Backpacking in Denali National Park, Alaska#4, Unit8 and Unit31

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>

East Fork River

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. 

home for 2 nights

 

 

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>

The bull

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. 

 

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.

Bull moose

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.

Climbing

 

Denali view

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.

Wyoming Hills

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! 

 

Ridge wenwent

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. 

 

 

Polychrome glaciers

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>

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. 

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).

polychrome glacier

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>

Glacier

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. 

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. 

 

 

 

 

Another view

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>

 

Caribou

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.

Backpacking in Denali National Park, Alaska #3 Unit26 and Unit27

3rd backpacking! Our 3rd backpacking was 2 nights in Unit26 then 2 nights in Unit27. Because these units are next each other, we could combine the Unit26 and 27 permits and did 4 nights 5 day backpacking. 

<Day1>

vast!

We took off the Denali National park bus and started walking in the Unit26. Then immediately light rain started. We put on rain gears. Soon we heard thunder. Hummm. We wondered if it was safe to continue going up to the ridge. Since ridges are the most dangerous place to be under thunderstorm. We stopped and assessed the sky if more thunder would come. Although a lot of grey clouds were around, no more thunders were heard. So we decided to continue. Rain was not so bad: mostly drizzling. After nice climbing we reached the ridge. It was not raining on the ridge and the view was dynamic and cool.

A group of Dall sheep

Dall sheep

We wander around the ridge area, and saw white spots on the further up ridge. What are they? We walked towards those and found out they are Dall sheep! Dall sheep habitats only in Alaska and northern Canada. Males have bigger horns and females have smaller ones. I had never seen them. They are so cute!!! It was extremely exciting to see wildlife. They were eating tundra and kept moving slowly. They eat for a few seconds, move a few steps, then eat, and repeat. Observing them was really precious and even I forgot I was carrying a heavy backpack while I was standing. After we enjoyed them a while, we searched a camping spot and pitched a tent. It was hard to find a perfect spot, since everywhere was exposed. We saw raining on the other valley, so we knew eventually rain would come to us. 

rain in the distance

As you can see in the right picture, on the ridge I was under the sun at that moment, but in the distance it was raining. One of the valleys raining in the picture is Savage river we had backpacked until previous day. From the ridge it was amazing to see the dynamics of weather in Alaska. Raining is kind of regional: it is clear how nonsense to check weather forecast of Denali National Park. Even the next unit is quite different weather within the Denali National Park, and there are 87 units in the park!

1st and 2nd nights' home

Anyhow, we picked a place and made it home for 2 days. What a beautiful spot! All the magnificent mountains are visible from "home". Also it was interesting to see how weather changes in Denali. Clouds and sun moves a lot. The view changed literally every minutes. We ate Japanese curry dinner (Yum!) with gorgeous scenery. 

clouds rolling in

After dinner clouds were rolling from the other side of the ridge (right picture), and we were in the fog. Soon we went to bed, and rain came at night. 

<Day2>
Next morning I woke up by the sound of rain pouring the tent. Ah, okay it was the rainy day. We had a breakfast, then went back to a sleeping bag. When everything is wet, it is super cold in general, even if it is above freezing point. I slept long but surprisingly I was able to take a nap after breakfast. We slept in until 11 a.m. or so, and we had lunch. It was still wet, but the rain stopped although it was full of grey clouds. So we decided to walk on the ridge to the east side, because we planned to go to west the next day. 

2 dall sheep

We hiked up to the hill that you can see in the left picture. Can you see two Dall sheep in the picture? They were laying down. Very cute! On our previous backpacks we didn't even see one Dall sheep, but on this ridge we already saw 15 of them. Maybe there are good plants for them there. 

So cute!!!

The right picture was taken when we got closer to the Dall sheep. I took a picture with zoom. They are very calm and peaceful animal. His facial expression is warm. I admire them living in the harsh environment. 

nom nom nom

We hiked up to the hill and came back to the same point and saw the same 2 Dall sheep were eating. This left picture is one of my favorites from Denali trip. 

After a walk rain came back so we ate dinner and went to bed. During night rain continued and it became snow. 

<Day3>

caribou in the snow

I went out from tent in the morning and saw all white. AND cold! Really cold. Good thing was it became sunny! So we decided to take time and let wet tent and wet sleeping bag dry in the sun. As sun rose up, it became much warmer. Extra pleased for the sun after cold 2 days. During breakfast, 2 caribou showed up in the snow. They were eating breakfast, too. They are both males and once they sparred (not a serious fight, but practice of fight). Interesting!  Then one point both caribou ran to the left quickly. I was wondering what happened and kept observing. Then we saw a small fox running away from the caribou. Ha. Maybe caribou were surprised by the fox and ran quickly then made the fox run away. So much wildlife!

