Short trip to Denali, but still got the very last available campsite spot. It was late afternoon, but I decided to bite the bullet and do laundry since it was available. Nothing like a laundry room in a National Park to make friends…
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Next morning we did an easy hike to the Denali Visitor Center. As always in the National Parks, it was excellent – explaining the history, topography, and wildlife in the area. We had a tour booked at 3: to see the park interior.
No cars are allowed into the Park, only officials busses. The tours used to last 8 hours, but now the road ends at Mile 43, so it is only about 5 hours. In 2021 the ground started to sink at Pretty Rocks. Permafrost damage is not unusual, so road crews fixed it up, and fixed it again, but it continued to sink. When the road had sunk 12’, the difficult decision was made to close the road at that location.
Permafrost, you ask? Glad to help…
In the northern upper elevations the ground you see is just a layer over a deeper layer of permanent ice. As anyone knows who has lived in a cold climate (*cough* Maine *cough*) frozen ground heaves and buckles, shoving rocks and even boulders to the surface. This process is writ large in permafrost. Entire roads experience permafrost heaves, which we experienced on the Alaska Highway.
Back to Pretty Rocks in Denali… So why the dramatic change at that point on the road? The ice was melting way too quickly, sinking the road and causing rockslides. And what caused this nightmare? Hmmm… could it possibly be Climate Change?!
The decision to close the road was necessary for safety, but it was a huge economic hit. Half the park was now inaccessible to visitors. The sad irony to me was that they already took the step of limiting traffic in order to protect the Park, but now traffic was totally halted.
Anyway, we had the obligatory wildlife tour – but essentially no wildlife was visible! There were a few caribou on some distant hills, but that was all.
We comforted ourselves with a visit to 49th State Brewing for dinner. Good food, good beer, and GREAT pretzels (shoutout to our knowledgeable, well-traveled friends Jamie and Dan).
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