Well, this is our 3rd weekend off and the 3rd Wednesday that it's been raining. Bound and determined to make the best of it, we rode the shuttle from Denali Park Village into Denali National Park, and rode one of the free shuttles into the park. There is only one road into Denali; it goes 92 miles from the park entrance (on the right/east) to Kantishna (on the left/west). However a rock slide at Mile 43 (just before Polychrome Overlook at a place called Pretty Rocks) has closed the road beyond that point. Per the NPS website, "the rate of road movement within the landslide evolved from inches per year prior to 2014, to inches per month in 2017, inches per week in 2018, inches per day in 2019, and up to 0.65 inches per hour in 2021." At this point, continuing to rebuild the road became problematic, so NPS is building a bridge around the rock slide.
And when we got to the Savage River turn around it was...of course...raining! Our Yellowstone friend and neighbor from Georgia, Diane Nachel, was in for the day with us.
Savage River has a good hiking trail along the river, but the rain kept on coming, so we decided to bag the hike. We'll go back on a prettier day. Maybe hike the Savage River Alpine Trail. Stay tuned!
There are 2 colors of bus that go into Denali - the free green bus (which is what we rode today) and the brown tour bus. Both are school buses, but each provides a different experience. The brown bus is a true tour bus, providing narration and information about Denali and it's wildlife. The green bus is strictly transit, getting inside the park but without narration.
The reason for the school buses is that they are lighter on the roads. Heavy motorcoaches would tear up these gravel roads in the backcountry of Denali quickly, causing major maintenance headaches. While we were out there, we did see the state bird of Alaska - the ptarmigan.
This bird (about the size of a grouse) molts, changing colors from white in the winter to brown in the summer. This guy was "in progress." When we got back to the lodge, it was time to put up our feet and dry off by the fireplace. And we dried out the backpacks too!
While I was working one morning, Susan was able to get onto a Denali Air flightseeing tour, which goes to the face of Denali (the Athabascan word for "the high one.") I had gone up 10 days earlier, so she was thrilled for her opportunity. Looks pretty happy, eh?!!? She was riding in the copilot's seat!
Denali has a short mountain climbing season, basically late April, May, and June. Denali is a difficult mountain because we are so far north (think brutal cold and high winds) and the base is low (roughly 3000') while the summit is high (20,310'). The success rate to summit is about 50%. Susan got this picture from her Denali Air flight of a chain of climbers on the mountain. Impressive!
Here are the statistics so far this year.
TODAY'S STATS - 6/11/24 | Denali | Mt. Foraker |
Registered Climbers | 969 | 26 |
Climbers Currently On Mountain | 301 | 2 |
Completed Climbs | 569 | 24 |
Number of Summits | 230 | 0 |
Summit Percentage | 40% | 0% |
No climbing for us, but we are hoping for better weather this week. Will keep you posted!
Impressive pictures from the co-pilot seat of the chain of climbers!! We'll done, Susan! Praying this next day off will be sunny and bright. Regardless of weather, you still manage to share such fascinating info and incredible pictures. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete