RV ALASKA - Sleds and Trails and Puppy Dog Tails

When our earlier reservation at the Riley Creek Campground in Denali National Park was canceled due to the wildfire near the Park’s entrance, I was devastated.  I had really, really, really been looking forward to visiting the Sled Dog Kennels in the Park; the kennels had been a bucket list item for a long time.  When we secured our second reservation for Riley Creek, I was thrilled.

Alan and I had booked just two nights at the National Park campground since our “To Do” list was short: 1) Visit the kennels; 2) drive the Park Road to see what kind of wildlife we could find; and 3) get a good look at Denali (North America’s highest mountain at 20,310 feet) - if the mountain decided to show itself.  We figured that, if the weather was cooperative and the wildlife was abundant, we’d book extra days at a local, private RV park if we couldn’t extend our stay at Riley Creek.  With fingers crossed, we set up camp.

Date(s) – August 7th – August 8th  

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 12,699

Wildlife Sightings to Date – Our total wildlife sightings for Denali National Park?  Just four: 2 swans, 1 eagle and 1 cow moose.  We were hoping for better, but you can’t make the critters magically appear.  (I tried.)

So, our current tally of wildlife sightings is: 96 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 12 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear; 6 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) – Without a doubt, our visit to the Sled Dog Kennels was the highlight of our stop at Denali National Park.  We had fun wandering around the dog yard, meeting a number of the friendly, outgoing dogs who seemed to enjoy the kennels’ visitors as much as the visitors enjoyed the dogs.  The bonds between the dogs and the Park Rangers who staff the kennels and care for the dogs were obvious and heartwarming.  For both dogs and Rangers assigned to the kennels, summer is their off season.  When winter snows blanket Denali National Park and the temps dip below zero, that’s when the real work of the sled dog teams begins.  The Rangers (human and canine) patrol the Park throughout the winter, hauling in supplies to backcountry cabins and breaking trails in the Park that are often used by winter visitors to cross-country ski or even run their own dog teams.  Denali’s sled dogs are bigger than the Alaskan Huskies that run long-distance races like the Iditarod because strength is more important than speed when you’re hauling construction supplies for projects throughout the Park and patrolling with Park Rangers aboard your sled.  Harry Karstens, Denali National Park’s first Superintendent, bought a seven-dog team for the Park over 100 years ago, knowing that sled dogs would be the key to patrolling the vast wilderness that is Denali – and sled dog teams have called Denali home ever since.  The Park Rangers will tell you that snowmobiles may not start at 40 degrees below zero, but their dogs always will.  And these dogs love their jobs, as well as their human colleagues.  Fun fact: Because Denali National Park contains over 2 million acres of “designated wilderness” – wilderness in which no motor vehicles of any type are allowed – Denali’s sled dogs make it possible for Rangers to patrol, protect and preserve every acre of the Park.  One of the films being shown in the Denali Visitor Center at the time of our visit was an excellent documentary about the dogs of, maybe, 20 minutes in length.  As a big fan of the National Parks, I thought the film provided an excellent overview of the lives Denali’s sled dogs lead and their contributions to the Park’s operations.  Who knew?!  As a dog lover, I appreciated the cinematography and the intimate peek at the relationships between the sled dogs and the Park Rangers.   Yup, our visit to the Sled Dog Kennels was most definitely a highlight of our visit to Denali.  (A special note to anyone with a National Parks Passport:  There is a separate Passport station at the Sled Dog Kennels with its own special stamp.  So, if you visit the kennels, be sure to bring your Passport with you!)

We drove the Park Road!  I know this doesn’t sound like much of a highlight to you, but it was to us.  When we had visited Denali National Park on our first Princess tour, a wildlife tour into the Park’s interior was included.  Not knowing any better, Alan, Ryan and I went on the excursion.  (Ryan was four at the time.)  I believe the ride was at least six, and maybe eight, hours long – way too long, in any case.  Plus, the bus was an old school bus, not very comfortable and without air conditioning.  Thank heaven Ryan was a good little traveler.  And what wildlife did we see, you ask?  One moose and several ptarmigans.  That’s it.  (On our second trip with Princess, we skipped the excursion entirely, even though it was included in the total cost of our package.)  This time around, we had our own vehicle, could linger wherever we wanted and head for home when we’d had enough.  Now, there are restrictions for private vehicles – you can only drive in as far as the Savage River, unless you have campground reservations or backcountry permits beyond those first 15 miles of the Park Road.  That didn’t bother us at all.  We figured we’d go as far as we could, turn around when we had to and be happy with whatever we saw.  (Gotta admit, we didn’t have high hopes.)  Our best sighting of the day was a cow moose – so far back off the road that I debated whether or not to include the photo.  The vistas around the Savage River parking area were pretty amazing, and the photo I included doesn’t even come close to doing the scenery justice.  That being said, we were satisfied with the 30 mile roundtrip, and easily decided on the way back to camp that we didn’t need to extend our stay at Denali.

