We've Run Out of Superlatives

When we last left you, we were headed to adult summer camp at Denali National Park. We drove north from Willow on spectacularly clear day, and made a bunch of stops to take pictures of the mountains from the highway that runs up the right side of the park. On the night of the Sunday the 15th we stayed at a great lodge that's run by a man who was a Denali National Park ranger and sled dog musher for the park service for many years. Now he and his wife run a lodge all year and give sled dog tours in the winter. It was a great spot and we got to tour the kennel and meet all the dogs in the morning.

On Monday the 16th we drove down to the entrance of the park and met our bus. You can only drive a private car 14 miles into the park without a permit, so most people tour on buses that drive in and out in a single day (180 miles round-trip). We lucked out and got a last-minute reservation at a place called Camp Denali, which is one of the very few places to stay deep within the park. Our bus driver was also a naturalist and pointed out animals and geology to us on the whole 8-hour ride into our camp. The highlight of the ride in was having a brown bear walk along the length of our bus, not more than 5 feet away. Amazing.

Camp Denali was unbelievably great. We had a little cabin with a wood stove and water just outside the door. Most cabins had outhouses, but we were right next to the real bathrooms. We were fed gourmet breakfast and dinner in a communal dining hall using local, organic ingredients. And there was a lunch line where we packed up our own sack lunches before heading out for the day. The sandwich bread was incredible and the brownies were even better.

Each day we had our pick of strenuous, moderate, or "foray" hikes (we always picked moderate) that are led by the camp's team of naturalists. Camp Denali has a special agreement with the park service so they are the only camp/lodge/etc that's allowed to lead groups in the park, which meant we got to do awesome things like hike across spongy tundra (unreal!) and drink water from a spring. The guides identified and told us about all the wild flowers, other plants, wildlife, wildlife scat (poop) and tracks, geology and more. The entire staff was amazing in both their knowledge (they all had at least master's degrees), kindness, skill, and just general coolness.

The other guests were also fascinating. We were by far the youngest people there except for a honeymooning couple that kept mostly to themselves. But we still had a great time joking around and getting to know almost everyone there. The camp is small--they don't like to have more than 40 guests at a time--so we got to know just about everyone.

And the national park itself--amazing. At first it seems stark in so much of the park, but being able to get up close to the plants was just incredible. The mountains were stunning. Denali (also known as Mt. McKinley) is the largest mountain in North America and creates its own weather systems that keep it clouded almost all the time. We had overcast skies and rain regularly, but that didn't reduce the beauty at all. On Friday we woke at 5 AM for breakfast and our bus ride out, and the day cleared and we saw all the mountains, including Denali, in all their glory. Absolutely amazing. As the title says--we've run out of superlatives. The only bad part was another superlative--the most and largest mosquitos either of us had ever seen. A combination of repellant, mosquito netting for our heads, layers of clothing, liberal use of Afterbite, and (eventually) a zen attitude got us through that.

While in Denali we saw brown bear, moose, caribou, red fox, short-tailed weasel, dall sheep, snow shoe hare, hoary marmot, ground squirrel, red squirrel, beaver, and we even got an up close viewing of one of the most elusive animals: a wolf.

Pictures won't do our experience justice, but I'll try to get something posted soon.

After we left Denali we made our way back south to Anchorage for the night, and then south again to Seward. On the way down we stopped at a wildlife conservation center that takes in animals that have been injured by humans and can't stay in the wild anymore, and then by the Exit Glacier for some close-up glacier viewing on foot. Tomorrow we're taking a 9-hour cruise to see the glaciers at the south part of the Kenai Peninsula. We're so exhausted even posting is a challenge but having a great time. Alaska is awesome in the original sense of the word.