While we let the tent have sunlight, we hiked ups to the Margaret mountain which was behind our tent. Below picture was take from the mountain. It was sunny enough to see Denali. Fresh snow was really pretty. Because it was really sunny, the snow quickly melted. On the way to the mountain was much more snow when we hiked down. 

Nice view

When we came down from the mountain, the 2 caribou we saw were still around and now posed for me. As you can see the ground is no more snow compared to the morning caribou photo. 

So cool

Female group

Male group

After pleasant walk in the morning, we came back to our campsite. Now the tent was completely dry! Yay. Also, the tent got sun and had green house effect: inside was hot and sleeping bag was also entirely dry! We packed up and left for that day's destination, unit27. On the way we saw a group of Dall sheep. This time all females. All of them were laying down in the middle of hill. They were munching: probably the food was going to the 2nd stomach. The cute observation: one of them stood up and dig a little on the ground to make a more comfy smooth bed to lay down. What I like about their faces is that they are smiling (at least look like) and they look happy. That makes me very happy. 

Male group

3rd night camp spot

We enjoyed observing them and started walking again. Then within 20 minutes, we saw another group of Dall sheep. Now all males! We saw at least 11 of them in the group. The picture contains Alaska facts. 1. You might notice Dall sheep trail on the hill. There are occasional game trails in Denali. At lower elevation in the bush, usually moose made them. Here at higher elevation mostly Dall sheep made them. 2. Can you see small pond at the bottom of hill? There are occasional ponds. It is great for us campers to have them. Water was one of our concerns to camp on the ridge, but it was no problem. Then we found a nice spot for the 3rd night campsite and pitched a tent. It was a great spot with Denali view. Super!

<Day4>

At first our plan was to stay the same spot for another night, but the ridge was really windy and cold, we decided to hike down some and camp less windy spot. It turned out the day4's spot was great. It was on the top of hill and we could see the all the vast area below the hill. The lower area had bushes. It was a great area for moose. Indeed we spotted moose. I first saw a shining spot in the bush. At first I thought it might be a rock reflecting sunlight. Soon I noticed the shining spot was moving. It turned out bull's antler reflecting the sunlight. He was bedding. During our dinner preparation and middle of dinner he stayed there. Then he stood up and started eating leaves. About 20 minutes of eating around, he started walking toward to the right. Then we spotted another bull in the far right. It looked like the first bull(#1) going to the another bull (#2). #1 stopped 100 meters before the spot #2 was standing. #1 and #2 looked each other for 15 minutes. Then #1 moved 3 steps to the #2. Then they stared at each other for 10 minutes. Then #2 moved to the #1 for a couple of steps. Another 10 minutes of no moving at all. This procedure was repeated. Each 10 minutes they got close only a few steps. After more than 1 hour, finally they met and started fighting with antlers. WOW. In the mating season, this is what bulls are doing! We were more than 200 meters away, but we were able to hear big noise when antlers hit together. 

FIGHT

The battle itself was not so long: 7-8 minutes. Then #1 was chased away. The winning one stayed the same place and made sure the loser went away. #1 seemed frustrated. He was away from #2 about 100 meters. He slashed his antlers. Seems it was angry. Then I saw a fox was running away from the irritated moose. This was  ultra rare experience. This kind of long observation can be done with only backpacking not from a bus. This was really exciting incident!!!!! The next morning we still saw the 2 bull down there. Actually we had to go through their area to finish the backpack. Although people think grizzly bears are the most dangerous, in fact moose is the biggest size animal in Denali and more accidents/injuries occur by moose than anything else. The moose bulls are 1600 pounds. They could charge humans and no way to win. We kept the facts in mind, we were careful walking in the bush. 

Overall this 3rd backpacking was full of wildlife experience and I had so excitement. 

Backpacking in Denali National Park, Alaska #2 Unit4

 2nd backpacking in Denali was in Unit4, Upper Savage River unit. 

First time in my life seeing aurora in person

Unit4 is called Upper Savage River, the main is obviously the Savage river. From the park road, you start walking on the river bar, then some miles later Alaska mountain range starts. River is a key to the ecosystems. River provides habitats for livings. Indeed, this Savage river valley is a great habitat for moose and bears. 

Here is our 4 nights/5 day backpacking in the Unit4!

