A bonus late-season trip to Denali

We love to get in a late-season trip to Denali after the tour buses have stopped running for the year and most of the tourists are gone. Riley Creek campground is open and free and you can drive your own vehicle out to the Teklanika rest stop. We had three days of beautiful weather-in the upper 30’s to mid-40’s during the day and sunny blue skies the entire time. We biked from Tek to the East Fork River bridge and except for a couple of hikers and one or two other mountain bikers, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Come along for the ride.

On the road from Seattle to Anchorage

We bought a new car in Seattle and are making the drive up for the first time. We took the car ferry to Haines when we moved up. I didn’t take many photos the first 3 days from Seattle to Fort Nelson. Today we’re traveling from Fort Nelson to the Liard River Hot Springs and then spending the night along Muncho Lake. There was a lot of wildfire smoke in the air when we left Fort Nelson—you could smell and taste it, but boy, did we hit the fall colors! The rain lasted until the hot springs and then it cleared up. And we finally got to see buffalo!

A truly magical fall trip to Denali.

We’re just back from a solid week in Denali and wow, did we luck out this year. We had beautiful weather most of the time, incredible fall colors that were changing rapidly while we were there—almost to peak color—and bears everywhere. We saw five different sets of sows with either cubs of the year, or yearlings/two year olds, so the bear population should be healthy next year. We biked almost 150 miles on the park road over the 5 days we were camped at the Teklanika campground inside the park.

And then, on our second to last night in the park, the magic happened. We saw a wolf for the first time in more than five years. Wolves are my wife’s spirit animal, so she was almost in tears. It was getting a bit dark, so the conditions weren’t great for photography, but not going to complain one bit.

As we drove out of the park on Saturday morning we had to stop for a bear jam right in the Sheep Gap at Hogan Creek as mom and two cubs came out of the bushes and walked right past our motorhome. What a way to end the trip! Far too many pictures as usual, but I like sharing the experience we had. Come along as we bike with bears! Click on the thumbnails and then cursor over the picture and the captions will tell the story.

A solo trip to Denali.

Devany was working out of town for the week, so I decided to sneak in a trip to Denali. I spent three days biking the park road from the Teklanika campground looking for critters and wildflowers on this trip. Jackpot on both! There were bears everywhere and the fireweed this year is just insane. Way too many pictures as usual, but come along for the, at times, soggy ride. Click on the pictures for full-screen high-res and cursor over the picture for captions that tell the story.