Saturday, June 20, 2009

Denali, Denali Wherefore Art Thou Denali?

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 – On the way to Denali National Park we stopped in the small village of Nenana. The town’s heyday was in the early 1920s when it served as a construction base for the Alaska Railroad. In 1923 President Warren Harding drove a golden spike marking the completion of the railroad. The town is now mainly a shipping center for tugs and barges taking cargo along the rivers of the interior of Alaska. Every winter the town hosts the Nanana Ice Classic. In February a tripod is built and big festival is held where the tripod is placed on the ice of the frozen Tenana River. The tripod is attached by a cable to a clock in a tower on the bank of the river. Between February 1st through April 5th people from all over the state pay $2.50 to make a guess of the exact date and time to the minute that the break-up of the ice will occur. Every guess is recorded in a book and kept in the local train station. These books are about 3” thick printed front and back with two columns on each page. In the spring usually in late April or early May when the ice starts to crack people line the banks of the river and yell, cheer, and wait for the exact moment of break-up. When the ice breaks the tripod tips into the water and pulls the cable which stops the clock in the tower. The average pot is approximately $300,000 and is split between the winners who guessed the correct date and time. This year there were only 3 winners who split the entire pot. We continued on to Denali and got a space in the Denali Rainbow Village RV Park. After we got set up Bill and I walked around the village and visited some of the shops and galleries. Pam and Bill suggested a dinner show called Alaska Cabin Nite which they had seen when they were here three years ago on a cruise. The theater was just across the street and we had half price tickets in our Tour Saver Book so we made reservations for the evening. The menu consisted of ribs, salmon, corn, salad, and blueberry cobbler served family style. All of the waiters were also the entertainers and put on a very enjoyable show.

Thursday, June 18, 2009 – When we arrived in Denali yesterday I asked the clerk in the campground office about bus tours into the park and thankfully she gave us some very good advice. She said she did not recommend any of the tours that are organized by the hotels because they use the same type of buses, take the same routes, and see the same sites as the shuttle buses but cost almost three times as much. Based on her recommendation we made a reservation for the 6:45 AM shuttle bus to Wonder Lake about 85 miles into the National Park. I set an alarm and also left the black out shades open so we woke up extra early, packed a lunch for the day, and arrived at the Wilderness Access Center before 6:00. We checked in and asked if they had space on the earlier bus, which they did so we left at 6:15 for the 11 hour round trip out to Wonder Lake and back. Apparently Mt. McKinley is only fully visible about 20% of the time and the odds were definitely NOT in our favor today. It was cloudy, foggy, cold, and rained off and on all day. We saw four caribou, three bear, one moose, a small flock of Dall sheep, a Tundra Swan, and dozens of Snow Shoe Hares. In addition to being a bit disappointed in the number of animals, we were also somewhat disappointed in the scenery. Besides the fact that we could only see about the bottom 4,000 feet of Mount McKinley, most of the park is arctic tundra above the tree line so there are either very dwarfed trees or no trees at all. One very interesting thing we did see was huge areas of willows and shrubs where the snow shoe hare have killed the plants by eating all the leaves and bark. All of the plants were barren between about 2 feet and 5 feet off the ground. As the snow gets deeper during the winter the hares sit on top of the snow and eat higher and higher on the plants. The magnitude of destruction caused by these cute little animals is unbelievable. Our bus driver was very knowledgeable and we learned quite a bit over the course of the trip but it was a very long day. Bill and Pam did not take the bus trip with us because they had already taken the same trip 3 years ago when they were in Alaska on a cruise. When we got back we had a message from Pam telling us that she had made dinner and since it was cold and rainy all day the big pot of homemade stew she made was not only delicious but greatly appreciated.

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