Woke up to a warm (ie 10 deg C !) cloudless morning –
Absolutely beautiful. This is such a beautiful spot. After breakfast, Janet had a quick walk round
a Lake Trail while I fiddled around, an then, after saying farewell to camp
host Denny, we hit the (dirt) road west towards Cantwell and Denali, on the
Denali Highway. I wanted to do this road two years ago in Elsie but was put off
by the dirt. Now I had the chance to do
it, and if the first few miles yesterday are anything to go by, it should be as
good as everyone who has done it has said.
Almost as soon as we got going on the gravel, a ptarmigan ran across in
front of us – And then shortly afterwards, after passing a cut in the mountains
through which caribou and other animals used as a migration route, we spied our
first moose…..with mooselet in tow !!
They were some distance away, but very clear through the binoculars. It looked to be a promising day !!
The road was in pretty good condition for some distance,
and we passed through some amazing tundra and permafrost country. Lots of small lakes which hold water from
snow melt, but which cannot seep away because of the permafrost forming a seal
just below the surface. Some of these
lakes are formed by ice blocks that were beneath glaciers, and once the glacier
retreated, these ice blocks eventually melted too and left indentations in the
surface soil, which are now full of water, and are called “kettles”.
All around us were snow covered mountains of various
sizes, but all spectacular. We climbed
for some time, eventually reaching the summit of Maclaren Pass at 4086 ft, with
a stunning view over the surrounding countryside. Although a few “normal” cars and even fewer
motorhomes drive this road, it really needs a good 4WD to do it safely, and
Troopie really does gives us the freedom to go on any road. Additionally, it also enables us to stop
absolutely anywhere, and just sleep safely and warmly inside – It really is
almost the perfect vehicle for this kind of trip (although, being me, I am
always think of ways to make it even better !!) Shortly after Maclaren summit we passed a
deformed “Palsa”. These Palsa are
actually solid ice covered in soil, or peat, and they are formed when water is
forced up through to the surface, like by an artesian flow. This water then freezes and expands, pushing
the surface soil upwards, and forming a hill, sometimes quite large (20 – 30
ft), but more often just little hillocks, like moguls on a ski field. This particular Palsa was cut into by accident when the road was
being constructed and it then collapsed, so only half of it is now left, and
all that is left visible is dark peat – The remaining ice is hidden behind.
Shortly afterwards, we came over a hill and there in
front of us was a 3 story log cabin – In the sky !! It was being built on the
top of a hill !! We dropped down the hill, crossed the Maclaren River, and
turned into the Maclaren River Lodge – And what a place !! Lots of winter and summer toys lying around –
snowmobiles, other snow equipment, dog sleds, snow ploughs, as well as a plane,
boats, and ATV’s (the little 4 WD buggies every one uses out here to get
around. Went inside and got a cup of coffee
and started chatting – Turns out that the owner, XXX, run the place and try
just about everything that can be tried. They come in by snowmobile in about
February and open the place up, and have hunters and fisherman stay there, and
in the summer they have the tourists. Apparently
at the height of summer they can get up to 6 or more coaches of cruise ship
tourists come through each day – They feed them and give them a short break on
their journey between Cantwell and Paxson.
The rest of the time is theirs to enjoy the outdoors. Matt and XXX were
keen to see my car, which they thought was a Landrover, and when they realised
it was a Toyota with a diesel engine, wanted to see everything. Then a coach pulled in !! And they had to run to welcome all the people
off the coach – So we left !! But an
amazing place which would be just beautiful in winter and early spring – Come
in my dog sled or snowmobile ? What a
great adventure that would be !!!
After leaving the Lodge, we drove through the most
amazing tundra countryside, with glacial features a part of the countryside
everywhere you looked – moraines (terminal, medial etc), enormous boulders
carried from elsewhere by a long ago glacier, kettles, and XXXX which are silt
beds deposited by rivers which flowed underneath glaciers – IN some places we
were driving along the top of these !!
And all the time we were surrounded by snow capped mountains, usually
glistening in the sunshine of the beautiful weather we were unexpectedly
enjoying (the weather forecast yesterday had been for increasing rain). We
passed a little ATV on the road, and saw many more parked by campers that were
dotted along the road, pulled off in small lay byes for a few days while they
went hunting. We then crossed the
Susitna River and shortly afterwards found a lay bye and left the car there and
went for a walk about half a mile to the top of a hill – To find beautiful and
tiny spring flowers along the way (hard to photograph !!), and at the top a
magnificent view of the Susitna River, the enormous glacial valley, and mountains
all around 360 degrees. I took a video
of it, and when I get 5 minutes will put it on Vimeo or some other site so I
can share them with you all. After our walk we had a quick bite to eat before
continuing on our way through this amazing countryside. Eventually we came to Cantwell and the end of
the Denali Highway and decided to drive 20 miles north to Denali and camp
there, mainly so we could go back to our favourite bar / restaurant The Salmon
Bake (or the Bake as it is locally called) to have one more of their delicious
halibut / salmon meals, and a pint of Moose Drool (a local and delicious dark
beer !). While we set up for the night, a
guy named Kurt came over and introduced himself, said he was from Switzerland,
and had a Troopie – I got all excited because I had heard that there was a
Swiss Troopie travelling in Alaska, and thought this was him ! Turned out that although Kurt has a Troopie,
it is at home in Switzerland and Kurt is just renting a van over here. But had a great chat and compared Troopies
! As the camp sites are really becoming
quite full and busy, we had been unable to get into the Denali Nat Park
campsite, but this was an acceptable alternative for one night, so we had a
much appreciated shower, and were able to just walk 200 yards over to the
Bake. Great meal there, then it was a
quick shop for a couple of souvenirs for Janet to take home when she leaves in
3 weeks, some time trying (not very effectively) to get my blog updated, and we
turned in, prepared to head south towards Anchorage and then Homer (on the
Kenai Peninsula) in the morning.
Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0031TangleLakesToDenali?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7b_KadiYmWEQ#
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