Kickin' it in Denali - Alaska Days 5-7

Back north on the Parks Highway to Denali. We made it just in time to get suited up for our whitewater rafting trip down the Nenana River. Our guide, Bobski, guided us well on the 11-mile trip down river (which seemingly flows backward, from south to north). It was my first whitewater rafting trip, and I even thought it was fairly tame. We hit one big Class 3 rapid (which was the first one we hit and sent me flying backward off my seat into Bobski. Lesson learned: lean forward, not backward!), and the rest were Class 2. At the end we got to jump over the side to feel the water; wearing dry suits, of course. I clung to the raft for at least a half mile, while only Julie and one other brave soul dunked in and out. When else am I going to be able to float down a river in Alaska and not freeze to death?

After the rafting trip, I did my souvenir and postcard shopping in Glitter Gulch, the ultra-touristy area right outside the Denali National Park entrance. Then it was onward into the park!

After setting up our camp site at Savage River, we drove into mile 30 of the park road. During the summer, only park busses are allowed in past mile 15, but we caught the last day of driving in that far before the busses started. And we saw some wildlife, hooray! Arctic hare, caribou, moose. Close enough to pose for us for the camera.

Whatchu lookin at caribou?

Om nom nom

We had a lovely night of car camping with the rain fly off the tent.. have I mentioned how gorgeous the weather has been? After sleeping in till 11 (whoops!) we headed to Savage River for a hike. There were a bunch of sheep low on the mountain at the end of the trail; usually, all you see are white specks. We hiked a few miles over to hang out with some Dall’s sheep. Some of these dudes had pretty impressive horns… we made sure to keep our distance.

Caribou cruisin' along

You've got some learnin' to do, little lamb. We're not supposed to be above you!

Once we had our fill of watching the sheep and some rock scrambling, we headed back to get our backcountry permit for camping. Backcountry camping in Denali is free, but you do need a permit for certain areas. Normally, backcountry camping is a choose-your-own-adventure type thing... no trails, you make your way through the brush, ford rivers, etc. We chose one of the areas that had a trail, Triple Lakes. Established camp sites because it’s so often used, but still pretty remote. Since this was my first backpacking into the woods to sleep adventure, we took it. We hiked in about 2 miles to choose a campsite right along the second lake. Set up camp, hoped to not see bears (which we didn't), and enjoyed being out of sight and

9:30PM at the campsite

In the morning, we hiked back to the car, grabbed some lunch- reindeer sausage, yum- and stopped at Bison Gulch, a few miles up from the park entrance, for a steep, few mile hike. We watched (and heard) the thunderstorm in the distance (Julie’s first for the season). Enjoyed the view of Mount Healey, and then headed back up to Fairbanks. It rained on us for the first time during my trip: 5 min. rain shower while we were driving. Once in Fairbanks, it was decompressing from the hiking and driving. Plugging back in, cooking some tacos, enjoying a beer, relaxing, and the great picture and music swap.

Julie can jump over mountains