Upper Chatanika River SRA

Day 43  Wednesday July 27, 2016        Steese Highway, mile 29, Upper Chatanika  River SRA, site 22

43 miles towing              10.6 mpg

We needed a new adventure and we wanted to get away from Fairbanks and go try something new.  One area I investigated during the original planning phase was the Steese Highway, north of Fairbanks.  It is about 150 miles long and ends in Circle, AK.  We were interested in the Upper Chatanika River SRA at mile 29 of the Steese Highway.  Further up there were three BLM campgrounds all on rivers or creeks.  We wanted to check them out too.

We took our time with a morning fire and coffee.  Wasn’t a long driving day.  Left the campsite at Chena River at 09:30.  Stopped at the Fred Meyer on the north side of town to get some odds and ends and two bundles of Alaska’s cheapest firewood.  By 10:00 we were out of there.

Nice ride up the Steese.  Went over a pass and arrived at the campground immediately after crossing the Chatanika River.  

The bridge over the Chatanika River as seen from our campsite.

View along the Steese Highway.

Sign at the campground entrance.

We drove around the whole campground and fell in love with site 22.  It was large, open, on the river and finally, when we got there, sunny.  Marsha loved it.  I wanted to fish the river for grayling so bad and this site was ideal.  When we first got there, we had or doubts, the sites were swampy, very mosquito infested, and looked overgrown as though no one ever stays there.  But when you get to the one’s along the river, it’s a different story.

Our campsite one site 22.

Shortly after setting up, the only other camper there, walked by all dressed up in waders and fly fishing paraphernalia.  He was native born Alaskan and hadn’t fished that river in 40 years.  He told me about others up at the BLM sites.  We had planned on checking them out.  He took off down the river fishing and I never heard from him again.

The fly fisherman and his dog fishing down from

our campsite.  Never found out how he did.

I suited up and went up above the bridge to try fishing away from the campground. 

Checking out my fishing stuff.

All suited up, ready to go.

Here's the water I fished, up from the bridge.

I immediately caught what looked like a brown trout, but I don’t think they have brown trout in Alaska, so it may have been a Dolly Varden, an Alaskan species I am not familiar with.  I expected Grayling as that is pretty common on the mountain streams that are non-glacial.  After that, I got nothing.  Tried every type of fly, wet, dry, streamer, nothing worked.  No takes on anything.  I turned over rocks in the stream to look for nymphs and larva.  Found none.  It’s like the stream is sterile.  I wonder about its capacity to support fish.  Maybe I was fishing in fishless water.  (I’ve never had to use that excuse before).  It was discouraging because it was such a beautiful river to spend the afternoon fishing.

It was sunny since we arrived and I put the solar panel out.

I made some ½ lb burgers with some Angus beef I bough at Fred Meyer earlier today.  It was the best burger of the trip.  Red Robin might want the recipe.

In the afternoon a big fifth wheel pulled up in an open area between sites 23 and 24 which is right on the river.  It was not a campsite.  They stayed there all day and when evening came, they left.  I thought they were trying free camping which is not uncommon, but they left after being here for about 8 hours.  I have no idea where they went that late.  Remember, though, the sun doesn’t set until 11:00 PM here and even then, it doesn’t really get dark.  Haven’t seen stars since we entered Canada 5 weeks ago.

Later a class C showed up and then a VW camper van showed up. 

Looking forward to another day here.

Fairbanks Again . . . Day 2

Day 42  Tuesday July 26, 2016                  Fairbanks, AK    Chena River Wayside SRA, site 12, day 2

0 towing miles

Today was errand day.  It was a nice morning and we made a fire to enjoy with our morning coffee.  Because we are in the city we had good 4G LTE signal and I got three blogs posted. 

Went to do laundry at same place we did a few weeks ago.  We are getting to know our way around Fairbanks.  That’s probably not a good thing.  Next door was a Thai food place named Bahn Thai.  Every little nook and cranny in Alaska has a Thai restaurant, shack, or truck.  Fairbanks has about 10 Thai places, just driving around.  Anyway, it was very good.  The best that we’ve had yet and the most authentic.

One of my propane tanks was empty and we found a Tesoro that filled propane tanks.  That was easy.

Then on to Fred Meyer for some groceries, ice, and two bundles of the lowest price firewood in all of Alaska.

Marsha went to Michael’s for some special yarn.  Yes, they have Michael’s in Fairbanks.  They have everything in Fairbanks.  Even the farthest, most northern girl scout troop.

Back at campsite we had the cocktail hour.  Worked on Teklanika blog drafts.  Just made sandwiches for dinner.

We are glad to get out of here.  There are some creepy people here.  Across from us was an old class A motorhome with boxes and boxes of stuff piled up around his campsite and against his rig like he was moving, but had nowhere to put it. 

