Crossing the Canadian / US boarder on the Top of the World Highway. The crossing is only open April to September because of weather and the road is mostly following the ridge line of the mountains.
Up near Coldfoot, AK (population 34), on the Dalton Highway, I saw a black wolf and reindeer while trekking into The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. While here, I felt as though I was the first human to step foot on this land. It was very eerie.
The roads to Denali
One thing I wasn't aware of is how Denali National Park was run. You have to win a lottery to enter the park and camp. Luckily I was able to secure one the day before. They break the park up into units that are roughly 100 square miles and only 2-12 people are allowed in each unit per night so you feel the remoteness of the park. It is nothing like the lower 48 national parks. I decided to spend my first night at an established campground since I was getting in mid day, I figured this was the safest thing for me.
I went on a hike to scope out a nearby mountain, no established trails, just a good time. After getting to the peak, I saw a nice outlook on my way down, once I got there, I startled a nearby moose and ended up getting charged. I ducked into the tuckamore / alders to hopefully lose the moose but instead I made it harder for myself. It was about 2 miles back to the campsite and 1 mile of it was in the alders that towered me and thicker than a cornfield. The moose followed me for that mile, getting within 15 feet and as far as 100 feet as I pushed my way through. I finally busted out and was able to run back to camp.
Later that night, I made dinner, talked with the nearby ranger and checked out his log cabin. The front door had a wall of nails sticking out. I realized this was so the bears wouldn't charge the door to break it down. The ranger told me he was stationed there because a 2 year old male grizzly recently got shunned away from his mother to fend for himself and he visited the camp last night that tested a group of campers. I was there by myself so I was happy to have the ranger nearby but IDK how much he could help in the middle of the night being as far away as he was. Kind of felt like he was there to clean up the bodies instead. fast forward a couple hours later, I woke up to some rain hitting my tent and then shortly after, some sniffing. It sounded very loud as it moved around my tent. It was pretty apparent, the grizzly was here to say hi. I had some netflix downloaded on my phone so I played the same movie over and over throughout the night so the voices would potentially detour the grizzly. It first moved quickly away but then later would come back. After surviving the night and getting very little sleep, I got out of my tent and I saw a bunch of paw prints all around my tent. It was still raining, I was soaked from tearing down the tent. I was supposed to hike deeper into the backcountry but after the night I had, I decided to just ride the bus to dry off and drink some whiskey while touring the rest of the park.
Once things started drying off, I decided to cross a massive river bed and head up a small stream and climb the tallest mountain I could find.
After getting epic views of the park and hiking back down, The dry river bed had turned into a raging river. In order to get back to civilization, I had to down climb a couple cliffs to avoid getting swept away by the river. This added another 20 minutes to my way back to the bus so I had to run to catch the last bus out of the park.
