Day 64 - Denali National Park

Sunday, The Bears Day Off 

We were up early again today to catch the first bus. It goes to Wonder Lake and we were going most of the way out there. Tye forecast was for rain after noon and we packed according, but it didn't look like rain as we left Speedy. The sky was clear and the smoke had mostly disappeared. 

As we were walking up the campground road, we noticed that we'd had an overnight visitor. There was a large, very fresh pile of bear scat by the side of the road. It could have been the bear who was walking up and down the Teklanika River just behind the campground. He was out there all day yesterday and was seen even into the evening. Grizzly Bears in the campground, hmm.

Our ride out to Wonder Lake was mostly quiet with respect to wildlife. We did see the usual number of Caribou and two wolves, but not much else. But it wasn't completely dull--Denali was visible. With an almost clear sky and almost no smoky haze, It and the rest of the range were sitting out there visible from top to bottom. We started seeing it as we got to Stoney Overlook and it only got better all the way to Wonder Lake. It is only about 25 miles away at Wonder Lake, so Denali and the Alaska Range filled the view.

On the way out, I noticed a young woman in front of me was using an iPad mapping app that I hadn't seen. I asked and it turned out that she was a member of a Park Service team studying road ecology. They are a team of eight who go out on a selection of buses every day to study how the buses and other traffic affect the wildlife. They also go out after hours in small vehicles to observe the animals' interactions with the road when there is no traffic. They use this data to negotiate with the bus concessionaire as to the number of buses and when they can be scheduled in order to minimize the impact on wildlife. It turns out that the big animals use the road as preferred routes when moving around. After all it is much easier to walk along a nice smooth roadway than to thrash through the  brush.

We got off the bus just short of Wonder Lake at the junction where the park road continues to Kantishna. We wanted to walk up to the Wonder Lake Ranger Station. I was hoping they had a park passport stamp. It was about a two mile hike there. We briefly considered going to Kantishna, but it was over six miles to there and we didn't want a 12 mile walk today; four miles was enough.

On the way we stopped at Reflection Pond. While the view back to the mountain was still pretty good, the wind had come up and the haze was increasing. There was no reflection at Reflection Pond.

When we got to the Ranger Station we were pleasantly surprised to see Ranger Tina, the woman who led our Discovery Hike last Thursday. We had a great time then and she was happy to see us again. She was only at the station waiting for the Kantishna Experience bus. It is a daily tour bus out to Kantishna which stops at the ranger station to pick up a ranger who gives a two hour tour of  the town site talking about the history of the town and the mining in the area. Today it was Ranger Tina. We talked for a while about our stay in the park and Tina gave a bit of the Kantishna story...and I got the stamp. 

Her bus arrived and we said our good byes. We looked around the station a bit. It was built in the 1930's by the CCC and renovated in the 2000's. There are also a couple of smaller cabins and several park employees live out there in the summer. It is undoubtedly the spot with the best view in the park. We also took advantage of the outhouses. The women's is a pair of facilities, but the men have a five-holer. It must be an ancient Roman design...or dates back to the CCC camp days.

We then hiked back to the intersection to wait for a bus from either Wonder Lake or Kantishna. The first bus that came along didn't seem to be on the schedule. It was the returning Discovery Hike bus which goes all the way to the lake after leaving off the Discovery Hikers...and it was driven today by Dale, who was our driver on the first Discovery Hike with Tina. He also recognized us and welcomed us aboard...after first admonishing us to pack away our bear spray. While the rangers continually remind us to carry bear spray when hiking, we must put it inside our packs when on the buses. It seems there was once an incident....

The ride back was even quieter than on the way out, with only a few caribou. We saw no bears all day either during the nine hours on the bus or when hiking. Since we'd seen at least six bears on every other bus ride, we could only conclude that it was the bears' day off.

When we got back, Harry and Sally (and Nina) had gone. They decided that they didn't want to stay around for the predicted rain and continued south ahead of us and will probably get a head start on fishing. We expect to reconnect after we leave Denali on Friday.