Teklanika, Denali National Park

August 15

Arriving at Delani National Park and checked in for our 3 nights at Teklanika Campground. It took about 1 1/2 hours to drive there.

Fun Facts:

Magnifient wildlife, vast tundra and the towering Denali are the highlights of this world famous national park. The grand peaks and snowy summits of Denali National Park and Preserve cover 160 miles of the Alaska Range and are so tall they are often lost in the clouds.

Telkanika CG is open in summer only (May 20 to mid-September). Though nearly all private vehicles must turn around at mile 15, Savage River, Tek campers are an exception to that rule. If you wish, you may drive your vehicle / RV to Tek. The trade-off is that you must make, at minimum, a three-night stay, and your vehicle must stay in your campsite for the duration of your stay, while you use transit buses to sight see. Tent campers using the park bus system to reach Tek are not subject to the 3-night minimum stay.

August 16

This is an adventure for us. We thought there would be trails to hike - basically you just start hiking anywhere....no trails. Lots of bears, wolves and other wildlife. There have been a few people that got off the bus at random places to hike. You purchase bus pass before you make your reservation. Ours was for 7:10 AM this morning, final destination was where the Pretty Rocks Landslide happened and is still happening. It took an hour to drive there. We had 20 minutes to walk around unless you wanted to stay longer.

It took about 40 minutes to get back to the area we wanted to get off and hike back to our campground. Our intentions were to hike along the river..... as we started hiking down it became very steep and rocky and decided to walk along the road. We enjoyed the scenery and it was nice to be in the cold crisp fresh air. Although the winds have been 30-50 MPH!!!

Facts:

The Pretty Rock Landslide has been active sine the 1960's and probably well before the Denali Park Road was built in 1930.

Before 2014 the landslide only caused small cracks in the road surface. But thawing permafrost driven by climate change accelerated the landslide's rate of movement from inches per year prior to 2014, to inches per month in 2017, inches per week in 2018, inches per day in 2019 and up to 0.65 inches per hour in 2021.

Pretty Rocks is just one of more than 140 unstable slopes identified along the Park Road. To restore and maintain access to the entire road through an ever evolving landscape, we must adapt to the effects of climate change. Today, contractors are working to construct a bridge over the landslide. It should be ready for bus traffic by 2027.

After taking a much-needed nap, we felt energized and ready to explore the beautiful surroundings of our campground. We set out on a hike down to the river, It didn't have much water although it offered a serene and tranquil setting. We continued walking in the rocky open space of the river bed and found a trail along the woods that took us to our campground.

Discovering a charming creek added an extra touch of magic to our adventure.

Leaving the creek I heard footsteps behind me. I quickly turned around thinking it was a bear! However, it turned out to be another couple.. We quickly struck up a conversation and learned that they were from Alaska, sharing stories with each other. .

Paula also shared some intriguing information about our campground..... we knew there was a grizzly but didn't know she had 3 cubs. She informed us that these cubs could often be found high up in the trees while their protective mama bear roamed the ground. She cautioned us to be aware, as any perceived threat to her cubs could provoke a defensive reactionfrom the mother.

August 17

Life is full of surprises, isn't it? This morning we encountered an obstacle with our inverter, which is essential for charging our batteries. These batteries power our residential refrigerator and a few other things.

With no help available on a Saturday, we decided to forge ahead and hope our batteries would hold out until we returned from our Saturday adventure.

It was a great adventure! We caught the bus to Savage River Loop on the way we saw a golden eagle, a bear that was far away and a family of the state bird - The Willow Ptarmigan ( the "p" is silent) and embarked on a breathtaking hike. The river accompanied us for most of the journey, its serene flow adding to the experience. Once we crossed over the bridge the wind whipped around us at 30 MPH at times, and a light drizzle kept us on our toes. Despite the weather, the hike was invigorating!

One of the highlights was meeting a lovely woman visiting Alaska with her children and grandchildren who live the in lower 48. Her and her husband are visiting from India.

It was great having a hiking path. It was a little rocky here and there, narrow and it was nice passing other hikers here and there.

After our hike, we climbed the hill and boarded the bus back to our campground at Teklanika Campground (Tek).

Upon returning to our motorhome, we were relieved to find the batteries still functioning.

Tomorrow, we set off for Riley Campground, still within the magnificent Denali National Park.