Day 60 - Denali National Park

Into the Wilderness

...or at least as far into the park as one is allowed to drive.

It was an early start on our drive to Teklanika.

Teklnika campground is 30 miles up the park road. One can drive there, if you have reservation, but no further. If you do drive, you are not allowed to move your vehicle until you leave and drive back to the entrance area.

The road is paved as far as Savage River about 15 miles in. That is as far as it is open to traffic. After that you need a permit and the only one availble to ordinary visitors is the one to camp at Teklanika.

It is a wide gravel road to the campground, but, as we found out on the Dicovery Hike, the road becomes quite narrow beyond that, sometimes it seemed to be only a single lane. It also traversed high winding passes with big dropoffs and no guard rails. I can't imagine driving out to the end in visitor traffic. They'd probably lose a rental RV a day.

We pulled into the campground by mid-morning and were able to find a pair of adjacent campsites that were very open to the sky (we are on solar power here for seven days). The campground is much smaller than Riley Creek and the sites closer together, but it is a nice spot.

After setting up and having lunch, we decided to take a hike along the Teklanika River which runs behind the campground. It is a wide braided river and we walked in the river bed towards the bridge about two miles away. About a mile and a half later, we detoured through the brush and up to the road just before the Teklanika Rest Stop where the buses stop for a break in each direction. Harry decided to hop a bus back to the Campground while the rest of us walked the road up to the bridge. We went back down to the river and walked it back to the campground. Nothing was spotted except a couple of gulls and other walkers.

After dinner we went to the ranger talk about bears. It was, once again, a little too oriented towards kids. I'm a bit surprised at the difference in quality in the talks here in the park versus those at the state park, even though both were given by National Park Service rangers.