Another two sites next to each other had about four tents in each site, groceries all over the picnic tables, tarps, clotheslines, and lots of women and kids running around.  They were there two weeks ago, too. 

Another tent site had about four tents and there were four, what looked like winos, sitting around. 

The guy with the tent and beat up van with the screaming 2 year old was still there and still noisy all night.  

We decided we would not stay there again.  Obviously the state is not monitoring the place and are letting this go on.  There are not many choices in Fairbanks, but I will not camp in a homeless shelter.

It’s too bad because it is a beautiful campground right in the city, off Airport Way and University Drive.

Back to Fairbanks

Day 41  Monday July 25, 2016                  Fairbanks, AK    Chena River Wayside SRA, site 12

156 miles           11.4 mpg

Time to leave Teklanika River Campground.  Left at 08:15 on a nice sunny day.  The kind of day to go on a tour of the park and see Denali.

We had a real pleasant drive along the park road towards the park entrance.  Then out of nowhere, I looked over and saw Denali rising above a mountain range in all its glory.  We stopped and took pictures at various pullovers.  I was unaware that Denali could be seen in that section of the Park.  It made our day.  It finally came out just as we were leaving.

Check it out:

The white mountain in the background is Denali.

To the left, is one of Denali's friends in the same range.

Marsha took this close-up.

We stopped at the visitor center and poked around the book store there.  Bought a Denali T-shirt.  Then we stopped at the Riley Creek Mercantile.  Marsha bought some stamps and mailed off some postcards.

Our last errand on the way out was to dump our tanks and top off the fresh water tank.

Pulled onto the Parks Highway and headed north at 10:15. We stopped in a little bitty town called Nenana to see if we could find a place to have something to eat.  We were both hungry.  We found a little café called Roughwoods Café.  It was a unique place, outside and inside. 

This was a neat little place in a tiny little town off the Parks Highway.

They had all day breakfast and I ordered the local’s favorite, called Jose Stacked.  It was really good.  Hash browns, with melted cheddar, deli ham, two fried eggs, all topped with salsa and sour cream.  I would order it again, and even try to duplicate it at home.  We had pancakes for breakfast, but it didn’t hold us over very well. 

The Oliver was filthy from the drive to Teklanika the day we arrived.  And it was still filthy.  When we arrived at Fairbanks we found an RV park with an RV wash and we went there to use it.  It took a while but we got it cleaned.  Then we moved on to the same campground we were at the last time we were in Fairbanks.  The Chena River Wayside SRA.  There were some of the same people still there!  The losers that look like squatters.  More on that later.

One of the first things we did was go to REI and get me a day pack.  I lost my 20-year-old day pack or misplaced it and couldn’t find it before the trip.  So we decided to replace it with something more up to date.  It would have come in handy on the two bus trips we took at Denali.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Bank’s Ale House and had a $25.00 15” pizza that wasn’t very good, but it was still pizza.

Then we just relaxed back at the campground looking at our Denali photographs, all happy to have finally seen it.

Another Denali Road Tour

Day 40  Sunday July 24, 2016    Denali National Park, Teklanika River Campground, site 36 day 3
0 miles driving

Today was our third day at the Teklanika River Campground.  We enjoyed our tour of the Park Road to Kantishna yesterday that we decided to go on the same tour again, but just to Wonder Lake this time.  It's only 7 miles shorter.  Although it is the same road, the lighting, sky, clouds, and animals may all be different.  Also, the day seems a little brighter.  Maybe there is a chance we could see Denali today.

As soon as we got to the bus stop at the campground entrance, the Wonder Lake bus arrived.  Our Tek pass we used yesterday was still valid for bus fare. 

The bus ride was similar to yesterday’s.  We had a different driver who was no where near as good as the one yesterday.  Today’s driver said very little and did not know a lot about the park or the animals.  He was young and didn’t have the enthusiasm or the knowledge yesterday’s driver had.   He was very good about accommodating us when wildlife was seen.

We saw lots of wildlife again, especially bears.  Saw four caribou, one moose, and a golden eagle in flight.  Also the usual ptarmigan.  Because the weather was a little better, at least at first, some of the scenery looked different due to different lighting and cloud cover.  The latter part of the trip and the return was very cloudy and even rained at times.  Some of the animal pictures were cropped to get them closer for your viewing pleasure.

When we got to Eielson Visitor Center, one of the peaks in the Alaska range was peaking out and we thought for sure we would see Denali before too much longer as the clouds cleared.  Didn’t happen.  Got cloudier and cloudier.  By the time we got to Wonder Lake we could see all clouds and even rain at the other end. 

No Denali for you!!!  It was disappointing because it was our last day at Denali.

