LAT-61.17 – LON-150.02 – The Last Frontier

I guess the story starts at Heathrow airport eating an overpriced burger that resembles Satan’s arse. I suddenly had that strange feeling that I was missing something.
Oh no, not my passport,Panic followed as I get up and shot off around the airport and in Guy’s words, It was like watching Benny Hill waddling around.
I eventually find my passport at in HMV where I had been buying a screen cover for my brand new iPhone 3GS!

8 hours later and it was touch down in Minneapolis and yet again another bizarre conversation with a immigration official.
Where are you going? He said as he was busy sifting through my immigration form looking for errors so he can send me to the back of the queue.
Alaska, Sir, putting on my poshest British accent.
Alaska? He stopped and looked at me, What are you doing up there? You know they have Bears up there.
I laughed, So everyone keeps telling me, i’m going hiking. I’m never sure if I should become Buddy, Buddy with these guardians of the stars and stripes.
You know, a lot of people just go missing in Alaska and are never found.
Oh, feeling a little concerned now.
He carries on, Have you seen the film In to the Wild?
Yes, it’s one of the reasons why I picked Alaska.
Exactly, He carried on slowly People go missing…. make sure you don’t.
At this point what am I meant to say to him? Something like Ok, thanks Dad, I’ll try not to die, But I didn’t, as soon as he handed me his passport I slipped quickly and quietly away. Welcome to the USA.
Seriously, am I the only one who gets these type of conversations at the US borders?

The next 5 hours in the air I will put it bluntly, it was hell. No food, one glass of water, no entertainment and squashed in to a seat with the least leg room I have ever had on a flight. Crammed in like cattle on the way to Alaska . Are all internal flights like this in the US? I thought flying with Ryan Air was cramped but it was nothing compared to this. Dreadful.

I’m glad someone got some sleep

But then things started to get better once the clouds parted on the final approach in to Anchorage and we were greeted by the immense Chugach Mountains range. An awesome sight and my first view of the Last Frontier of North America, Alaska.

Chugach Mountains

We get a taxi to take us straight to our hostel. We throw our bags in our room and headed out to the downtown bars, well it would be rude not too.
And it didn’t take long for the randomness to start. Jagerbombs and the local beer Alaskan Amber started to flow and we were soon introducing ourselves in our seuev Hugh Grant accents for the locals. Only to be kidnapped by bunch of girls on a bachelorette party. I’m not complaining though they were doing the worst English accent ever as it sounded more German than Cockney. It was time call it a night after being up for over 30 hours.

After a healthy American breakfast to sort out the hangover (We forgot how big they make them) it was time to go last minute shopping for supplies for our trek in to Denali National Park the following day.
Guy was still sweating about a bear encounter so we had to go hunting high and low for Bear Mace. Yes that’s right, you heard me right. Bear Mace. The day was spent walking the coastal path around Anchorage and introducing Guy to Root Beer floats. I’m not sure he was digging them as much as me. One of the greatest exports from Americas in my eyes.

God Bless America

An early start on the following day as we head to Denali National Park. I’d had been looking forward to this day ever since I knew of the existence of the Alaskan Railroad. Having travelled some of the greatest train journeys in the world this was another one to tick off. Unlike flying I believe travelling overland on a train is far the best way to see the world.

Now, I know nothing technical about trains or that I’m a trainspotter (Yet), but I have such a passion to travel on them. I get carried away with the excited when I get the first glimpse of the huge diesel engine that rumbles in to the station blasting off the horn to wake up the whole town. In the summer time this daily service is mainly for tour groups from the cruise ships that have their own carriages bolted on to the back of ours. Huge groups of hyperactive people swarm around the carriages like bees around their hive making sure they take photos of every angle of the train.
The excitement builds when I board the train. Finding my seat and making myself at home by scattering my bags and food around my seat. Waiting for the train to start moving I scan the carriage checking out the other passengers I will be sharing the next 8 hours with, it’s sociable feels neighbourly as everyone is chatting to each other. I should think the average age of the carriage is 50 to 60 years old and the feelings instantly bring back memories of the California Zephyr that I took from Chicago to San Francisco in 2008.
Without warning the Denali Star slowly starts moving and we soon find ourselves crawling passed the Elmendorf Air Force Base and out of Anchorage. The train doesn’t break any records for speed with it’s top speed of 60mph and in some areas it drops as low as 30mph, but it doesn’t matters as the 8 hour journey is epic beyond all proportion. Sweeping pass mountain ranges and over wild running rivers you never know where to look next. Even at this pace the 175 miles trip seemed to go flying by and soon enough we had arrived on the edge of Denali National Park.

Coming in to Denali on the train

After pitching our tent we headed over to the back country office to buy our permit which allowed us to stay overnight in the park. After picking a zone in the park and filling out the various safety forms, Guy decides to drop a bomb shell by sheepishly owning up that he couldn’t use a compass or a map. I just shook my head and for the rest of the holiday just ripped in to him calling him GPS Guy.
DDAY, no more campsites, no more hot showers or clean clothes as we were heading in to the wild for 4 days.

I’ll try and put Denali in to perspective. At 9,492 mi² the park is bigger than Wales. It has no trails and only a handful of campsites that are dotted along the 91mile road which comes to the end at the mysteriously named Wonder Lake. It is also home to the largest mountain in North America – Mount McKinley, sorry I mean Denali or just simply ‘The Mountain’ as the Alaskan call it.
7am and we board the camper bus to take us the zone we would be camping in for the next few days. We had picked an area called Polychrome mountains. It was hard to pick an area as we didn’t have a clue what to expect in the park. So I did what any novice hiker would do by picking a nice sounding name – Ahhh, yes the Polychrome mountains, That has a nice ring to it.

