The only road that goes in to Denali National Park extends 92 miles west from the main Visitor Center. The first 15 miles, which are paved, are open to all visitors using their personal vehicles. When the buses stopped running on September 15, the next 15 miles are also opened to all visitors, weather permitting. That goes at far as the Teklanika River campground, and was where I had to turn around today.
Beyond that campground the road continues to Mile Marker 53, the Toklat River ranger station, then to Mile Marker 66, the Eielson Visitor Center, then to Mile Marker 85, Wonder Lake (which has a spectacular view of Mt. Denali), and ends at Mile Marker 92, where there is an airstrip for planes.
Here are more of the things I saw as I drove from Mile Marker 15 to Mile Marker 30:
That was as far as I was allowed to drive in today. I don’t think I was anywhere near Mt. Denali itself so I doubt if I somehow got a photo of it. I wasn’t very close to any of the mountains I saw, and the road went up and down between hills which probably blocked my view looking deeper into the Park.
I stopped taking photos and focused more on looking for animals on the way out. It was almost 6pm when I turned around and I’ve heard that wildlife sighting typically increase in the morning early morning and early evening. Black bears may have started hibernating but grizzly bears may have still be out and about. I did speak to a couple from Europe when I was here two weeks ago and they had a video of three grizzly bears crossing the road just a few feet in front of their vehicle, and they said it was on the section of road back here.
If I had known that I wouldn’t have an opportunity to speak with any rangers on this visit I might have asked more questions when I was here about two weeks ago. Never having been here I had no idea what to expect.
This was my only opportunity to drive the additional 15 miles in. There will be more snow arriving overnight and the gate at the Savage River bridge was closed for the remainder of my visit.
Having driven up from Wasilla, I had now arrived at the Park. My first sign that there was something amiss was when I pulled into the parking lot at the Visitor Center. Hardly any cars. I had been here about two weeks ago and while it wasn’t “packed” by any means, there were definitely a lot more vehicles. I also discovered that the large Visitor Center I had been in two weeks ago was closed, with a sign directing people to the “Winter Visitor Center,” a short walk away.
I walked down the hill to the other Visitor Center, only to find that it, too, was closed.
I walked back to where I had parked and found that a few other vehicles had arrived. I told them not to bother going down the hill. This was when someone mentioned that the US Government had “shut down” the night before due to a funding bill not being passed. I knew that the last time that happened the National Parks remained open, but with limited staffing. I explained that in my opinion, if we weren’t supposed to go in they would most likely have had a barrier across the road to keep us out.
I went ahead and drove in, but I believe most of the people I had seen probably left, thinking the Park was actually closed, because I hardly saw any vehicles after I went in. I did see two Park rangers drive by at various times during the day but they never stopped to talk with me.
My first stop was at the viewpoint where I theoretically could have seen Mt. Denali if the conditions were right. Given how poor the distance visibility was as I drove up I wasn’t terribly optimistic.
Nope. I could barely even see the shorter mountains which were much closer.
I proceeded to drive in on the 15 miles of paved road which I knew would be open. There had obviously been some snowfall recently and these are the things I saw. Most of the mountains I will show you were on the left side of the road going in. Having been here two weeks ago, I knew they were larger and more “impressive” than the ones on the right.
The next two were on the right. They basically start higher than the road surface so I was looking up at them.
Back to the left side:
The next shot is looking right from the same spot on the road. This is one of the places which drain water runoff from the mountains on the right, downhill to a river near the base of the mountains on the left.
Three more on the left:
One last one on the right:
This is from the road looking back towards the Park entrance.
I honestly didn’t remember that I could see that many mountains looking that direction but there they are. They may not have had snow on them when I was here previously, so wouldn’t have been as noticeable.
I continued deeper into the Park towards the gate at the 15-mile mark.
This is the small parking area there. It is the end of the paved road and is normally where regular vehicles must stop and turn around. As you can see, there were only two vehicles parked there, and it was 440pm.
This is the mountain on the opposite side of the Savage River:
And this is the bridge which crosses the river.
This is me driving over the bridge!
The gate was OPEN and the rangers I had spoken with two weeks ago told me that since the Park buses had stopped running for the season, visitors were allowed to drive in an additional 15 miles on a dirt road, weather permitting. As it turned out, there will be snow coming overnight so today will be the only day I will be able to drive to the “Back 15”.
