Alaska Trip 2011: June 16-17 - Denali National Park Part 1

This is page 26 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page.

After we returned from our Arctic adventure, we did mostly nothing for a couple days. Then we hitched up and headed South toward Denali National Park. We camped a few miles north of the town of Nenana, which is where people stay when they come in on tour buses or the train. It's what I call a tourist town - not much there except hotels, shops, and restaurants. You see one, you've seen 'em all.

The first order of business after we arrived was to get to the visitor center and schedule a tour bus, since the only way you can get beyond mile 15 of the park road is on a bus. We chose the tour that does the entire 92-mile length of the park. We will decide later if we want to take one of the two shorter tours, but I'm guessing not. Our tour was to be on Saturday, so we spent Friday doing some sightseeing in the front part of the park.

George Parks Highway

The road from Fairbanks to the Denali entrance is pretty, but not spectacular. We seem to be on a ridge of some kind, looking down on the valley. As you get closer to the park, you start to see the mountains in the distance.

Highway Overlook

This overlook was not actually in the park - it was along the road between there and the campground.

I had to buy a flower book to identify all the wildflowers we are seeing. The white one is Northern Oxytrope, and the pinkish one is called Eskimo Potato. Both are relatives of peas or lupines.

Savage River

We took an evening drive to the Savage River area, the farthest you can go in your own car. We were hoping to spot some wildlife. No big game, just these two Arctic Ground Squirrels. They are quite a bit larger than any ground squirrels I have ever seen, and even larger than regular squirrels. They are supposedly quite shy, but I think these two have been habituated to humans. They came up very close to us, and seemed to be begging. But I don't play that game, so I just took their picture and ignored them.

This is a really pretty area here. We'll have to think about coming back later in the week and take one of the hikes that start here.

More Views from Road

Here is the view from another overlook on the way back, including a train trestle for the Alaska Railroad. We also stopped at the overlook where you can see Mt. McKinley, but it was too cloudy up there. This is not unusual. They say only 30% of the people who come to Denali are able to see the mountain. It hides behind the clouds two days out of three..

Nature Hike

Friday we took a hike from the visitor center, led by a Ranger/Naturalist. We saw lots of wildflowers, and the ranger pointed out a few other things we might not have noticed, such as the leaf miner in the next picture. The insect lays its egg at the base of the stem, and the larva tunnels its way back and forth inside the leaf.

Some of the lupines are all purple, and some are purple and white. It's apparently a natural variation. The other picture is bluebells, which of course are easily recognizable.

This was an interesting footbridge, with great views upstream and downstream.

This clump on the black spruce is called a witch's broom. It is not a nest; it is a cancerous growth of the tree itself, triggered by a fungus. We have seen a lot of these around the state but until now, did not know what it was.

The spiny orange balls on the rose leaves are called galls. They are caused by a wasp who lays its eggs there.

This orange butterfly looks like it has lost a part of its right wing.

Last but not last, this is the same trestle that showed in the earlier picture, only this view is from the trail down below the trestle instead of the road above.

After the hike, we headed back to camp to rest up for the tour the next day. It's about a 12-hour trip, so it will be a long day.

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