Denali National Park: Savage River Canyon

Back in May-June of this year, I visited my twin brother in Alaska. He was working at Denali National Park.

the landscape along the Savage River Canyon

One of the days we did a day hike along Savage River Canyon, the last spot in Denali you can drive to in a personal vehicle without reserving spots at one of the campgrounds further into the park. We bushwhacked past the short loop trail and explored the canyon on our own.

We watched a dall sheep misjudge the jump across the river. It bounced off one of the rocks and fell into the river. We were glad to see it appear fine when it managed to get out of the cold water, the only injury appeared to be to its ego. 

Caribou

we watched dall sheep jump the river for a couple of hours

My brother in Savage River Canyon

Jonathan during the bushwhack 

Jonathan during the bushwhack 

Jonathan surveying the landscape of Mordor

One of the scariest things in my life (until two days later in Denali) occurred while we were off trail in the Savage River Canyon. I was leading us back to the real trail, I rounded some boulders and came upon a grizzly bear cub on the unofficial game/way trail. It was poking around the rocks, coming down the slope deeper into the valley, and it started walking unnervingly quickly towards us. We turned around and headed back the way we came, further into the Savage River Canyon, while we considered our options. Getting between a mother grizzly and her cub is extremely dangerous and is almost guarantees an attack from defensive mother. We realized the cub had somehow been separated from its mom, and we were likely between the mother (on the top of ridge somewhere) and the cub which eventually made its way to the bank of the Savage River.

We decided to not backtrack the entire way we came because our line of sight was very limited due to a large rock outcropping, and we didn't want to remain so close to the cub. We chose to go up and around the outcropping and then back down and then jog back to the trail. So we bushwhacked at a rapid pace up the slope of the ravine, looking for the mother bear while picking our path carefully  along the rocky uneven tundra. We had our bear spray out, but wind gusts were extremely high in our direction, meaning if we needed it, it would likely be ineffective (and hopefully not blow back in our faces). On top of the slope we paused to catch our breath and pick our route back down. The air blew hard, nearly knocking us off my feet. We scrambled down the slope and made our way quickly back to the trail we started at. While jogging back the way we came we spotted the silhouette of what appeared to be the mother grizzly on ridge line searching for its cub. 

The whole experience was extremely unnerving, and it felt great to be back to the trail head, well away from the cub

The landscape in Denali is beautiful and sparse

We spotted a golden eagle on the drive back

Moose are EVERYWHERE in Denali. I have seen plenty of Moose in NH and other parts of New England, but I have never seen so many in such a short period of time, there is definitely a much higher concentration in the Denali area. This moose cow was browsing vegetation with its calf carefully hiding in the nearby vegetation.