Fly Denali

Today we ended the back country portion of Denali. The next couple of days we are exploring the front country, mostly near the main park entrance. But we decided to treat ourselves to an early anniversary present.

We left the Teklanika campground, the first time we had driven since we got there. The park rules are that we were not allowed to drive until we were leaving. The drive took a little over an hour to get to the park entrance area. Along the way, Amy spotted a bull moose running on a hillside. It was running super fast.

After we settled into our new campsite at Riley Creek, we decided to check out the visitor center to see what was available. We walked from the campground to the visitor center, to the surprise of some other campers. They have a little museum that talks about the animals found in the park as well as some park history.

There was an afternoon ranger walk on a nearby path, so we decided to join. The ranger leading the walk was Ranger Ryan, the same ranger that we had met yesterday who we talked about the aggressive arctic squirrels! Second time this trip we met a ranger in two different contexts. We are big Ranger Ryan fans! Ranger Ryan lead us on a walk and talked about how different plants and animals work together in the Boreal Forest ecosystem. That Denali became a protected place to protect the local sheep. And how the spruce and aspen trees are key to the ecosystem.

After the talk we had our anniversary trip: a "flightseeing" trip over Denali. Greg remembers how much his friend Adam enjoyed that when they went to Denali back in 1991. Greg found the tour that was authorized to land on a glacier. How cool is that! Greg also thought that an early evening trip would be best for photos. It turned out to be a good choice because the weather improved during the day. First, we met the pilots - Beau and Brandy, both women. Beau was a character: she seemed barely older than Ari, but she's not only a pilot but also a flight instructor. However, Beau is only a seasonal pilot in Alaska, so we think Brandy rode along to help Beau navigate the bush (backcountry area).

We didn't expect it, but we wound up getting a private tour. The plane took off and followed the park road. We saw many of the same landmarks we saw over the last few days, including our initial campground, Teklanika. We also passed areas we hiked: the East Fork and Savage Rivers.

We continued past the Pretty Rocks Landslide that closed the road. Then we approached the Alaska Range. Denali was still covered in clouds, though we saw other parts of the range. The pilots tried to fly through one pass, then another, then a third, before deciding that the conditions were not right to get to the glaciers on the south side. We were both glad that we had true bush pilots, not "hotdogs" who were trying to showoff their skills. (Right, Adam and Maria?)

Instead, they flew into several canyons containing various glaciers. There were too many to remember, but they were all gorgeous with rocks, moraine, water pools and ice, of course.

As we flew back, Brandy saw a pair of bears. We did not, so we're not adding them to our bear count.