The Denali Highway

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Yes, I'm determined to catch up. Still working on it.
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The Denali Highway was a real high point (literally and emotionally) for me. I loved the wide open, wild country where you could see for miles...

Tangle Lakes region the next morning. Where did the views go?

…unless it was raining. Unfortunately, the good weather didn't last.

Drying out in the morning

Tangle Lakes

We got to Tangle Lakes campground, and were just a little dismayed that it was full. We did manage to snag one of the three remaining "walk-in" sites. Fran set up the Hornet, and I commenced making dinner.

Unfortunately, it started to rain in the middle of things, necessitating a scramble to put up the tarp. It was one of those showers that could either stop in a few minutes or commence to rain in earnest. I prefer not to gamble, so was more than happy to set it up (and in all honesty, if I'd been alone I would have set it up first, before making dinner, just to be safe). Of course, shortly after getting it set up, it wasn't raining any more, but was threatening, so I considered it worthwhile to have a dry place to eat in the morning.

Fran went to bed; I took a walk to Round Tangle Lake.

Watching pancakes cook

There were blueberries everywhere! At the lake I saw what might have been a muskrat, but could have been a beaver (I saw a lodge the next morning). Stupidly, I had not thought to bring binoculars. There were a few waterbirds, and it was so blissfully quiet up there after most people had retired; it was just perfect.

The next morning, Fran was up early. I think this was the night that the tent pegs weren't securely in the ground, so the tent fly collapsed in the middle of the night, thereby getting her wet. Also, with the wind (and probably water weight), the tarp had collapsed. So Fran busied herself with taking everything down before I was aware of anything. At least she had her hot coffee and oatmeal.

Fortunately, the rain held off for awhile, although it sure looked threatening.

Blueberry sourdough pancakes

Mmmm. Can taste the berries from here!

I really, really, really wanted blueberry sourdough pancakes one of these mornings. I'd smuggled my sourdough across two borders (into Canada, and then again into the US), and this was the first occasion that I'd had to use it. I have made pancakes for myself, but it's better when there are two people!

I'd resurrected the sourdough so it was nice and bubbly; in fact it had expanded out of its container and into the secondary cardboard box!

We picked just enough blueberries for breakfast in about five minutes! Is that awesome or what?

Whipping up the pancakes was easy. The Dragonfly stove allows one to regulate heat, and the new frying pan deflects the heat so there are no hot spots.

The pancakes turned out very well. If anything, there might even have been too many berries, if there could be such a thing! (Like, who's complaining!)

We took a bit of a hike up on the ridge after breakfast. We could get a good view of the lakes and surrounding tundra. There are trees, but they are short and relegated to hollows or lee sides of hills (I think). In fact, we were trying to figure out why trees were growing where they were. There are lots of low bushes (cranberries, blueberries, crowberries) and grasses. The lakes were quite a bit bigger than I'd initially thought: the campground is on a small arm of the lake, not the main lake!

Some people use the Tangle Lakes as a put-in point for an extended 100-mile-long float trip down to the Delta River. If you remember the fast-moving water from yesterday's post, you'll understand why the Black Rapids — part of this trip — is a nasty stretch of river that should "not be attempted in an open canoe." There is also a falls that "absolutely" requires a portage. That said, though, I can understand the draw that has people doing this: no roads, few people and wilderness at its most pristine.

View of Round Tangle Lake from ridge hike. Campground on right.

The rain looked like it was going to start up again, so we went back to the car and started driving. I'm sure that there must be views like we had seen the previous day, but unfortunately, the mist and rain came down, so we didn't get to see very far. This was familiar to me, though!

It's still pretty country, and tantalizing to think of what is must be like on a clear day.

Glacier Gap

There are a series of large gaps in the mountains, Landmark Gap was one, Glacier Gap was another. Obviously in the past glaciers came out of these, but they are long gone. Only the lakes in the valleys formed by the absent glaciers' terminal moraines and the gaps that the glaciers carved out of the mountains remain.

Topo map of the Gap Lakes

The gaps are one of the reasons that this area was so popular with the Athabathscans: the caribou used these natural gaps as migration routes, so the hunting was good.

And I take it the hunting is still good up here! Caribou still use this area. We saw some on a far-away ridge, but they wandered off before I could find a place to pull over and get the camera out.

The weather was threatening, and so we kept going, but I'd love  to come back to this country and take one of the hikes to the lakes.

Yep. We're in Alaska, if you had any doubt. MUST HUNT.

One of the surprises about this route was how many people were out here. I think there were more people here along the road than any other place I've been (except the towns).

You can camp anywhere alongside the road, and people were doing just that. There were group camps of RVs, campers, big motor homes, tents, and trucks. LOTS of them. Lots of people with ATVs. We kind of joked that they were circling the wagons, because that's sure what some of the camps looked like!

We weren't sure if they were staking out hunting spots, or what; hunting season starts in September, but of course hunting regulations are complicated. There are different start dates for natives, bow hunters and regular guys.

We had lunch on top of an esker, with a great view all around. I got to see a trumpeter swan (just one) on one of the many ponds or kettle lakes, so that was a thrill. Had I been alone, I might have stopped more, but... you guessed it: I'll be back.

The drive continues from the high point of MacLaren Summit (el. 4,086), then continues down a series of broad stepped highlands, crossing the MacLaren River, Clearwater Creek, Suisitna River, and countless other creeks. The rain continued off and on throughout the afternoon. We were finally treated to an ephemeral, but vivid, broad rainbow. It was pretty magical, and the first rainbow I'd seen in Alaska!

We stopped at the Brushkana Campground, but weren't that impressed, so kept on. The last 20 miles or so of the Highway is on native land, controlled by the Ahtna Corporation. You can camp on their land, but need prior approval, which we did not have. So we kept going, now following the Nenana River, to the Parks Highway.

Our second rainbow of the day: during dinner!

We had decided to head to Denali NP early the next day, hoping that the weather would give us a break. We ended up camping at Denali State Park (North View), where there were some walk-in sites, and was just about an hour's drive from the National Park. I was happy to stay in the car, and Fran was okay with setting the tent up in the woods. In the rain. She is a trooper. She also made sure that the tent pegs were firmly in place!

We were treated to another rainbow just before dinner. The clouds were moving in, but the sun was at a low angle and it must have been just right for rainbows!

We got dinner made (just barely) before it started to rain again, and it rained most of the night. Things were pretty soggy for our early morning departure (no hot coffee).

But this turned out to be an excellent decision...