I will show you those photos tomorrow in the next two posts. There are lots of photos but I have gone through them several times trying to pick the best ones. I will tell you now that I saw NO animals! Based on my discussions with other visitors two weeks ago it sounded like the “Back 15” was the most likely place to see bears, but don’t get your hopes up. While I spent lots of time every day scanning the fields for moose or bears (sometimes with my binoculars), I hardly saw any animals the whole time I was here.
I decided to spend a little bit of time in Denali National Park while on my way to Fairbanks so I could get an idea what to expect when I come back later to spend several days here.
One of the signs at the entrance had a great photo of Mt. Denali, as seen from high above Wonder Lake, well within the Park.
Here is a map of the only road within the Park.
(Photo credit: NPS.gov/Denali)
The majority of the time that the Park is open, passenger vehicles may only drive the first 15 miles of the road unless they have a special permit to go further. Park buses transport visitors deeper into the Park, and are the best way to see much more of the Park’s interior (and get closer to Mt. Denali itself).
The buses stopped running for the season on September 15, so the rangers told me I could now travel an additional 15 miles (on an unpaved road) IF the weather permitted it. I was here on the 19th, but the road had already been shut down once this month for a snow event.
Here are some of the things I saw on this first visit:
That is a metallic bear outside the Visitor Center.
That is a view of the “Puppy Cam”. There were signs on Park Road which warned drivers to watch out for Sled Dogs which may be exercising along the road. As you can see, they were all zonked out in one of their enclosures and I never did see any out and about.
That is a 3-D relief map showing Mount Denali (aka Mt. McKinley) and it’s proximity to Wonder Lake. In the lower left hand corner you can also see a reference to the Eielson Visitor Center, located within the Park and only accessible by bus. I am at the Main Visitor Center out near Hwy 3.
That is another angle of the relief map showing the Main Visitor Center at the bottom, and revealing that from this vantage point, and the first 15 miles of the Park Road I was allowed to drive on (to the Savage River), I would be looking down the spine of what I call the “Denali Complex” of mountains. There is one spot where I theoretically could see Mt. Denali from the Park Road but we’ll see how well that works out…
OK. Enough talk. Let’s get out on Park Road and see what’s in store for us.
From the Visitor Center the road climbs up to about 3,000 feet elevation and is then fairly level for most of the first 15 miles. There are mountains on both sides, but fairly far off the road. There were 3 or 4 wide, rocky spots (shown above) where the snowmelt drains from the mountains on the right (north of the road) towards the south. The photos above are looking south so the water would be running away from here in the Spring.
The photo above is looking north from the same spot on the road. Those mountains are a little closer to the road and not as tall or “jagged” as the ones to the south.
The mountains to the south are taller and many had snow on them already. I don’t believe I saw snow on the mountains to the north this trip but they will have snow when I return in about 2 weeks.
This is getting close to the 15 mile-mark and the road changes elevation slightly before going up to a high point, then dropping down to the Savage River. You can see relatively short pine trees scattered about and brown scrub brush (you’ll see a better photo of it in the next post) in the “open” areas. The scrub brush ranged from knee-high to almost chest-high in places.
The photo above shows a large brown mountain which is on the other side of the Savage River. You can see a road climbing the hill to the left but it is the dirt road on the other side of the 15-mile bridge.
The rock formation shown above is next to a parking area just before the bridge.
That shows two hikers near the left base of the big formation, giving it some size perspective.
That is from that parking area looking north. There are hiking trails on both sides of the river, which is between the two hills.
That is the bridge going over the Savage River (2,780 feet elevation at this point). The dirt road to the left on the other side continues deeper into the Park. The road on the right appeared to be additional parking for hikers. There is a shack on the other side of the bridge in which a ranger will check permits for those drivers wanting to go further. There was a gate on this side of the bridge which was closed if people weren’t supposed to continue due to weather.
I was told by the rangers that people could continue to Mile 30 since the buses were no longer running, which is why you are seeing vehicles on the other side.
The next post will contain photos driving back out towards Hwy 3, a chance to perhaps see Mt. Denali, and my first wildlife sighting in the Park.
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