Myth busted at Alaska Veterans Memorial

Our friends Phil and Kathy flew all the way from Annapolis MD to Alaska to spend time with us. Great friends!

They flew in at midnight, with plenty of daylight still left. After spending a very short night in the Cabelas parking lot (thanks for welcoming RV’s, Cabelas!) we headed north toward Denali where we had reservations to camp at Teklanika for several days.

First stop was Eklutna State Park, where we learned that the recent wildfires and ongoing dry weather resulted in a campfire ban.

Much of our camping in Alaska has been at state recreation areas, They are state maintained campgrounds, usually dry camping with no water or electricity. But we’re comfortable with that and the price is right!

Bear awareness is necessarily a major theme in all the campgrounds, actually all of Alaska.

Lots of hiking trails to choose from. Some steep, some scenic, all amazing.

The lush green grass at the lakeside was a real surprise. Eklutna Lake is one of the main water sources for Anchorage.

Yes – the water was very cold!

Cold enough that signs are posted describing the effect of cold water and how to stay safe.

More bear safety education!

Road construction is a formal season in Alaska. Given the short season and the small number of highways, it seems that most of them are under construction all the time.

Warning sign or philosophy?

A bear is a bear is a …  But learning the difference can be a life saver. Turns out different types have different behaviors and those behaviors should be handled differently to stay safe.

One of the unique things about Alaska is that the road side parks and rest areas are all valid overnight camping spots. The Alaska Veterans Memorial was adjacent to a campground that was closed due to a beetle infestation that killed a lot of trees and made the area unsafe. But the campground hosts simply treated the rest area as their campground and welcomed us warmly.

We think this one is called Devils Club. Both of these plants are bad for humans. Seems like most of the wild plants with red berries should generally be avoided. But even the bad plants and the ‘weeds’ are beautiful. They do have strange names, though: Fireweed, Devils Club, Skunk Cabbage,…

Our real treat for the night came when a mama moose (surely busting that old mythical moose concept once and for all. Maybe all those moose crossing warning signs are real.) brought her calf into the parking lot and wandered around for about a half hour posing for pictures. Then she returned the next morning just to show us it was real.

Our first glimpse of Denali was just a slice of the mountain. It’s distinguishable from all the other mountains by the total whiteness of the snowcap. We were told that summer conditions on Denali are the same as winter conditions on Everest! So the climbing difficulty comes as much from the cold as the altitude.

 

But if not…