Denali Camping

Praise to the intern that came up with the Junior Ranger program at Denali National Park! Carol and the kids and I went down to Denali National Park a couple of weeks ago for a little campout. Fall colors had arrived (somehow I'm still surprised by this up here when the leaves turn at the end of August) so we thought the park might be nice.

We headed down on Saturday after piano and dropped by the Wilderness Access Center at the park to see about bus rides. There was a bus at 2PM to the new visitors center so we signed up. Basically there is no access into the park except on the bus system. The road is a pretty well maintained dirt road and the bus system works pretty well. They do take a while to get back into the park, however. An 80 mile trip takes about 6 hours (12 round trip). We were going about 60 miles in for an 8 hour round trip adventure. We hoped the kids would do okay and for the most part they did.

Before heading out, we went by the visitors center to pick up the Junior Ranger pack. This is a great program where any kid for free can sign up to be a Junior Ranger and get a fully stocked backpack with compass, binoculars, magnifying glass, books on plants and an activity book. It is a great program. The activity book is also very well done and has the kids ask rangers questions and write the response, identify animals they see on the trip, etc. I'm sure it was the brain child of some intern and whoever that may be, I would just like to personally thank them for a great program. At the end, the kids turn in their workbooks and have a swearing in ceremony with one of the real park rangers. They get a pin on badge and lots of great memories. The video of the ceremony is here:

The bus ride was next on the agenda (the kids kind of did the Junior Ranger thing throughout the whole day). We left with food in hand for 8 hours (no food/water provided), the activity stuff from the Junior Ranger pack and some extra stuff we brought from home. The kids actually did very well for most of the trip. We had a few meltdowns, but really they did quite well. We saw a moose, a bear, lots of ptarmigan and some sheep. One of the bears actually walked right around the bus and then sauntered off and played in the road. It was great. Usually at Denali the bear viewing is at quite a distance, so this was a real treat.

We almost made it to the visitor's center, but we actually decided to jump ship and come back one stop early (you can basically get off the bus at anytime and hike or catch a ride back on one of the other buses). Denali (Mt. McKinley) was visible and “out” for our drive down to the park, but as we were going in on the bus, it clouded up. We probably would have pushed on if there was any chance of seeing it, but once it clouds up, it takes a while to clear. I've been into the park 4 times and I've really only had a clear shot once. It is beautiful when it's out, it's just hard to predict when that will happen.

After getting back to camp, we set up our new 7 man Kelty tent. It's not quite as easy as our Sierra Designs 3 man which I personally think is the greatest tent made (easy to set up, great rain fly, very sturdy). It is very roomy inside, however and Carol and I can both almost stand up inside.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows by the fire and then went to bed. The night was fairly uneventful. I didn't put the rainfly on which is always an invitation for disaster, but fortunately it didn't rain. My sleeping pad didn't work, so I was tossing and turning quite a bit, but it was still a great time. The kids slept fine and Carol did battle with Owen a little, but we all managed a little shut eye.

Here's another video if you're up for a little Hammond overdose: