Alaska - Day 2

I should explain a few things about Denali National Park. First, it is awesome. Second, there is only one road going in and out of the park.  It is 92 miles long. It starts right off the Parks Highway, is paved for 15 miles, and ends at Wonder Lake (well actually Kantishna but you have to be staying in a private lodge there to get there).  You can only drive your own car 15 miles in.  After that, you either take a shuttle bus or you can get a Tek Pass if you are staying at Teklanika Campground at mile 29. This allows you to drive your car and camp at the campground and then just take the shuttle buses around the park. When we were first planning our trip we thought about backpacking the whole time but decided we could cover so much more ground by taking the bus from hike to hike throughout the park with light day packs and car camping.  This turned out to be true and it was a great decision on our part.  The other really important thing to know is that there are very few trails in Denali.  There are a handful at the park entrance since it is busier and most people wouldn't fair well in the backcountry anyway.  Most of the park is just a big choose your own adventure.  You seriously see an area or a peak or a glacier you want to go to and then you navigate your way there.  It is awesome.

So on to day two.  We woke up to perfectly clear skies which meant a perfectly clear view of Mt. McKinley. Unfortunately, pictures do this mountain no justice.  Yes, it is the one just to the right of Brent's shoulder. In these pictures we were over 90 miles away from the mountain and it was still so huge and towered over everything else.  In these pictures it looks like a normal little mountain and it is almost frustrating to share the picture because it was so cool and you don't get how huge it is at all.  You might be wondering why we didn't sack our plans for the day and rush out to Wonder Lake and get a great close view. Well, if you plan your trip in Alaska around the weather you'll always be missing out on something.  Plus, I know it seems surprising because of these pictures, but the view we had was pretty incredible.
We decided to stick to our plans and do the Triple Lakes Trail (an actual trail) close to the park entrance because it was really the only area that we would get to hike through trees and forest.  There were in fact 3 lakes along the hike and beautiful forest.  It just felt so good to be back in Alaska and hiking with Brent.  This had been the trip back to Alaska we had been wanting to take since we had spent time in Skagway when we were dating.

After our morning hike we ventured further into the heart of the park to Teklanika Campground.  We found a great little site that had some trees that broke the wind.  A note on the wind.  I don't like wind.  Luckily it wasn't windy windy but we did have constant wind.  I refused to complain though because wind meant no bugs.  

Anyway, we set up camp and then set out for our first bus ride.  We had looked over our maps and books and decided to summit Sable Mountain via Tattler Creek at mile 38. We immediately fell in love with Denali in the moment that the bus pulled away and we started up Tattler Creek and really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  I'll let the pictures do most of the story telling but it was our first experience with how diverse, beautiful and spongy the tundra can be and gave us a heads up of the majestic views and HUGE expanses we would experience throughout the park. 

After our day of hiking we returned to our campsite, our first of many backpacking meal dinners, and a walk out to the Teklanika River that ran alongside our campground.  Again, the following photos were probably taken around 10:30 pm and we had the most perfect lighting.  Day 2. Loved the spongy tundra.