We had planned on taking 2 days to get to Denali, opting for a stopover at Talkeetna for a 2 hour flight seeing trip to Mount McKinley (including a glacial landing). The journey time was about 5 hours of driving.
The drive back to Anchorage had lost none of its magnificence, by contrast the journey to Talkeetna was a little uninspiring, being mainly flat terrain surrounded by trees.
We arrived at Talkeetna to find that flying had been canceled that day due to poor weather (this is not unusual and is pointed out on the website) which was somewhat disappointing. I had built this possibility into the trip, so crossed our fingers and re booked for the following morning.
We walked around Talkeetna which stared as a gold mining town and then developed as a starting point for climbers planning on attempting Mount McKinley. The town has a real alternative vibe, there are a real bunch of eclectic shops and characters. Its like the 70's never ended type of place and a real cool hangout spot in its own right. To put it into context the mayor of this town (major Stubbs) is a cat, legally voted in !!!.
We chilled then went out to eat, Josie had a vegetable curry whilst I settled for a most wonderful rhubarb and blueberry crisp (yum).
Really getting to love the experience of traveling in a truck camper !
The weather forecast was not looking too good for the upcoming days in Denali with a high chance of rain, the immediate question was would we fly or not ? Lady luck seemed to be with us, they were not sure about an actual glacial landing, but the scenic flight was good to go. We were flying with Talkeetna Air Taxi (www.talkeetnaair.com) in a 9 seater plane; everyone had a window seat. We had to ascend above the clouds so saw nothing for first 15 mins, the mountain range slowly came into view above the cloud line, the sun was out, the sky was blue and the view was awesome. We passed over Ruth glacier, around the mountain ranges and just caught Mount McKinley above the cloud line. Heading behind the mountain we got a better view; even in the few minutes we had been there cloud cover was increasing, it looked like me had managed the best flight of the day.
Touching down on the glacier was an amazing experience, getting out we spent time on the glacier itself before taking off once again and returning back to Talkeetna.
Expensive, but well worth it for the views.
We munched on Alaskan Reindeer dogs before saddling up for the 3 hour drive to Denali. The journey was enjoyable enough, although it rained in varying degrees all the way, about 20 mins outside of Denali the scenery took a more mountainous turn.
We checked in (campsite prebooked which was good as it was completely full), wandered the visitor centre, watched the short film there and headed towards the campground, Savage River, which is at mile 13 (only travel 15 miles by private vehicle).
Almost immediately we got to see and watch a female moose and her calf eating amongst the foliage - another critter ticked off the list.
Reaching the campsite we chilled as we had another early start ahead of us as we were catching the first bus to Eilson visitor centre, which was departing the campground at 06:30.
It rained all night and believe me you hear it when its on a camper roof which is about 4ft above your head. The next morning was wet and misty, we trudged to the bus stop and boarded the bus. The journey out was pretty disheartening; we sat on the wrong side of the bus (not that we were to know), you need to be on the LHS on the way out and RHS on the return journey. The weather didn't allow for much of a view, I am sure the scenery can be breathtaking but we couldn’t see any mountain ranges, valleys etc, and the wildlife was obviously pissed with the weather as well. We did get to see a grizzly bear, it felt too constrained though after all the freedom we had had and all the great things we had seen.
You were not meant to stand up on the bus, wildlife viewings were strictly conducted on the bus and you could not lean or hang out the windows. Don't get me wrong the driver would pull over if anything was seen and try and give as good an experience as possible. I think we had just been spoilt up to this point.
Reaching Eilson Centre it was raining, windy, 100% cloud cover with no view anywhere ! We were both really dispirited, abandoned any idea of doing any of the hikes here, spent a few minutes in the centre (good film of climbing Mt McKinley) and got back on the bus for the return journey ! We had pretty much decided to call it a day with Denali as the weather was looking not better for the following day :(
Thing improved on the return journey, the weather cleared slightly at the lower altitude, we were on the scenic side of the bus which provided more interesting views and the wildlife decided to come out of hiding. We spotted two separate lots of Caribou (reindeer).
The first was a herd of females and young, them 4 males. Next we had more grizzly bear action, followed by more Caribou, a female moose and her calf. The highlight was an arctic fox sitting close to her den watching her cubs frolic.
The rain had pretty much reduced to drizzle so we got out at Savage River and walked the gentle 2 miles circuit around the river. With legs warmed up and feeling the need for fresh air and freedom we decided to walk the 4 mile alpine trek which would take us over the range and back into the valley - better still it would bring us out at our campsite. It was an invigorating walk; a high alpine passage through rock fields, alpine meadows as well as creek sided walking and travel through spruce and cottonwood forest. It was just what the doctor order, we only met a couple of people along the way and even got to see a couple of arctic squirrels along the route. No big wildlife but plenty of evidence, with both moose and bear scat along the trail.
Went for a quick stroll down to river that evening, on way back caught something out of my eye, it was a fully grown bull moose eating not 30ft from the path (and me). Watched it for about 15 minutes before it casually crossed the path in front of me and disappeared into the undergrowth. Amazing opportunity to watch such a powerful and magnificent beast up close and personal; and with no one else in sight.
Woke early the next morning; it was cold, misty and raining. All enthusiasm for getting up and spending another day on the bus evaporated; went back to sleep and re awoke late. Weather unchanged ! Decided to blow off Denali and leave a day early, I am sure the place is breathtaking but have to be able to see it to appreciate it.
