Monday morning, we gave Jim and Tracy, the e-bike loaners, a tour of the camper before we pulled out of Teklanika, and then took our time getting back to Savage River. Thanks to Princha, we saw a caribou trotting through the bush, and we also got a lucky view of Denali as the clouds cleared. At Savage River, we hiked the Savage River trail, and then headed to the visitor center where we hiked the 4 mile Horseshoe Lake Loop. We used the park dump station to dump our gray water and fill with fresh water, and then headed south on Hwy. 3, where, thanks to iOverlander, we found a free campground behind a rest area at mile 185.5. It’s a cool thing that more states should do; the rest area has pit toilets, plenty of parking, and an 8-hour limit sign. But, on a loop behind the rest area, they have paved campsites with picnic tables and fire rings, as well as another pit toilet and garbage collection. Only 4 of 10 sites were occupied that night, so while people seem to know about the facility, it isn’t over used or abused. We could hear the highway, but couldn’t see anything other than forest and mountains. It certainly wasn’t a pleasantly remote campground like Teklanika, but for a free place to pull over for the night and sleep between the “real” stops, it was great.
The next morning, we had stunningly clear views of Denali as we drove south on Rt. 3. We decided to stop at Byers Lake, which Wayne and Marilyn had recommended, and hoped to hike to the other side of the lake from the campground to see the view of Denali. We pulled into the almost empty campground before 1pm, parked, had lunch, and walked around to the other side of the lake in hopes of another Denali view but the clouds had rolled in and it had disappeared. We later realized how lucky we were to have seen the view we did, when we talked to a bunch of other people who hadn’t been so lucky. Despite not getting another view of the mountain, we saw bear poop on the trail, and crossed a bridge over a creek teeming with salmon, which was our first glimpse of spawning season. A few more campers pulled in late in the day, but the campground remained very empty.
