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Published: August 15th 2007
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Sign in the museum
The cabin holds a museum of various items from the past. Originally it was the cabin of one of the 59ers. On our way to Denali we stopped at a Museum that was in a cabin from The 59ers. They were a group of homesteaders from Michigan that George remembers reading about when he was a teenager. Of course it caught the imagination of a teenage boy, so it was interesting for him to learn more about it many years later.
We arrived in the Denali area and camped north of the park entrance at Denali RV Park. It is 20 minutes north of the busy touristy area known as Glitter Gulch. That’s where the cruise ships have hotels and there’s lots of pedestrians and traffic. Stop lights are unusual except is larger cities, but in Glitter Gulch there are 2 of them! The stop lights are on The Parks Highway. They and allow the pedestrians to get from the hotel side of the road to the side where the souvenir shops are located. There are big flashing signs warning of the stop lights. I wonder if once the season is over, if the stop lights just become blinking lights.
One day we toured the Visitor’s Center and watched a movie about Denali. The pictures of the different seasons were
Ptarmigan
In it's summer colors. It will turn white for winter. awesome. The Park is 6 million acres and the Rangers patrol it all year long. Some areas are protected from any hunting and do not allow motorized vehicles. Other areas allow customary and traditional subsistence uses by local rural residents. They try to manage Denali to protect the area, but still allow visitors to enjoy it. The road into the park is 90 miles long. Visitors can drive the first 15 miles into the park. Beyond that point only shuttle and tour buses are permitted. We did take a shuttle bus out to Fish Creek (mile 64).
We opted for the 11:30 shuttle bus from the Wilderness Access Center. Our 128 mile round trip took slightly more than 8 hours. The bus driver would stop whenever someone would spot wildlife or see something they wanted to photograph. Also we’d have a rest stop every 1 ½ hours to get out and move around. We opted for the shuttle rather than the tour. With the shuttle people can get off and catch a later bus to continue to their destination. We started with only 9 on our bus, but by the time we returned we had about 30 people. It’s
more informal than the tour and there is no tour guide or lunch provided. No food or beverages are sold along the route, so we all brought sandwiches, snacks and beverages. We were instructed to not take any food off the bus. They really do try and keep the animals from discovering that people and food are connected. At each rest area we were warned about wildlife precautions. During our ride we saw 1 bull moose, several caribou, ptarmigan, snowshoe hares, 1 red fox, Dall sheep, 1 marmot, and a couple hawks. We also saw Mt McKinley, this time from the Denali side.
There were sections of the road where we saw snowshoe several hares along the side of the road. We were told that right now the hare population is high. I was surprised at how many are supposed to be per square mile. It was also noted that because the hare population is high it would bode well for the predators this winter. On one of our Ranger walks, he told us that when an animal dies it is not removed from the food chain. If it is on a trail it would be moved off the
trail and the trail closed for a while. It would only take 2 days for it to be picked clean by the various animals in the park. The fox we saw from the shuttle bus was cruising the road looking for an easy meal of road kill. We followed the fox for a surprising distance, before it finally headed into the bushes.
On the shuttle bus we saw many other buses along the road. We were both surprised by the amount of traffic. There were plenty of gaps between bus sightings, but still a surprising number. We began noting how many people were on each bus, and many of them were full, then imagining the number of cars it would take to transport all those people. The bus system does cut down the amount of traffic and environmental impact, but still allow people to get out to see some of the sights along the road.
The road is paved in the beginning. Then it becomes a dirt road. Then it becomes a very narrow one lane dirt road. There is some sort of system for determining which of the oncoming vehicles stops, while the other vehicle navigates around
the stopped vehicle. Also the bus driver would stop at some points to view the road as it wound up the mountain, to make certain he wouldn’t meet an oncoming bus where there wasn’t room to pass. The views were great and it was nice to be able to focus on them and leaving the driving to someone who knew the area. The tundra is starting to turn its golden fall color. We’ve seen other signs that summer is quickly coming to an end. We have a nice period of darkness at night, berries are abundant, and the Fireweed is turning to seed. There is a saying that “When the Fireweed turns to cotton, summer is forgotten.” The Fireweed seeds are sent air-born on very fine cottony type material, and we’re seeing that in some areas now. Also that is supposed to indicate that the first snow is about 6 weeks away.
One day we went to see the sled dogs that are used to patrol the park in the winter. They were different than I was expecting. Their hair was relatively short and their legs were long. The Ranger explained that they are not the type of dogs used for racing, but are freight hauling dogs. They are Alaskan Huskies which is a functional breed and not a kennel club breed. They need the long legs for breaking trails in the snow. Their coats will become thick for the winter. They LOVE to run. The fluffy tails will allow them to cover their face when they curl up to sleep and breath warmed air. The winter patrols could be a day or a month. The team will stop at cabins that have been stocked for the winter patrol.
The dogs have a career for 9 years. At about that time they no longer get as excited when the dogs are getting harnessed to go out. We witnessed how excited they get when they harnessed up a team for a demonstration. The energy in the dog area escalated quickly. There was a lot of jumping and barking. I imagined that they were all trying to get chosen and were barking “Choose me. Choose me.” They tried to drag the handler quickly to the sled and some dogs had to be lifted from 4 paw drive into 2 paw drive to slow them down. The Ranger said the hardest command to teach a new dog was to stop. Young dogs are paired up with experienced dogs and learn from the older dog. Each year it’s time to retire some of the sled dogs. They have enjoyed their work, but it’s no longer their passion. It’s also time to make room for the young pups. There is a waiting list to adopt retired patrol dogs. They spend their remaining years with an Alaskan family that has an active enough lifestyle that the dogs will enjoy.
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