| Campground: | Rivers Edge RV Park & Campground, 4140 Boat St, Fairbanks, AK 99709. |
| Total Distance: | 5774 Miles. |
| Traveled Today: | 133 Miles. |
| Key highlights | Ranger Discovery Hike in Denali’s Cathedral Mountain 49th State Brewing – Denali Park, 248 Parks Hwy 5 mile, Healy, AK 99743 |
9:31 AM
The Denali statistic says that Denali mountain is mainly in the clouds, and it is a clear day in Denali less than 20% of the time. So, according to the forecast, we prepared last night for a wilderness hike in the rain. Because there is light here all the time, the only way to tell morning is by looking at your watch. So as morning time came, we opened the window and saw that Denali NP looked different:
- The air was crisp.
- All the smoke from the woodfires around was gone.
- Scattered clouds were gently floating in clear blue skies.
We “checked out” from the campground and drove our RV to the Bus-Depot, where we boarded the green transit bus again for the Discovery Hike (code name Disco hike), together with a group of 11. Shortly after the drive started, we saw (what the guides said is) a rare sighting of a Mosses female, together with her toddler (likely 1-year-old) Moose and a young cub Moose roaming on the road. We drove ~38 Miles to the foot of Cathedral Mountain, where we dropped off the bus for a lengthy brief on hiking in the wilderness by the local ranger. The great thing about this hike is that it gives you the basics of traveling in the wilderness and breaks all the fears and hesitations we had: it immediately crosses a stream that was deeper than our shoes- so despite waterproof boots – your feet are wet. Then we navigated straight in the scree – and paved our way in bushes that we would never do otherwise. It continues with silly shouts to let the bears know we are around. Last – the ranger marked the point we planned to meet at – and we spread around the hill, climbing without creating a line to avoid scratching new trails. As one of our team members was not fit enough for this moderate hike, the ranger took us down from the hill to the ponds, which left us curious about the view from the top. Then things started to turn even more for the better: We saw our first Grizzley Bear in Denali, an eagle sighting, and our first (and only so far Caribou on this trip). By then, we knew most of the team and realized half had polish origins. We immediately felt at home. We were very curious to see the view from the top of the mountains – and we reorganized the group such that all the polish decided to break from the pack. We started hiking by ourselves up the hill (1200 feet elevation gain) to what we thought was the most beautiful hike in the Denali and one of the best hikes of our trip. It was wild, unplanned, unpaved, mysterious, and highly rewarding with spectacular views and the company of a fantastic (age-diverse) group.
As we were heading back to the park entrance, it happened: the sky cleared again – and there it was – the Denali Mountain was touching the sky with its full glory, ending up our best day in Denali. You need to give statistics a chance in these places – and coming to Denali is likely requiring some extended time to get to see and understand this place.
At around 0530pm, we were back at our car, starting to head to Fairbanks. Based on the recommendation from our new group friends, we stopped at Heily to continue the exploration of the local brewery and had dinner and fantastic (Alaska’s best in my mind) beer in the 49th State Brewery. The place was beautiful, the decoration was fascinating, the huge site was packed, and the food was fun.