From Denali to anchorage

Thursday July 17

We spent the morning at the Denali wilderness lodge. We did different activities. Kevin opted to go for a short hike, looking for wildlife and getting some last looks at Denali.  He did get to see an Alaskan Wood Frog, a rare sighting. The wood frog completely freezes (its heart stops) and then thaws and comes back to life in the spring. We also saw a porcupine. Most of the mountains were covered by clouds, but the peak of Denali peeked through the cloud cover a couple of times. 

Katharine went on a historical tour at Fanny Quigley’s cabin. Fanny Quigley came to Kantishna in 1906 with her husband to stake a gold claim. Gold had been discovered by Wickersham ( he came to try to ascend the mountain but found gold while he was there). The Quigleys were better at copper and quartz mining than gold. In 1930 Joe Quigley left the area never to return but Fanny stayed until her death in 1944. She left instructions for her famous blueberry pie, which included “pan for some gold and kill a bear” and went on to “mush with your dogs to Nenana (125 miles!) to trade gold for flour and sugar”, followed by “in a large iron kettle render the bear fat into lard”…. 

After lunch we boarded helicopters to return to the front country of the park. We were again graced with a view of Dall sheep, and a speck that was a  grizzly along a stream bed. The last leg of the journey was a four hour van ride to Anchorage, where we will spend a short night before heading south to the Kenai tomorrow.  We crossed through the Broad Pass of the Alaska Range, leaving the boreal forest and spruces behind us and beginning to pick up the trees of the temperate rain forest. We stopped to stretch our legs and soak up some sunshine at a roadside gas station— and there behind us was a view of the south side of Denali! It felt very strange to return to paved roads and shopping centers after two days in the wilderness. 

A few more reflections on the back country of Denali. Yesterday’s morning hike took us through boreal forest (taiga), wet tundra and wetlands. Each of these biomes had their own characteristic trees, shrubs, flowers, moss and lichen, and an accompanying set of insects, birds and mammals. While much of the landscape looks lush, it does not support a high density of birds or mammals, so seeing any creature is a treat. The wildflowers were particularly beautiful at this time (including the poisonous ones!) while in another month the color palette will be dominated by different kinds of berries as they ripen. 

Pictured: Dall sheep from above, south side of Denali from afar, Arctic wood frog, white crowned sparrow (not unusual but our constant companion)