Let me explain the quoter system in the park, The park is split in to over 30 zones. Each zone is well over 50mi² so you have plenty to explore. Each zone can have a maximum of 12 overnight campers so the idea is keeping the human impact down to a minimum and is also making the experience feel even more remote.

The green painted ex-school bus was loaded with campers & and our gear. I wasn’t surprised to see a full bus of excited campers armed which multiple DSLR bodies with 400mm+ lenses hanging off them. I was starting to get lens envy holding my little Olympus Pen.

The drive gets more spectacular the further into the park you go. The beauty of this park I cannot put in to words, I have seen some incredible places in my time but I have never seen such enormous beauty than Denali. The bus feels microscopic as it snakes around the sides of this epic mountain range. It takes us at least 4 hours to reach our drop off point and we are not even more than half way through the park.

Geared up, GPS on and Guy with his bear mace attached to his hip holster like some kind of gun slinging cowboy we set off hiking down a river bed. A few miles down the river we find a gully to hike up and looks like a fine area to set up camp.

Veiw from the camper bus

Crossing the rivers between the Polychrome Mountains

A room with a view
This valley really did take my breath away and we nailed the right time to visit the park, Autumn is a beautiful time of the year to visit. The tundra glows red and yellow from the Spruces and willows that make up the majority of flora in this valley and made It looked like one giant Monet painting.

After food and a game of Starwars Top Trumps (That I won i’ll have you know) it was time to hit the sack.
Classic Denali moment
Guy had never had a poo in the wild before. Reluctantly he goes in to a brushy area of the tundra to do his business. He seem to taking ages, but at that time I really didn’t think anything of it. I thought he may have been just admiring the view from his throne. He later told me he managed to somehow crap on his shoelace and he spent most of the time washing it off in the river. HAHA. Brilliant.
The next morning I woke to find a very grumpy & angry Guy as he had no sleep as part of the tent was whipping him in the face during the night.

“I wanna go to a campsite, I heard something sniffing outside the tent” he grumbled at me.

I was trying not to laugh and keep a straight face as he did look very pissed off. I told him to give it another night and see how he feels. So after breakfast we headed on to the Tundra which was one big mistake, it was such hard work walking on it. We found ourselves resting in the soft moss rather than walking just because it was such hard work. After 2 miles we turned back to the gully to see if we could find an easier way round.

Guy perked up once we saw our first moose, i didn’t know they were such big animals. About the same size as a small horse. It scooped us out for a minute before getting bored of us pointing at it before heading in to the thick tundra.

Resting in the thick tundra.

After a well deserved break and curry in the bag it was time to follow the stream up the gully and find another spot to camp. At the top of the mountain we came across these likely lads from North Dakota. John, Randy Zimma & the Doc. They had so much gear with them Inspector Gadget would have been impressed. We set up camp with them and had such a great afternoon hiking up to a ridge which overlooked the whole valley and beyond, even getting a glimpse of ‘The Mountain’ in the distance.

Surely, this is what life is all about?

Guy and Zimma on the the Polychrome mountains

The next day we hiked back down to the road to flag down a bus to take us all to Wonder Lake. Being a forgetfully idiot I am, I somehow left my camera and map somewhere on the river bed when we stopped for a quick shot of rum. Luckily I could back track using the GPS to find it. I really shouldn’t be trusted with Passports, cameras or anything important.
We hop on a tour bus stinking sweat to the delight of the Asian and European tourist that chomped on their Subway Sandwiches. Unlike the camper bus this bus takes tourists in to the park for a day trip and for 90% of the people who visit Denali they only see it from the window of the bus. The bus driver was a bit odd to say the least, she talked in such a quiet but abrupt manner, like a school librarian who didn’t like children. Every time we stop for a photo or wildlife, people would get excited and start speaking to the disgust of the bus driver.
“Shhh you don’t need to speak, be very still” as her voice gets piped through the P.A system.
She continued in a patronising manner “Embrace nature, Shhhhhh you don’t need to speak, just take in the view”.
We had 8 hours of this as well as quizzes and facts about the park, by the end of the bus ride I was literally going bloody mad. I felt like I was on a school trip from hell.

I think Guy will agree but the first sight of ‘The Mountain’ could be one of the most breathtaking sights in the world. Standing at wopping 6,194 m (10,320 feet) this monster is the largest mountain in North America. It’s so large it creates it’s own weather system and for many visitors who come to the park see little more than the base as the clouds stick to it like glue. The park rangers say you have about 1 in 5 days to have a clear view, so we were very lucky to get such a unforgettable memory.

The Mountain



It was jaw dropping beauty all the way to Wonder Lake.

Wonder Lake
Wonder Lake was pretty special, we spent our short time there eating Blueberries & Cranberries and relaxing around the lake before it was time to leave Denali and get ready for the second week of our adventure in the Last Frontier. Where we would loose our memory, be hunted by cougars and meet a one eyed man.

So, is Denali worth a visit? Quite simply a big fat YES, I get goose bumps just thinking how dazzling the park is. I can see why people come back again and again, it draws you in with it’s hypnotic beauty and tries to keep you there forever. It’s one of those places you have to see with your own eyes as even the most spectacular photograph’s don’t do the park justice.

Believe me, if you visit Denali I guaranty YOU will be affected by mother nature and you might be lost in the wild forever. It has to be on the 100 things to see before you die list, if it’s not…. it bloody well should be.

One Response to “LAT-61.17 – LON-150.02 – The Last Frontier”

1. nova says:

   October 26, 2009 at 2:29 pm

   SAM! I loved this post…where have you been? haha

   Although I think you may have seen a small moose…they get up to around 2m at the shoulder…I have a friend who hit one with a small car. It was so tall that he just took it out at the knees, and the body tore the entire roof off the car.