Throughout this trip, we (and Alan in particular) have been having a wonderful time reminiscing about our earlier trips to Alaska with the kids.  On this trip, he really enjoyed stopping at the Princess Lodges where we had previously stayed.  So, we needed to visit the Denali Princess Lodge in the (very small) town of Denali Park.  Wow!  Did the memories come rushing back?!  We really enjoyed wandering around the complex, and Alan’s pretty sure he recognized the unit we had stayed in when we were there 20 years ago.  One particular area looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out why.  In talking with our son Ryan later, he said he remembered having pizza.  Sure enough, the pizza place was in the area that had felt familiar to me.  It was a sweet walk down memory lane for us, and we took tons of photos.  We made it even sweeter by buying ourselves a 45^th anniversary gift in one of the shops in the Denali Princess Lodge complex.  I’m thinking that a photo of it will be the perfect ending to this RV ALASKA series of posts.  And I’m pretty sure you’ll understand why when you see it.  

Lowlight(s) – There were only two.  One was that we never enjoyed a clear view of Denali.  During our visit, the upper half of the mountain was pretty much enveloped in clouds.  The other lowlight was that we didn’t see more wildlife during our Park Road excursion.

Campground(s) – Riley Creek was, uh, different.  You may remember from my earlier rant that the campground is operated by Aramark, a concessionaire – the company that never even notified us that our campground reservations had been canceled due to the wildfire that necessitated the evacuation (and eventual closure) of Denali National Park.  Yes, they did refund the entire cost of our prior reservation.  The only reason we knew they did is because I noticed the credit on our credit card account.  They never notified us that our reservations had been canceled and they never notified us that our refund had been processed, despite the fact that they had our email address on file. But I digress.  Let’s get back to Riley Creek.

This campground is very close to the National Park entrance and adjacent to the Riley Creek Mercantile – which is where you check in.  The dump station is located there, as well.  There are, if I’m remembering correctly, two other campgrounds within the National Park – Teklanika and Savage River – but I didn’t even take a good look at them.  The Park is big, and I couldn’t see dragging the trailer deep into it just to turn around and drag it back out after a two night stay.  Riley Creek fit our needs and, as it turned out, was a really nice campground.    We just didn’t like the way Aramark operated it.

When you book your reservation, you don’t book a specific campsite, just a specific type of campsite.  We had booked an “A Site” for “RVs under 40 feet.”  “B Sites” were for RVs under 30 feet, and I think “C Sites” were for tents.  After you arrive and check in, you drive around the three camping loops in Riley Creek (Bear Loop, Wolf Loop, Caribou Loop) and pick any open and available site within your designation.  Clip your hang tag to your post and you’re done.  You don’t even have to go back to the registration desk to let them know what site you’re in.  That’s just weird.  We had timed our arrival to be shortly after check out time, hoping that we’d have a decent selection of sites.  At 32 feet, our trailer isn’t the easiest rig to fit into a National Park, and we knew our options might be limited.  After taking a look at the campground map that had been provided to us at the registration desk, we immediately headed for the Caribou Loup because it appeared on the map that the campsites weren’t spaced as closely together as they were in the first two loops.  We came to an attractive pull-through site that we both kinda sorta liked, and Alan pulled in.  At least we had something that we fit in.  While Alan stayed with the rig, I walked ahead to another site that looked promising.  This one was a sweet back-in site that put us back in the trees and more off the road than the pull-through.  I walked back to stay with the rig while Alan walked down to check out the back-in site.  We both liked it a lot and decided to take that one, instead.  The site was, indeed, a gorgeous one, and we truly enjoyed our stay.

It seemed absolutely ridiculous to us that, with the site-specific reservation system used by most of the federal campgrounds (including other National Parks), we were forced to drive around looking for a site.  It wasn’t even as easy as, “That’s the A loop, that’s the B loop and that’s the C loop.”  No, all types of sites were found in all three loops, making it necessary to spend a half hour driving around all of them trying to find the A sites (or B or C) if you wanted to choose the best site for your rig.  (And hoping when you went back to the first site you liked someone hadn’t taken it while you were touring the other loops.)  In my humble opinion, this archaic system had no place in such a wildly popular National Park.  So, a big thumbs up for the Riley Creek Campground itself – yes, we’d go back – and a “shame on you” to Aramark for such a deplorable method of operation.

Special Message(s) - Happy Anniversary to Michael and Betsy, and Happy Birthday to Renée!  May you all have a wonderful time celebrating your special days!

Tip(s) of the Day – If you tend to be a light sleeper, buy blackout shades or figure out someway to block the light coming in through your windows and doors.  The days were not quite so long at this point in our trip.  But, when we first arrived in Alaska, the sun wasn’t setting until 11:30 p.m.  If you can sleep through anything, you’re golden.  Otherwise, plan accordingly.

Laugh(s) of the Day

Pics(s) of the Day

Scenery along the Parks Highway on the way to Denali National Park

Another Parks Highway shot - please forgive the dirty windshield photos

The front of the dog yard at the kennels - this is where you'll find the extroverts.

The back of the dog yard is reserved for the introverts.

Boomer is an introvert.

The Park Rangers love these dogs!

A lot of them like to hang out on top of their doghouses.

Alan is putting his new friend to sleep!

Nom, nom, nom.

 

Harnessing up for the dog cart demonstration

Almost ready to go!

 

Impressive scenery along the Park Road in Denali National Park

Yup, there she is - way over there - and that's after I cropped the photo.

 

The Savage River in Denali National Park

Riley Creek Campground - Caribou Loop - Site A118

Up Next – On to Fairbanks!  Funny thing about Fairbanks.  Initially, we were going to drive right on through, with a quick stop for reprovisioning.  We had been there before on our Princess tours, and hit the major tourist attractions back then.  I thought we were done.  Nope, not done.