We drove off the Denali Highway and went to a super nice grocery store in Healy, which was completely unexpected. We didn’t expect a tourist town in Alaska to have a grocery store with fresh wild caught salmon, and good fairly reasonably priced fresh produce, but they did. After stocking up, we drove into Denali National Park and checked into Riley Creek Campground to get the paperwork to head to Teklanika. We had made reservations for three nights at the Teklanika Campground, which we were only able to do because our friend Wayne Hall in Anchorage not only recommended it, but also lurked on line until he found a window with reservations and immediately contacted us to make them. Teklanika is special, and we didn’t even realize how special until we got there. Like the other national parks, Denali is trying to continue to keep the park accessible without having it overrun with tourists, and without having the traffic impact the wildlife and the environment. Part of the effort to do this is to close the road to the public at Savage River, which is only about 15 miles into the park. After Savage River, the only vehicles allowed on the park road are the park buses…and cars and campers going to Teklanika for a minimum three night stay. Those going to Teklanika get a lecture on the rules for driving the road, which are basically to take your time, but go directly to the campground, where you must stay until the day you check out, when you must drive directly back to Savage River.
The park has devised a system where they have a combination of transit buses to move people from point to point in the park after Savage River, and tour buses, which take people to the end of the road with frequent stops to see wildlife. They suggest that people who camp at Teklanika get transit bus permits to get around in the park after the campground, but we elected not to do that, although the park personnel asked us repeatedly if we were sure. The problem for us was that the transit bus tickets were over $30/person/day. Normally, the park road runs all the way out to the Eielson visitor center and Wonder Lake, but because of a landslide that closed the road, the buses only go about 15 miles beyond Teklanika. If we had had the option to go another 60 miles beyond Teklanika, we would have undoubtedly opted to get transit tickets for at least one of the days we were there, but for 15 miles, we decided that we would just ride our e-bikes as far as we could go. We talked to lots of other campers and found that we were definitely in the minority.
After getting our first lecture at the Riley Creek Campground and being quizzed to make sure we understood the rules, we headed for Savage River and did a great hike. We then went through the last check point and got another extensive briefing by a ranger, and drove the last 15 miles to the campground where we had to stay parked until Monday morning.
The park has devised a system where they have a combination of transit buses to move people from point to point in the park after Savage River, and tour buses, which take people to the end of the road with frequent stops to see wildlife. They suggest that people who camp at Teklanika get transit bus permits to get around in the park after the campground, but we elected not to do that, although the park personnel asked us repeatedly if we were sure. The problem for us was that the transit bus tickets were over $30/person/day. Normally, the park road runs all the way out to the Eielson visitor center and Wonder Lake, but because of a landslide that closed the road, the buses only go about 15 miles beyond Teklanika. If we had had the option to go another 60 miles beyond Teklanika, we would have undoubtedly opted to get transit tickets for at least one of the days we were there, but for 15 miles, we decided that we would just ride our e-bikes as far as we could go. We talked to lots of other campers and found that we were definitely in the minority.
After getting our first lecture at the Riley Creek Campground and being quizzed to make sure we understood the rules, we headed for Savage River and did a great hike. We then went through the last check point and got another extensive briefing by a ranger, and drove the last 15 miles to the campground where we had to stay parked until Monday morning.
We saw our first grizzly with Saturday morning breakfast in the campground. Someone walking his big dog went by the campsite and we heard him say there was a grizzly on the trail. We stayed put, then heard our across the road tent camping neighbors yelling “go away bear,” so we went out to make the group bigger and make more noise. The bear was standing at the edge of the clearing, not more than 20 feet away, trying to decide if it should join them for breakfast. When all the campers in the area showed up and started yelling, he turned around and wandered away, stopping for a roll in the grass. Part of the ranger’s briefing had been how to react at bear encounters, and we were glad that not only had we listened, but all of the other campers in our area had listened as well.
The rest of Saturday was not too exciting. We took a nice walk west to the bridge over the river, which was about 2 1/2 miles, and then turned around and came back and cut down to the river to walk along the wash back to the campground. After lunch, we got on our e-bikes to head towards the end of the road. We peddled uphill for about 10 miles and right before the crest of the hill in Sable Pass, Tom’s bike started making a funny noise and his chain was off. But it wasn’t just the chain. The whole sprocket was broken. Fortunately the first 10 miles had been uphill and we hadn’t started down the other side yet so we were able to coast back with only some pushing and skating by Tom on the broken bike. Somehow, we made it back almost as quickly as we made it out.
Sunday was much more fun. Some fellow campers offered Tom the loan of an E-bike so we could do the ride on Sunday that we had intended to do on Saturday. It was a great ride and we made it almost to the end, when we were turned around by a ranger because there was a bear in the road which we only saw from a distance. We rode back through the pass, and were about halfway down the first long hill when we saw a ranger truck parked by the side of the road. We stopped and realized she was looking at a mother grizzly with 3 cubs. We watched them amble along the mountainside for a while, until they went over the crest of a hill and we couldn’t see them. We also saw a bunch of marmots, and were somewhat shocked to find out that they were carnivorous, since one was eating a dead bird, and another was chewing on another dead marmot’s skin. Most importantly, we made it back to the campground with no broken bikes or other disasters. When we got back to the campground we talked to fellow campers, and we realized that one of the magical things about Denali is that no matter what your interests or abilities, you can have an adventure. We had an adventure because we were turned back less than a mile from our goal because we couldn’t get any closer to a bear on our bikes. The people on the bus by the bear were having an adventure because they were face to face with the bear. Some other campers were hiking over a bridge, and realized a mama bear and a couple of cubs were right under the bridge. Another group we talked to had been out in the back country climbing a mountain, when they realized a bear was immediately below them in a ravine. And that’s just the bear adventures!
