Backpacking #4. Our last backpacking in Denali.
As I wrote before, currently Denali National Park is closed more than half due to landslide. These units are the edge of open area. This closure is a little tricky term in this case. In fact, you can go to the units beyond the road closure point by foot. The closure is due to sink of park's only road. Therefore if you hike beyond that point by avoiding road, you can go anywhere. We went to Unit8 and Unit31 These units are just beyond the closure point. So we took off bus the closure point and started backpacking. 8 and 31 sounds far apart numbers, but Unit8 and and Unit31 are next each other across the road.
<Day1>
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East Fork River
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The hike started walking on the river bar of East Fork river. Pretty scenery from the very beginning...Polychrome glaciers were seen from the river walk. Massive glaciers.
East Fork river consists of many small streams, meaning we had to cross a lot. Luckily it was not deep, mostly under knee level.
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home for 2 nights
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We actually saw landslide area over the cliff of river. This landslide caused the closure of half the Danali National park. First day we walked around 3 hours and pitched a tent.
<Day2>
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The bull
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Day2 morning was really really interesting and so much exciting. As a wilderness practice, backpackers need to eat/cook at least 100 meters away from a tent. While we were eating breakfast, two moose show up at the top of hill. One female and a male. Males have antlers and females don't. You can see the female in the left and a bull on the right at the hill in above picture. For a while they stood on the hill, but later the female went down the hill and ate some tundra at the bottom of the hill. The bull monitors her from the top of hill. The picture is the bull looking at the female eating plants.
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| Cow |
She ate for sometime, maybe 5-10 minutes, and started jogging toward opposite direction of the bull. We were a bit concerned because she jog to our tent area. She actually passed by really close to our tent. Once she started moving, the bull came down the hill and slashed his antlers, meaning shaked his antlers in the bushes. In the rutting season, males do this to impress females. After a big slash, he started running to follow the female. While he was running, he said, "bu, bu, bu" He came down between our tent and our breakfast place. Once he came down we realized how huge he was. Actually it was quite close, we stepped away about 10 meters. I had never seen moose so close! He is immense and muscular. The nosie he made was also large. Wow.
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Bull moose
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It was truly a rare incident to observe, especially considering this kind of behavior only happens in the mating season. Also it was very lucky that we had an opportunity to see the entire process for 30 minutes!
The day was started with this amazing moose, then we headed for a day hike. We decided to walk on the ridge behind our tent spot.
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| Climbing |
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Denali view
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This is one of my favorites picture of the trip. There are a series of Polychrome glaciers in the distance. On a previous day we walked from the left in picture between the dark shaded hill and the range of glacier peaks. Our tent is near the pond in the picture. Then we climbed to the ridge. You can see Mr.N in the picture. I usually don't include humans in my nature pictures, but in this way you can tell how vast Alaska is by using a human as a reference. It was on a warm clear day and we were able to see Denali. Denali is massive even far from it. The permanent white is very attractive and beautiful. It is charismatic, welcoming and unforgiving at the same time. Walking on the ridge in the Polychrome mountain area was extremely pleasant. One side was a Denali scene, and the other side is a totally different view.
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Wyoming Hills
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The left picture is looking at the Wyoming hills. I don't know why it is called Wyoming, but it is pretty. In contrast to massive glaciers, it looked like a dry grey/brown hills. It is interesting to see such a different scenery from the same spot. Luckily it was not windy even on a ridge where it is usually super windy. Another view from the same ridge is Polychrome mountains (the entire area is all called Polychrome mountains as a whole) as below picture. There is a group of dall sheep in the below picture. Can you find them? They are soaking up the sun on a nice day on the ridge. This is a difficult quiz!
On theway to the ridge we saw another wildlife. This time small ones. These are voles. I looked up online later and learned that there are 5 species of voles in Denali National Park! Most likely, these are northern red-backed voles. They were busy and put their head out from their home and went inside a lot. Cute!
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Ridge wenwent
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After a lot of enjoyment, we came down to the meadow. The left picture is looking at the ridge we walked from the bottom. It was one of rare days that I was able to take out socks after hike and relaxed near the tent until sunset. Of course once sun set, it became very quickly cold.
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Polychrome glaciers
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During dinner we were amazed by the view glacier getting warm orange light. It was incredible.
Although it was clear day we didn't see northern light at night. I think that there was not enough sun activities to generate aurora.
<Day3>
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| Polychrome |
On the 3rd day we went to the polychrome glacier area. We walked toward glaciers and found a nice spot to camp for the 3rd and 4th days. Then we took a day pack to walk on the ridge toward glaciers. As the name Polychrome indicates, the hills were with many colors. Orange, blue, yellow, black, brown, grey, etc. Especially orange was vivid and the stream of orange was spectacular. I had no idea what caused these colors, but it is simply beautiful.
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| Grizzly |
Then! We saw a bear. It was far away, but it is clearly a grizzly. He was climbing the very steep gully. The area was little plants, and very few food source (I think). The bear was really fast going up on the almost 80 degree gully. One point near the top, it was so steep and even the bear needed to switch back a little. What is he doing in the food scarce area? Who knows. Maybe a juvenile bear without much experience? He quickly reached the top of gully and went over the ridge. Once we climbed to the ridge where I could see over the top, he was gone (we took an hour, he took 3 minutes).
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polychrome glacier
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It was even more massive when I saw polychrome glacier from closer distance. One thing it is unique in Denali National Park is there is rock glacier. As you can see in the left picture, the top portion is typical white glacier. The lower portion of glacier is covered by rock. So it looked like just brown rocks, but actually glacier. It shouldn't be walked on: dangerous you might fall. Anyhow it is quite an experience to see those significant nature products. After a while we reached a too sharp needle to pass through and it started raining we came back to our tent.
<Day4>
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Glacier
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At night the rain became snow and we had a fresh snow on the ridge walk on day4. In the left picture you can see rock glacier portion got a fresh snow. The left ridge in the picture was the one we walked on a previous day and on day4 we walked the other ridge. It was luckily clear sunny day and the view was gorgeous.
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| Denali |
Luckily we had another Denali view on that day. Probably my favorite view of Denali.
Denali is very white and the edges are very sharp. It is so high and always it looks like connected to the sky. A lot of moments during this Alaska trip, I saw white clouds melt into sky and it like a continuous structure with Denali and sky.
On this day Denali was clearly separated from sky and showing off its tremendous existence. What a mountain.
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Another view
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In the afternoon, fresh snow was melted and large rock glacier became again brown (left picture). It snows in August and September in Denali, but it melts very quickly once sun comes off.
After Alaska trip, I sometimes see Denali's weather on my App: now it never gets above 0C. Actually in November it is always around -20C! I wonder how it looks like now.
<Day5>
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Caribou
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The final day of this 4th backpacking, and final day of Alaska trip! It is always hard to leave an awesome place.
We traced back the river bank to our starting point. We saw a mother caribou and two babies! Very cute.
Overall, all the 4 backpacking trips in Denali National Park were ultra mega very great. It is a lifetime memory.
