lake Hike or on to Denali Visitor Center. Two mistakes!