We were so very, very lucky to have about three days of beautiful weather during our six days in the Tek campground 29 miles inside of Denali National Park. This entry is really a summary of our six days spent in the campground; We arrived last Wednesday and on Thursday had our obligatory bus ride farther into the park. We had two reserved seats on
the green shuttle bus which conveniently picked us up at the campground’s bus stop. We boarded the bus at 10:30 am, almost right on time. The bus was already packed but we had two reserved seats – for a while we weren’t sure if our two reserved seats would be together! Fortunately somebody made room for us on the very last row. Thus began our very jarring and dusty journey of discovery in the back of the bus that would not end until 7 PM. (While Jane and John are glad to have been on the bus, it is extremely unlikely they will again submit their spinal column to more hours of abuse in the Green Monster.)
Fortunately there were regular rest stops and everybody was pretty disciplined about getting back on the bus at the appointed minute. We were a little disappointed at the lack of wildlife encountered on our day with the bus. Our tally for the day were two sets
of Grizzly bear moms with cubs (viewed at about a mile’s distance), a moose or two (not a big deal in Alaska), and a couple of Caribou. We actually saw more wildlife on the highway going through British Columbia; we had to be careful not to literally run into any Bison or Caribou hanging around the road. Animals are certainly one important reason to visit Denali National Park, the scenery is the other primary attraction and there was plenty available. The miles of open tundra juxtaposed with snow-capped mountains reaching thousands and thousands of feet into the atmosphere is such a dramatic contrast it must be seen in person. Thousands have made the trek since the park’s creation in 1917 to gaze at the six million acres of God’s beauty and wonder. You should also. Even so, we were very happy to be disgorged from the bus at our campground. John was so thrilled the bus ride was almost over, he tipped the driver $10 at the previous rest stop just to make sure he didn’t forget to let us off.
We have been carrying our Trek bicycles with us for thousands of miles and have not really used them like we intended. Back in DeLand when we had a routine going, we would bike about 30 to 50 miles a week. Since we have been on the road, we haven’t ridden them more than two or three times. John wanted to try to bike in Denali so we made the effort to load them into the coach and hauled them to the campground. We finally got our chance on Sunday July 23 to put some miles on the bikes. We headed farther in to the park which was a good thing because there was a nice positive elevation change for the half of our 14 mile trip gaining about 600 feet. It was great going mostly downhill for the last seven miles and John’s bike computer (he loves his computers) recorded a maximum speed
of 29.4 MPH and a ride time of 1 hour and 52 minutes. The Green Monsters were still destined to cause us misery though – every time they passed us we were enveloped in a blizzard of dust. Even in spite of the Green Monster dust machine, it was special to be on our own to stop when we wanted and where we wanted. Jane packed a snack of cheese and we stopped by a nice little stream and ate our cheese and explored the stream bed while busload after busload of trapped riders gazed longingly out their little windows at us. We looked back at them like a brand-new U.S. Marine Private would look at a fresh batch of recruits – we’ve been there, been tested, and came back bruised but safe from our personal encounter with the Green Machine last Thursday.
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