Alaska! (the best day ever)

Alaska was really, really great. I almost don’t want to write about it because my writings and little photos can’t possibly convey what a downright kick-ass trip we had. And there is no way I can write about every important detail but I’ll try to get as much of it down as possible. And I’ll start with the middle (‘cause it was the best day ever.)

Monday, August 21st was an amazing day. The morning of Sunday, August 20th we met up with my brother and caught a bus from Savage River Campground (in Denali National Park) out to Wonder Lake Campground. Savage River, 13 miles into the park along the only road, is just about the last place in the park cars can go. Wonder Lake Campground is 86 miles into the park and accessible only by the camper shuttle bus that takes 5 or so hours to get there depending on the wildlife activity. Wonder Lake is also a mere thirty or forty miles from “the” mountain.

“The” mountain would be “Denali” or “Mt. McKinley.” At 20,320 feet it is one of the biggest mountains in the world and if one measures base-to-peak it IS the largest mountain in the world. With Everest and other such large bits of rock is that they thrust up out of land that is already at some dizzying height so while they top off higher, they also start out much higher. McKinley starts at a lowly 2,000ish feet elevation and looking at it from a few dozen miles away is a very overwhelming experience. Unfortunately for many the behemoth mountain is so immense it creates its own weather and is shrouded in clouds nearly all the time. When we arrived in Denali at the end of summer it had only been visible 16 days so far and some of those days were just partial visibility.

But to get back to Monday. We arrived at Wonder Lake on Sunday to a relatively dry afternoon but with menacing clouds lurking in the distance (and hiding all the mountains.) Christopher and I had been camping for three fairly wet days and nights already so I wasn’t exactly exuberant when it started raining again that evening. All night it rained. And rained. And rained. And despite the water bottles filled with boiling water I snuggled with all night I was also cold. We had watched the snow creep lower and lower during our four days in the park and felt the temperature get colder and colder. Monday morning we woke to continued rain and the discovery that our waterproof tent couldn’t take it anymore and had started seeping moisture. It wasn’t leaking exactly but it definitely wasn’t dry and there were a couple little puddles inside the tent. This did not help me in my efforts to dry out my cold, damp socks. We weren’t exactly grumpy but I was starting to think that it wasn’t all that great to be camping for six nights in the freezing rain.

“I just want it to stop raining,” I semi-whined to my Christopher and few minutes later my wish was granted. It was now snowing. When we emerged from the tents we found all our fellow campers had fled or were in the process of attempting to flee. While debating whether we should stay or not we found out that the road out was closed (making it a very easy decision.) In addition the road between Denali National Park and Anchorage was washed out in a few places.

“Hey Wayward Princess, didn’t you say this was the ‘Best Day Ever?’ This sounds like it rather sucked.”

Apart from the cold aspect of it, it actually looked pretty neat. So what if the snow made our rain shelter collapse and rip trees out? So what if I couldn’t feel my toes anymore? We were surrounded by a landscape that is stunning on its most mundane days and was now thoroughly gorgeous. And I was with my Christopher and my brother Adam (who had some clean dry socks for me.)


Then there was the fact that Adam had managed to procure a few delectable dietary items. Two pounds of Alaskan King Crab, an entire Wild Salmon, four filet mignon, five lemon pepper chicken breasts, a whole bunch of bacon, a slew of hamburgers and three pounds of trail mix. A vegetarian such as myself should have no interest in most of these things, but it was a desperate situation and I dove into the chicken and bacon. I did restrain myself a tiny bit and didn’t have any of the beef, crab or fish. Naturally we didn’t eat all of this in one sitting. We did get some crazy looks from our fellow campers at meal times as we all cooked and ate at the bear locker (a space for storing food that bears can’t get into and that is away from the tents.) The first night Adam and Chris busted out the crab legs and got some amused looks. Monday morning when all were cold and grumpy the bacon wafting through the campground just made people jealous and grumpier. However, we had such a gross quantity of everything that we were able to be magnanimous and share the riches with our fellow cold campers. The British photographer was especially grateful for the offer of lemon pepper chicken Monday night when he sat down to his dehydrated soup (which he even said looked disgusting) next to Adam and Chris and their filet mignon.


But it gets better. After a very cold morning it warmed up a tad bit, the road opened and nearly all the remaining campers were whisked away. Nut jobs that we are we opted to keep camping. Just about the time the bus dawdled out of sight the clouds started to make motions like they were going to lift so we went on a little hike through the blueberry fields (acres and acres and acres of ripe, wild blueberries) and the forest toward the McKinley River. It was supposed to lead to a good view of the Alaskan Range (and possibly Mt. McKinley too) if the clouds continued to lift. We started the hike with no water or packs and a lot of layers of long underwear, sweaters, fleeces and rain gear. As we walked, the clouds continued to lift and the temperature continued to rise until we were carrying most of our clothes and eating blueberries for the moisture (and their yumminess.) The first part of the hike we could see the mountain range still hiding in the clouds but starting to clear. Then we disappeared into the woods for a mile or more, eventually popping out of the forest right by the river with the glory of the Alaskan Range and Mt. McKinley right in front of us taking up most all of the sky. There were a few lingering clouds but they didn’t take away from it at all. It was freakin’ amazing!! I try not to sink to such turns of phrase (particularly here) but it was FREAKIN’ AMAZING! Unbelievable. Stunning. Glorious. Phenomenal. And it didn’t hurt that it was suddenly hot and sunny with all sorts of sunlight glistening on the water.


After lolling in the sunshine and mountain glory for a while we pulled ourselves away, marched back to the campground and settled in for an evening of Scrabble, killer food and general reveling in the mountain which was out 100% by the time we got back and stayed out until about 10am the next day. When all the sunset stuff started happening we got a bit giddy from the pinks and golds dancing on the biggest mountain in the world. I think we took about 40 pictures of the mountain at sunset alone. But it is okay because it was so FREAKIN’ AMAZING!


It can’t get any better, right?

WRONG!

Just as we were getting to bed around midnight (we didn’t get dinner stuff together until after sunset and sunset was around 10pm) Christopher was watching the stars come out with the very last remnants of the sunset way off on the horizon. I was already snuggling with my hot water bottles when I heard Chris and Adam shouting for me to come out. Not wanting to take the time to get into all my layers I leapt out with just my long underwear, a sweater and a hat. What do you think I found upon exiting the tent? Nothing less than the Northern Lights.

Whatever did we do to deserve such luck?? The Northern Lights don’t come out in August. It just doesn’t happen. For about twenty minutes we watched greens and yellows dancing across the sky in an eerie, ghostly manner. I have a vague understanding of the science behind it all but when I was watching it I really thought it was ghosts or aliens or something much, much bigger than us screwing with me. In some ways it seemed like a very huge spotlight, but colorful and capable of all sorts of crazy dancing motions, sharp beams and melting/dancing tricks. And it was totally silent. Usually bright lights in the skies mean noisy fireworks or lightening. But this was completely silent (except for us hooting and hollering and waking up the campground.)

Eventually the Northern Lights faded away and despite my Christopher’s big warm body trying to keep my from freezing the call of my sleeping bag and hot water bottles was too great and I made my way back to the tent. We ended up leaving Wonder Lake the next day. It was a day earlier than we had planned but after a day like Monday we pretty much felt like we had done everything out at Wonder Lake that we needed to do. We’d also eaten all the food and after five nights of camping in 30 degree weather Chris and I were rather longing for a soft cozy bed.