<Day1>

At the beginning

You might think backpacking in Alaska sounds all exciting, but remember, you WILL get wet! Being wet is cold!
In fact, from the very beginning, you have no choice but crossing the river (left picture). Cold water from glacier up to your knee high :) While we were checking our backpacks and map before starting, a guy came back from the hike and came to us by crossing river. He had something like rain boots and thick pants that protects from water (I don't know the name but sure there is a special name for it). He is a retired army, living in Alaska for 30 years. He said that this year had the least water flow he had ever seen. Wow. 

He was so nice and he shared useful information. He found a really good used trail and shared GPS coordinate. No trail for backpacking in Denali National Park, but he thought that for some reason there is almost an abandoned trail or old mine trail was there. He said, "killer trial". So we registered the place at our trail App as a killer trail! He also mentioned that that day was good for seeing aurora. To see nice northern lights in Alaska, 1) clear sky + 2) strong sun activity are needed. He somehow knew the information and told us good to check it out at night. 

Caribou antler

After a nice chat with the Alaska guy, we started hiking. Occasional fording was needed, but it was not bad. Also occasional encounters to the antlers. The left picture is caribou's. No any other places like here to see so many antlers! We saw at least 30 antlers during this backpacking. 

river 

As the Alaska guy told us, indeed very good "killer trail" exists for about up to 2 miles. It was really nice after bush-whacking experience during previous backpacking. 

After the killer trail gradually disappeared, we tried to follow a game trail. Actually most of the way there was a good moose trail up the hill along the river. I saw a number of moose footprints on the trail. They must use the trail a lot and keep it nice. 

view from game trail

The view was gorgeous all the way. It was really nice day with blue sky (left picture). Actually I had heard that Denali National Park has lots and lots of rain and cloudy days, so we were lucky having nice days. Green mountains with recent snow were very beautiful. We found a flat spot in the meadow and decided to camp there on the first night. Based on the Alaska guy's advice, we got up at 1 a.m. and.... he was right. We saw aurora! The picture at the top of this entry is the one! Actually I didn't know how northern lights display in the sky. I had never seen aurora in person. I only saw was pictures, which now I know quite different from one you see in eye. First, I didn't know aurora moves in such a dramatic way. Not all the time aurora appears. About once in 10 minutes really amazing one appears. The lights appears from West to East (at that night at least) as if you rolling out a paper or closing curtain at a window. It looks more white rather than green. However, when a very strong aurora wave comes, it is indeed light green even with eyes. Furthermore, one of the strong waves I saw that night I could even see some pink with naked eyes! Every 10-15 minutes a really nice light wave came and left stripes of waves for 7-8 minutes. Then another wave came. I didn't know every moment is a different scenery in the sky. I was really wowed and in an awe. I was so stunned and my mouth was kept open. It was super memorable and that excitement I will never forget.  

<Day2>

Tent in the morning light

Day2! The right picture is our tent in the morning light. The cooking area needs to be 100 meters away from the tent: this picture was taken from our breakfast spot. By cooking far away from a tent, it prevents bears to come to the tent! Mr.N told me a story in Montana a long time ago in 1960's when there was no such bear-protecting rules. Those time people messed food all over near the tent and no use of bear-proof containers. Then one night, a bear came to the area people were sleeping. Popcorns were everywhere. Maybe not enough popcorn for a bear? The bear dragged a person who was sleeping in a sleeping bag without tent (cowboy style) and ate her. Actually that same night in the different area another bear ate a human. These incidents changed bear-related rules. Now food must be stored in a bear-proof canisters/Ursack, and never left anywhere! Cooking area, canister storing place, and tent are all 100 meters apart as a triangle shape. 

Going toward mountains

Beaver dam

After my ochazuke (Japanese food), and Mr.N's oatmeal breakfast, we started hiking towards the Alaska range mountains. Tundra had pretty fall colors. Wonderful. For a while we followed a game trail, then came back to a river bar. 

We saw a huge beaver dam. It was multiple cascades of dam. They did so much work (in the left picture). I had never seen such multiple dams. It was like a cascades of rice field!

Then we continued walking on the river bar for a while, and  decided to pitch a tent, then took a day pack to explore around there. We saw moose bull's antler moving in the bush far away. 

Walking to rock glacier

The edge of glacier

We continued hiking on the river bar further ahead. River got smaller as we got close to the glacier. In the Denali area, some glaciers are covered by rocks. So it looks like rock, but actually glaciers below them. In the left picture above, you might be able to recognize a typical shape of glaciers, but it is covered by rocks. Because it is still glaciers, it is dangerous to walk on it even if it looks like a rock. In the right picture above is the edge of glacier. You can see glacier is indeed a rock color. Glaciers are melting and dropping water from it. Sadly we walked a lot more than the map indicated to reach the edge of glacier, since glaciers melt much faster than the map gets updated. On a map, glaciers were much bigger and obviously we were walking in the moraine. Despite of that, the rock glaciers were still magnificent and made me feel even smaller although I knew I am small. 

