Teklanika Campground, 16 Aug 2011, Denali National Park, AK, USA

Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Teklanika Campground, Denali National Park, AK

OK, now we are at Teklanika CG in Denali National Park. We arrived at about 5:30 PM yesterday after a very nice drive down AK 3 (The Parks Highway, opened in 1971). See below for details.

Today, Tuesday, we were up early, packed our things, and caught the Camper Bus to Eielson Visitors’ Center, about 40 miles and 2 1/2 hours by bus, up the road. Our first stop was the Teklanika River Rest Area.

Teklanika River, looking east from the Rest Area,
about 2 mi west of the CG.

After leaving the rest area, someone in the bus spotted a brown bear down in the river bottom, so we stopped for a few minutes to watch it:

Brown bear, Teklanika River Flats, just west of the Tek Rest Area.

Same brownie.

A wide angle view of the brownie and the
braided channel of the Tek River

We passed by the stop at Polychrome Pass because the weather was not so good and thought that we’d see it on the way back. The views were great, but it would have been nice to get out and look around a bit more.

View from Polychrome Pass.

Our next rest stop was at the Toklat River Rest Area.  There is a small information center in a tent, and a display of antlers.  I thought the river was more interesting:

Toklat River Rest Area.

We arrived at Eielson Visitors’ Center without any further ado.  The Visitors' Center is a new building, opened in 2008. It is very well-designed for energy efficiency and use of local resources. It is built on the same site as the old center and some of the material in the new center was recycled from the old one. Power for the entire building is supplied by photovoltaic cells and a small hydro power generator nearby. The interior is simple and well-done displays give a history of the park and of the visitors’ center. We watched a film about the challenges of climbing Denali and thought of Sue and Ken and their adventures on that mountain, (about 1,200 permits to climb are issued annually, only about 53% make it to the top, it is a technically challenging, high risk endeavor).  Other displays in the Center include a relief map of the Park, and a number of video kiosks.  There is also a strikingly beautiful quilt that shows the Seasons of Denali:

Quilt at Eielson Visitors' Center - Seasons of Denali.

Information Plaque

After lunch, we planned to join a Ranger-led hike at 1:00 PM. Only problem -- the trail was closed because a brown (grizzly) bear was on the hillside across a small valley, just east of the Center. We watched (and photographed) the bear and the surrounding area for the next 45 minutes, until he disappeared over the next ridge.

View from the deck at Eielson VC.

Brown Bear at Eielson Visitors' Center.

I took some more pictures of the area, and what we could see, including a sizeable herd of Dall sheep on the mountain to the east, and the bear. I am glad that I brought my 100-400 mm zoom lens along; it was the only way to get these pictures.

Brown Bear at Eielson Visitors' Center 2

Dall Sheep on a distant hillside.

The Dall Sheep are the little dots out there...

Brown Bear leaving the VC area.

Brown Bear, almost gone...

Then the trail opened and we joined an interesting Ranger-lead walk around the loop trail (~ 1 mi) below the VC. We learned something of the geology of the area, the forces of fire, ice, and wind in shaping the area’s ecology, and sundry facts from all these topic areas. We enjoyed the hour we spent on the trail.

Our walking group, and fearless leader.

Some of the small scale plant-life along the trail.

The small red leaves in the photo above are the first evidence we saw of the changing seasons; they began to show up here in our view of the tundra, and eventually made a huge difference in what we saw as we traveled.

The whole time we were at Eielson, we had been hoping that Denali would poke its massif through the clouds, but that never happened. The sun played hide-out with the clouds, we saw a rainbow, and, in all, it was a wonderful afternoon. Then it was time to catch the next bus back to the CG. We left Eielson about 3:00 PM, and enjoyed seeing more of the scenery on the way back, as the rain had stopped, the clouds had lifted a bit, and the gravel road was less muddy. Along the way, we saw a couple of caribou, and a small herd of Dall sheep, grazing on the mountain-side.

A caribou, along the road on our way back to Teklanika CG.

Dall sheep, on our way back to Tek CG.

In all, a very good day’s experience. After dinner, we attended another Ranger talk, this one on squirrels in Denali NP. It seems that there are 4 types of squirrels here (red, flying, arctic ground, and marmot); they form an essential element in the food chain, one that is in constant supply and thus necessary to a healthy environment.

This evening, I downloaded the 175 or so pictures I’ve taken in the past several days. I’ll sort through them and post a few of the good ones when I have a chance. So that’s how it’s happened till now; more anon...

Monday, 15 August 2011
Chena River State Recreation Site, Fairbanks, AK, USA

We got up at our normal 7:00 AM, packed up and got ready to leave this nice, urban campground on the west side of Fairbanks.

Our rig at Chena River SRS.

It was a good choice for us to stay here, rather than up the way at Eagle River. We were much more able to easily get around to see the areas of Fairbanks of interest to us. Lin did some washing, and then later in the morning we went back to Alaska House to pick up our soapstone bear sculpture. It looks really nice, and we can't wait to see it in place back home. After a careful job of packing it in the truck, we started our way south about 11:30 AM.

The George Parks highway from Fairbanks to Denali NP and Anchorage is relatively new, opened in 1971. The portion of the highway just south of Fairbanks is known as Alaska’s Skyline Drive -- it follows the ridge tops, overlooking the Nenana River flats to the south-east and the foothills of the Alaska Range to the north-west; more “Wow!” country, indeed.

View from the Parks Highway, south of Fairbanks.

Fireweed, along the Parks Highway, south of Fairbanks.

View from the Parks Highway, south of Fairbanks.

As we drove in to the Teklanika River Campground in Denali Park, we saw a sizeable herd of caribou and a lynx by the road; I was only able to get pictures of the caribou; the lynx was too quick for me.

Caribou, enroute to Teklanika CG, Denali NP.

We arrived at campground about 5:30 PM, and, of course, it began to rain as we set up.

Set up at Teklanika CG, Denali NP.

We just hoped that we wouldn't have a repeat of our experience here in 1997 when we got rained out of the park. Still, we have had a good start for our three days at Teklanika.