Denali National Park and Preserve

Good morning, my friends. It was a good day to explore Denali National Park and Preserve yesterday. We waited for the skies to clear. By the time we'd driven the 26 miles to the north, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. I snapped this picture at the park entrance. These days, I can't capture a sign at a national park without a bunch of photobombers in the way.

Our first stop was the visitor center. We'd already decided on a hike, but we stopped to pick up a trail map. Also...sled dogs be walking here.

So this was the trail we decided on. We'd read an earlier description that said we'd see beaver dams and possibly even some beaver on this trail, and so it was an easy choice. There were three places to start the trail. We started at a spot across from the parking areas at the visitor center.

Looking up...I love the birch and aspen trees. They are plentiful in this area.

After walking about half a mile, we crossed this bridge.

There was a creek rushing underneath. We could hear it, but we couldn't see it for all the dense brush below.

It was a well maintained and easy trail. In some places it was shored up. In others, we walked across short bridge sections and boardwalks.

We crossed a railroad track before reaching the beginning of the trail proper. There were three ways to start, but they all met up at this point. 

I'm not sure what trains use these rails. We can hear them from our campground. As we walked along, a train went by blowing its horn. Nothing like that "woodsy" feel when you're out in the wilderness, eh? We could just barely see it through the trees. This looks like a touring train.

Okay, so here's the map of our hike. You can see where we started at the Visitor Center at the bottom of the image below.

This bug really wanted me to take it's picture.

It seemed we walked a long way before we finally got a view of the lake. You can see we're high above it here. We would have to make our way down a 275-foot elevation change, which also meant we would have to walk back up. (Sigh.)

This was the longest set of steps. There were others.

There was a bench at the bottom when we reached the lakeshore. We sat here for a bit. Looking right, it looked like this:

Looking to the left, it looked like this:

There was a small spur trail leading to a beaver dam

Here's the same dam from a different angle.

Clearly...

While we sat on the bench looking out at the lake, we could see something hop in the water and start swimming across. We weren't sure if it was a beaver or some other furry mammal...

Until it ducked under water and we could see its tail.

And that was the first time we'd seen a beaver in the wild, so we were pretty stoked. Walking on, we came to a rapidly moving Nenana River. You can see a lodge on the opposite bank.

Looking in the other direction, it looked like this:

Here's that same wildflower we've seen blooming along the highways. My phone tells me they are Hedysarum boreale.

Eventually, we came to a small creek feeding the lake. There were more beaver dams here.

Here's a little closer shot.

We crossed over another footbridge here.

And then we could get another view of the larger beaver dam.

This is the same one...different angle.

Where the lake was deep, the water was that beautiful glacial blue. And the lake is horseshoe shaped (unsurprisingly). This is the right side of the horseshoe.

This is the left side of the horseshoe. People were swimming here. You have to think the water is pretty darned cold.

The trail took us right along the lakeshore.

Here's another couple of looks back at the lake as we headed back uphill.

And huff, puff, huff, puff, we finally made it. We picked up a refrigerator magnet at the park store. Our Milepost promised us a look at Denali (the mountain) if we headed up to Mile 10 on the park road. (The road is closed after Mile 15 because of a years-ago rock slide.) So we did that. The sky was starting to cloud over again by then. We took a half-mile trail identified as "Mountain View." And yes...there were mountains.

None of them were Denali. We stopped and talked with some folks on the trail who were experiencing the same frustration we were. Is that the mountain? Is that the mountain? What about that one over there? Some folks who seemed to know told us we wouldn't be able to see the mountain from here. (!!) 

Okay, it was well past lunch time, and we still had a 26 mile drive back to our camper. We decided we'd had enough and headed for home. On the way out of the park, we could see the railroad trestle off in the distance.

And that was our day. We distributed kitty greet and treats when we got back. We each had a Mike's Lemonade and some lunch. And then we each took a late nap. Lunch was late enough that we skipped dinner and just had some ice cream. It was a cool and sweet way to end the day.

The sun is shining this morning, but the sky is hazy. We're expecting rain this afternoon and into the evening. We've gone back and forth about whether to stay here another night or move on to Talkeetna. We've decided to stay the extra night, and we'll give ourselves a day of rest today. We'll move onto Talkeetna tomorrow. (Talkeetna has a quilt shop!) The weather will be better tomorrow, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll see the elusive mountain at one of the two viewing platforms south of here. We have a reservation at a campground some 15 miles out of town at Montana Creek. I was glad I booked a reservation because everything was full. Talkeetna must be a happenin' place on the weekends.

Okay, so that's all I have for you this morning. Not sure what the day will bring. I fully expect there will be time for slow-stitching. Beyond that is anybody's guess. Right now...I might just get back in bed for a while. Sounds good, huh?