Another side stream

After we enjoyed the massive rock glacier, we hiked up along another side stream of the same river. This time top of glacier remains white as you can see in the left photo. Each side stream goes to glaciers. The area is really gorgeous. There are a number of side streams, but time is always limited. After we enjoyed two glaciers, we came back to our campsite and had dinner along the river. 

While we were eating dinner, I saw a brown thing moving. I said, "BEAR!" 

Mr.N replied, "Really?" Then he looked at it and said, "Oh it is a porcupine!"

Cute!!! Sooooo cute! It was my first time seeing a porcupine in person. He was walking slow. Each step his body tilted right and left. Fun fact is that many animals use river bank to move to a different area, because it is much easier than bush whacking. We had the same problem, so now we know! Indeed we saw thousands of animal footprints on the river bank. Because porcupines have weapon: needles on the body, they don't care anybody, bears or humans! The porcupine was other side of river and we had a lot of time to observe him. 

Porcupine!!!

climbing a tree

climbing tree

He found a favorite tree and climbed it. However, he is slow and struggled a lot to climb the tree. He climbed the tree then came down, then continued walking upstream the river. Definitely one of highlights of this backpacking! I named him Porcu and still occasionally talk about Porcu with Mr.N after we came back to Mass. 

<Day3>

We would camp 2 nights at the same spot, so we kept the tent and explored around there on day3. 

We decided to climb up to the ridge near our camping spot. When we were half way to the top of the ridge, we looked back and found 2 moose! 2 males. One had big antlers (in the picture) and the other had small antlers. The antlers of 2nd male were too small to challenge the big one. I guess that is why they can stay together. If they are rivals, they can't stay together, especially in the mating season. The mating season lasts 6 weeks from August to October. We were there in September. Due to some rain, I had a pink umbrella. The pink was really highlight pen color pink: moose might have not seen such color in the nature before. He was monitoring us first, but soon they decided not to care us and back to their business. We hiked up and sometimes looked back and enjoyed observing them. Soon they laid down/bed to rest. It was really wonderful to observe wildlife in Alaska. Soooooooo much wildlife out there. 

Fall color tundra

The left picture is the view from the ridge. Fall color tundra was very beautiful. And....can you find our tent in the picture? This is a difficult quiz! 

rainbow!

Sanctuary river and side valley

Soon rain stopped and we saw a rainbow! Wow, wow, wow. Continuously wonderful thing showed up (right picture) How priceless the hike was. At first because of rain, we thought about going back to our campsite early, but rain was over. Why not hiking up another ridge? 

When we reached the point where we were able to see another valley, I was stunned. It was a side valley of next big valley, Sanctuary valley. The tundra color was ecstatic. Yellow and red in the mixture getting the sunlight escaped from clouds. This lightening and color was momentum, and just me and Mr.N looking at them. It was beautiful. Really memorable scene still clearly remember in my heart now, and will forever. 

Caribou

Then again! Miracle after miracle! 

A group of caribou. Both males and females and two sets of mother and baby. One mother was injured but still walking with other caribous. I didn't know caribous go really high up to the ridge. It seems moose stay lower elevation, but caribous go higher. It was grateful to see such caribous in deep wilderness. 
 

<Day4>

Looking down another valley

This day we explored another ridge! At the top of the ridge we saw different valley from the one we saw on a previous day. This direction there are trees as you can see in the left picture. Due to cold   environment, there are not many trees under more harsh area, but little less harsh area you will see trees. However, the tree area is quite limited. Actually areas with many trees are not ideal for off-trail backpacking. It is really difficult to walk. Even with tundra, it is sometimes difficult for humans to walk straight. 

What a lighting

This scene was extra striking. The lighting on the silvery dark mountains and fall color tundra was astonishing. This is THE hidden gem. I was grateful and happy! I admit how lucky to be able to be there. 

After a day hike in the morning, we head back half way to the trailhead and camped. 

<Day5>

bull

This day we hike out to the trailhead. On the way back we saw another bull! Amazing! Bulls are easier to sight because of their giant antlers. We saw many antlers on the ground and now I know they are really heavy. Wow they carry them all the time?! So much work. Not only they carry them, but also they head down and up to eat. Tough life.  

Wow we saw soooooo much and soooo enjoyed and came back to the trailhead.