Itches, Scratches.

Jeez, let’s try to make this a short one, shall we?

Denali Park is as big as All Outdoors. It’s honestly as big as the state of Massachusetts. I said awhile back that you could easily spend a week at Yosemite; I have a feeling you could do a solid month here without feeling like you’ve gotten anywhere.

Getting anywhere, by the way, is a major problem. There are 15 whole miles of paved road open to the public. There’s only a single 90-mile road in the entire park; most of that’s unpaved and reserved for shuttle buses. Unless you’re one of the real park adventurers, you have to cede your independence and embrace your inner hoi polloi (Mmm... poi; wrong non-continental state...).

It’s not the convenient, free, looped tram system Yosemite has; it’s a premium, reservations-only straight shot approaching the heart of the park, so you have to ride all the way out... and then all the way back. And it’s a long ride: I went to Mile 66 today, an 8 hour round trip. Tomorrow I’m headed out to Mile 85, eleven hours of bus. Thank goodness for that midnight sun thing: If it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have time to do anything but gawk out the windows. As it is, you have to fear missing The Last Bus of the Day and sleeping with the grizzlies.

Not that I saw any grizzlies; there was one sighting of some tiny brown lump that amounted to little more than the emperor’s new teddy. I saw caribou, and little specks of Dall sheep, and ptarmigan and falcons and eagles. No wolves or moose or grizzlies.

It’s silly to expect to see wildlife in National Parks; this isn’t a safari ride, folks. If these things are smart, they’ve learned to live very happy lives somewhere in this Massachusetts-sized block of land that ain’t anywhere near them 90 miles of road. It’s the land you should come to see.

But there’s this presumed promise, in all this Alaskan wilderness, of unfettered exotica, and we the too-fettered desire some genuine fetter-freedom. "WILDLIFE!" is what the various seniors cried when the shuttle guide asked what they were interested in seeing. Unfortunately, we’re in what is now officially the hottest, driest June on record in Alaska, the mosquito-count is waaaay high, and wildlife isn’t too fond of any of that.

So they played it cool somewhere else while edgy tram-riders pressed their faces flush against tour bus glass, desperately avoiding how goddamned beautiful everything is. And I’ll admit it: When there was a shout of "Bear!" or whatever from one side of the bus or the other, I grabbed my camera too. I have not yet relinquished my tourist-self; I am mightily disappointed in him, tho’. Because I know that deep down he didn’t really want to see a grizzly bear; he wanted a nifty personally autographed teeth-and-claws photo of his own personal grizzly bear. Less a matter of personal fulfillment than shutter closure. Shame, shame.

The real park adventurers – the kids, really – take the terminable ride out to a chosen drop-off point and hike. Not the wuss stuff I do – and yes, I ditched my original bus group so’s I could climb some, including a trail that would have given me a staggering view of Mt. McKinley (If it hadn’t have been obscured by clouds, that is. More predictable disappointment: Only 5% of the park’s visitors are actually treated to a full view of the mountain.). But real, multi-day, backwoods no-trail hiking. There are almost no trails in Denali; the theory here is that there’d be more interference with the nature of things were there established paths. So, register and roam free, kids. You can even go climb McKinley if you’d like, if you’ve got the three weeks to do it.

So tomorrow I go a little deeper into the park, a little earlier in the day. I hope to spend a little more time off the bus-beaten path. And to see a damned grizzly bear.

BTW, you can also fly Denali: There are private twin-prop plane companies that buzz the park for a fee. A fairly sizable fee. And them grizzlies ain’t gonna be any closer from the air. Not until we get on manufacturing some flyin’ grizzlies. Now that would be spiffy.

-- from just outside Denali Nat’l Park... same place as last night, actually. hoping that it ain’t broke

tags: road trip 2004  alaska  denali  

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