Memories of Denali National Park

07/06/05: Almost Denali

Yesterday’s drive was a dud as far as birds were concerned. I believe I was late for most of the birds I’d read about for this section of the road. The drive, however, was very scenic. Late in the afternoon, I took a drive off the Parks Highway on “The Stampede Trail”. I drove the first eight miles, but I didn’t find any birds to get excited about (late again, I believe). The road runs west through a great sweeping, glacier carved valley that is adjacent just to the north of Denali Park. After the first 5 miles the road was gravel and the country was open tundra … only a few small spruces dotted the landscape. The road at the 8 mile mark turned into a narrower, rougher track. While the Samurai could have easily negotiated it, I was unprepared with fuel, food, or attitude on this rainy day. I decided to continue south and look for a room to hole up in for the night.

I drove south to Healy and discovered that most motels had fully booked rooms (because of the nearness of Denali Park). I found one with a wireless internet connection and decided to get a second ‘undelete’ utility to help with my picture recovery process from my image-transfer mishap a few days earlier. I worked on the project all night, but still had a couple of folders to recover, but I knew that the complete recovery was within my grasp. All that would be required would be my time and effort.

I woke up to SUNSHINE the next morning. At breakfast the weather was clear, though one couldn’t be sure if this would last. But for now, the views of the surrounding mountains were spectacular. On this day, my plan was to drive into the national park as far as allowed, then play it by ear. The STATE park was only a short distance to the south, and it might offer some interesting options, too.

Later:

Clouds obscured Denali (the mountain) and prevented any views. On my drive out to the end of the access road, I got a few nice shots of an American Tree Sparrow. The road is closed to most of us at Savage River. There, I encountered several families of Willow Ptarmigan.

Sitting along the gravel bars on the river below, I saw a Mew Gull feeding a large chick. I decided to walk down to the river with my camera and tripod in tow to see if I could get a better view. This did not please the parent who made repeated flights at me, often to within a few feet of my head. I opted NOT to cross the shallow river. While I’d probably have gotten better shots, I didn’t want to add to the stress levels of the birds. The parent gull seemed to settle down and just scold me from 100 feet away. But she had more in store for me. As I was leaving the scene she made another run at me from behind and ‘bombed’ me … without going into unnecessary detail, just let me say I could tell she’d been eating some kind of purple berries. None of this behavior was a surprise to me. I’d had some experience around tern colonies, and these actions serve to protect their progeny.

On leaving Denali N.P., I continued my drive south, stopping at places that seemed interesting to me. One stop took me a mile west of the highway on a bush track. There, among the warblers, thrushes, sparrows, and yellowlegs, was a Blackpoll Warbler. Alas, I got a series of decent photos of another bird that I had my heart set on for the trip.

Continuing my drive south a very severe accident stopped all traffic while they ‘Life Flighted’ the victims out of the area. I struck up a conversation with a local who had moved here from Corona Del Mar (on the Southern California coast) … small world!

I stopped for the night a few miles north of Talkeetna. When I checked into my room, I counted my traveling time. I realized I’d been on the road since 05/17/2005. That’s eleven days short of two months. Until now, I hadn’t bothered to add up the time.

While I was at a gas stop, I met and spoke with a man from Minnesota who had a guide business in Saskatchewan. He saw my rig and asked about my photography. He invited me to stay at his place in Saskatchewan if I wanted to, in spring or fall (or whenever). I took his information, and who knows?

07/07/05: Mary’s McKinley View Cabins and Café

This little Gift Shop/Restaurant/Motel at Mile 134, is where I found to lay my head last night. Mount McKinley had been pretty socked in with clouds recently, but this morning I got a glimpse of the highest peak in North America. As I ate breakfast there were a lot of blue patches, but who’s to say what the rest of the day would offer. $75 bought me a small room w/o a phone or TV, but I did not miss those amenities. I used the time to recover the last of my deleted pictures. Now that I had recovered them, I had a lot of deleting to do. The recovery process reclaimed ALL the pictures, including those that I’d previously culled out. So back to the Recycle Bin some of these would have to go.