This is some assorted scenery pictures selected for your viewing pleasure and their awesomeness.

Here's some photos of Wonder Lake the next day.

No loon today.

Note the rain at the other end of the lake.

 Marsha on the bus at Wonder Lake.

This was the end of the line for this trip.  We started at mile 29 at Teklanika.

Now for the critter shots.

This bear just stood in the road and took quite a while before he

decided to walk into the brush and let us go. 

He even sat down on the road for a while.

Another Arctic ptarmigan shot.  Alaska's state bird other than the mosquito.

A grizzly resting about 20 feet from the road.

The same sow with her 3 cubs we saw yesterday.

A golden eagle in flight.  There are no bald eagles in Denali. 

They like fish.  The glacial rivers do not have fish. 

Golden eagles eat ground squirrels.

Caribou

Bull moose

Fox running down the road, looking for ground squirrels running across the road.

Ugly caribou.  Was molting and looked all spotted.

This caribou was quite large and just stood there in this pose without moving.

He was about 1/4 mile away and this picture was cropped to see it in more detail.

Another bear just hanging out by the side of the road.

The sow with cubs again.

Kantishna Tour

Day 39  Saturday July 23, 2016                 Denali National Park, Teklanika River Campground, site 36

0 towing miles

It started out as a drizzly cloudy foggy rainy day.  Not a good day for a bus tour of the Park road all the way to the 92.5 mile marker and back.  But we were in Denali and that’s all that mattered.

The bus picked us up at 08:55 at the bus stop outside the campground entrance.  It was already nearly full because most of the passengers started out at the Wilderness Center near the park entrance.

We had an excellent driver who narrated everything about the whole route.  The history, the animals, the geology, glaciation, mining, lodges, road building, and on and on.  He had been driving that route for 18 years.

When an animal is sighted someone calls out and the driver will stop and position the bus as needed so everyone can see and photograph it.  The people on the bus share their positions to allow others to see and get a chance at photos, too.  We are not allowed off the bus, and we are to be quiet and keep our heads and arms in the bus.  They do not want the animals to be acclimated to people. 

We had scheduled stops along the way about every hour.  One of the longer stops was at the Eielson Visitor Center.  There are some short trails in the area, but longer than the length of the stop.  The system allows you to get off the bus if you wish and catch another one on the way back.  The shuttle system is very flexible. 

The driver would point out where Denali would be if we could see it, but it was not to be today.  It was enclosed in clouds as is the case 67% of the time.

We went all the way to Wonder Lake, which is the last campground on the road at mile 85.  But our tour went on for 7.5 more miles into a section of the Park that was private at one time.  There were several lodges there that are still operating today.  The lodge buses are allowed to use the Park Road to shuttle clients to and from the lodge and on day excursions.  There was also a town there at one time called Kantishna.  It was a mining town, but no longer exists.

The entire trip was full of breath taking scenery and lots of wildlife.  Here’s some scenery.  I don’t even know where to start I have so many pictures.

Let’s start at on the way to Polychrome Pass:

And at Polychrome Pass:

And then Eielson Visitor Center:

Looking  toward Denali.  It's right behind all that mist.

This was our best view of Denali.  This is what it's supposed to look like.

By then our bus looked like our trailer.

Taken at Eielson Visitor Center. 

Here some shots at Wonder Lake:

Note the loon in the water.

I’ll throw the rest of these in because they are pretty and many are taken on the way back.  As the day went on it was cloudy, sunny, raining, cold, hot.  It varied all day and so did the appearance of the scenery.

 

These colorful mountains were in the Polychrome area..

 Now we get to the wildlife section of the program.  Lots of grizzly bears, caribou, a few moose, ptarmigan, golden eagles, Dall sheep, loons, and a spruce grouse.

All caribou have antlers, male and female.

A grizzly sow and her three cubs.  All the grizzlies in Denali are

cinnamon colored.  This photo was taken quite far

and had to be cropped.  That's why the graininess.

Dall sheep on a hillside.  These were all females with their lambs.

We had to follow this caribou for about 1/2 hour before it got

off the road when another vehicle came in the other direction. 

They get on the road to get away from the bugs in the tundra.

A ptarmigan, the state bird of Alaska.  They are pure white in the winter.

A couple of large antlered caribou.

A spruce grouse.  The first wildlife we saw after we got on the bus.

A caribou hanging out by himself.

A close up of the loon in Wonder Lake.

Another of the many caribou we saw today.

What a remarkable animal.

Three bull moose hanging out together.  During the rut, these

three would be battling to the death for a chance to mate.

And then we ran across the most dangerous animal of all:

We had an extremely wonderful day.  Wished we saw Denali, but there was so much scenery and wildlife, you can’t be disappointed in a day like we had.