Three days in Denali

Despite persistent rain, we had an incredible experience in Denali during our three days in the park.

Day 1

North Face Lodge offers three levels of daily excursions: a “foray” that’s pretty relaxed, a moderate hike, and a strenuous hike.  We chose the foray on the first day, figuring we’d ease into things.

Our wonderful guide Iris started us off in the tundra around the lodge, pointing out the flora.  We spent an hour or so looking carefully at everything underfoot – tiny flowers, ripening cranberries, and all kinds of lichen.  Do you know the saying about lichen?  Alice Algae and Freddy Fungus took a “lichen” to each other, but now their relationship is on the rocks.  I learned a lot about lichen on this trip.

Next, we took a short drive towards Wonder Lake for a hike along a narrow trail.  I decided it would be more fun to explore a little, so I walked in parallel to the group, away from the path.  (As an aside, when walking in a group off-trail, you should never follow each other but rather spread out to lessen impact on the tundra.)

When we reached a scenic hilltop overlooking the lake, we settled down to have lunch.  We’d each packed our own that morning – turkey and swiss sandwiches we made ourselves, carrot sticks, trail mix, and brownies.

Iris had a surprise for us too – big Thermoses of hot water to make cocoa or tea.  Just what we needed on a damp, chilly day!

Day 2

D’s mother and I decided to join the moderate hike, which took place about an hour from the lodge, back towards the park entrance.  Under normal circumstances, I think this would have been a delightful ramble.

Thanks to the continued rain, however, our moderate hike became quite an adventure.  What were normally small streams had turned into torrential mini-rivers, meaning that instead of stepping over them, we had to jump across several feet of roaring water, again and again, to get anywhere.  Sometimes we had to walk well out of our way trying to find a safe place to cross.  And eventually, we came across some areas where the water was so wide we simply had to wade into it and walk across, icy water topping our boots.

Here’s a photo from D’s mother, which doesn’t quite capture the rain but does give you a sense of our adventure.  That’s me in the white jacket with orange backpack.

The silver lining of a rainy hike with minimal visibility is that you spend a lot of time looking down to notice the flowers.  At least they appreciate the rain!

We climbed up to a spot between two high ridges for lunch, somewhat out of the wind, and unwrapped our lunches.  My bag was completely soaked, but thankfully the wax paper holding my sandwich had kept it mostly dry.

We got back to the bus nearly six hours after we’d started, and the first order of business was peeling off our wet clothes.  My rain jacket, thin down jacket, and top layer were all soaked, and the shirt beneath that was wet to the elbows; thankfully we had planned ahead with dry layers and shoes to wear on the ride home.

We hung up our clothes in the back of the bus, which made for a funny scene.

Day 3

Another rainy day, and perhaps unsurprisingly, none of us who had done the “moderate” hike the day before were up for another round.  So instead, our ever-cheerful guides arranged for some local exploration, mostly via van.  (Hooray!)

First up was a drive to the “end of the road” in Kantishna, just a few miles past the lodge.  There’s a small airstrip there, along with a corrugated tin building shed whose faded sign declares it “Kantishna International”.

After that, we took a drive to look for local wildlife.  Lots of birds in the kettle ponds, including several families of ducks and loons, and a very cute little guy on his own.  We also saw several moose out enjoying the damp weather (moose don’t like the heat).

I was more than happy to spend the rest of the day back at the lodge, reading by the fire and just relaxing, while the rain continued to patter down outside.