R WE MAD?: 22- 26 July

Route: Fairbanks-Denali NP-Fly,Kantishna-Denali-Anchorage-Fly,King Salmon-Fly,Katmai NP-King Salmon-Anchorage.

We leave Fairbanks, our most northern point of our trip at 65 degrees N heading south for Denali NP. All reports from fellow travellers indicate that we have little to no chance of flying into Kantishna, in the heart of Denali NP.

But our luck continues, we not only manage to fly, but the weather clears sufficiently to allow the pilot to find a hole in the clouds, giving us the most fantastic views of Mt. McKinley and the Muldrow Glacier.

At 20230 feet, McKinley also known as Denali (the high one), is the highest mountain in N America. As it turns out we are the only ones to fly the entire week.

We had decided to splurge and stay inside Denali NP at Sky Lodge, which is owned by Katishna Air to house their pilots. Our log cabin, set high on the side of the mountain, gave us the solitude that few visitors to Denali experience.

We spent our time walking on trails, with fog and drizzle as our companion, before returning to the communal dining room for a Cordon Bleu meal.

Its amazing, maybe disturbing, how little game is seen. We are not sure whether the low densities are the norm or whether decades of indiscriminate hunting is to blame. The whole time we where in the park which included a 6 hour bus ride out of the park, we only saw 6 Moose, 14 Caribou, 3 Grizzly Bear, 2 Dall Sheep and a family of Ptarmigan.

The rain followed us to Anchorage, and with the weather predictions for King Salmon & the Alaskan Peninsula even worse, we were very concerned that our luck would not hold.

Our $2500 trip to Katmai NP has a ‘no refund’ policy in the case of bad weather. The rain continued through out the night. We drove to the airport in torrential rain. We got drenched walking across the tarmac to board the single engine prop plane to King Salmon…………but we took off bang on time. We flew in rain, landed in rain & transferred to the float plane, where we were weighed in the rain…….but we took off bang on time, in the rain. We flew in the rain, landed in the rain, had the mandatory bear etiquette lecture while it rained and then walked the 2 miles to Brooks Falls viewing platform in the rain, and then……………….. THE RAIN STOPPED.

And now the full version.

The 1h20 flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, on the Alaskan Peninsula was in a 30seat prop plane. On arrival, we were immediately transferred to the Float plane terminal. Before boarding the plane, which was built in 1963 and has seen service in Saudi Arabia & Russia, before coming to King Salmon, we are each weighed to get an accurate measure of the load.

Wind gushes through gaps in the doors and the aluminium covers around the windows look as if they were hand beaten into place, but she lifts off the water with ease, carrying nine passengers, for the 20 minutes to Katmai NP. We could see bears on the beach as we approached.

We first have to attend a bear etiquette lecture, before we head out to the viewing platforms about 2 miles away.

Not far along the path, we round a corner and coming towards us are 2 bears, not 20 meters away. We make a hasty retreat, without running, turning our backs or looking them directly in the eyes. Its amazing how quickly they walk, I would hate to see them in a full charge. At the end of the muddy path, the park services have erected a platform that puts us right where the action is.

At times 13 Brown Bears, a larger sub species of Grizzly Bear, were catching Salmon at Brook falls. Immediately a fish is caught, it is held head down in the long claws, before having its skin, the bear’s favorite, deftly striped and eaten.