Continued from the previous page.

LET'S HIKE!

Although we had only a five-minute stop at Toklat River I used the bathroom there to save time when we reached the Eielson Visitor Center. My goal was to beat the noon time ranger-led group going up the same trail I’d be using so I didn’t have to maneuver around a dozen people on the narrow path.

When we got to Eielson there were so many buses in the parking area that our driver couldn’t get in. She let us off near the road, then parked when one of the other buses left.

Rooftop viewing area; Denali is out of sight to the left.  Thorofare Ridge (where I hiked)
is across the road.  I was glad there wasn't any snow at the road level here.

Denali is partially hidden under the arrow. I didn't see the summit
until a couple hours later when I got back down to the visitor center.

This was the turnaround point for our bus. The vast majority of shuttle buses just go out to Eielson, the most popular destination along the park road, then return to the entrance.

The driver told her returning passengers -- the ones who wouldn't be staying here to hike or enjoy the views for a while -- to be back in 20 minutes since she was running late. The usual stop is at least 30 minutes. Those folks got gypped the whole way out and back because we started late.

That happens sometimes, and I don’t think there are ticket refunds for problems like that. Even more time challenges occurred today for later buses. Keep all this in mind if you plan a trip to the park. I had no problems the first two trips.

I think all the negative bus-related things that happened today were anomalies -- or I hope they were.

THE ASCENT 

Since I was sitting in the back of the bus I was one of the last passengers off but I was ready to hike in only a couple minutes after debarking. I took a few pictures from the roof of the visitor center, then set off across the road and up the trail at 11:54 AM.

Weather board in the visitor center;  someone needs
to learn how to spell "Wednesday!"

Our campground is about 1,687 feet. It was quite chilly there this morning. The parking lot at the Eielson Visitor Center is at 3,782 feet. Even at noon with partial sun it was chilly there, too, because of the wind and higher elevation.

I wondered what it would be like on the exposed, snowy ridge and plateau 1,000+ feet higher . . .

This topo map section from the park website shows the trails above and below the visitor center. I hiked up and down the Alpine Trail that I marked in yellow:

The Alpine Trail is about one mile to a sign at the saddle where the dotted line ends above. I wandered around the top of Thorofare Ridge on a broad plateau for approximately another mile, off the top of the map.

My total hike was about three miles, similar to the distance I walked up there earlier this month.

I planned to also do the Tundra Loop, spur, and trail down to the riverbed when I came back down but that didn't happen.

South view, looking down at the visitor center from a little bit up the trail before I got into any snow

I was wearing extra clothes today, knowing I’d be going up to about 4,900 feet and through snow.

That was a good plan. I needed the tights under my convertible pants and the warm fleece-lined Mt. McKinley logo jacket I bought two weeks ago in Nenana Canyon.

Although I got warm going up the moderately steep trail to 4,891 feet at the highest rock pile on the ridge, the temperature up there was brisk. The sunshine kept me comfortable despite the wind and all the snow I was walking through.

Above and below:  There was an increasing amount of snow on the ground as I climbed higher.

I saw two people coming down the trail as I went up. No one passed me on my ascent. No one was on top the first thirty minutes I was up there, then several people arrived.

The trail, which is exposed to the south, was clear up to about 3,800 feet. Then I had to hike mostly through snow the rest of the way. Enough people had gone up before me yesterday and this morning to make footprints I could follow but they were slick and I had to go slowly. Using two trekking poles was a big help.

 

 

Denali's upper reaches were still mostly hidden under clouds at 12:30 when I was nearing the ridge top.

It took me 44 minutes to reach the saddle at the end of the maintained trail (~4,821 feet), eight minutes longer than the first time when it was warm, clear, dry, and I took more pictures. The snow definitely slowed me down but at that point, I wasn't in any hurry. I just wanted to enjoy the scenery.

I was a little concerned when I saw a snow cornice at the saddle. There was a large step up (about three feet high) but I got up it OK:

I was more concerned about getting down the cornice when I began my descent but it was a non-issue. I just sat on the snow and reached my feet down to the “step.”

The sign in the next picture is the "end of the maintained trail." If you make it that far, keep going! It's fun to do a large loop around the edges of the plateau and it's fairly easy to walk up there, even if there's a little snow on the ground.

As you can see, it was pretty cloudy when I got to the ridge and high plateau on Thorofare. I was a little concerned that it might rain or snow but it didn't. It just made for less-colorful photos with no bright blue sky.

The differences from two weeks ago were amazing -- a very quick transition from summer to winter.

SCENES FROM THE PLATEAU

I spent about an hour on top the ridge in the tundra, similar to the last time.

The first thing I did was to find a nice perch on a rock outcropping high above the park road. I ate my sandwich, then took a series of panoramic photographs. These go CCW, starting to the west toward Wonder Lake:

Western end of Thorofare Ridge

View SW toward Denali (under arrow)

South to the visitor center and road;  Mt. Eielson is to the right in that group of mountains.

Numerous streams flow from the Alaska Range and form McKinley River to the west of Eielson.

View southeast, showing part of the slope I climbed

Ridgeline to the east

Valley and another long ridge (Kankone Peak) to the north

View northwest

There. Hope that didn't make you dizzy!

After a ten-minute break to eat lunch and take pictures I started exploring the long plateau to the west and east. By then a few other people were up here. Each group kept a respectable distance from the others as they wandered around.

It was fun to see how different the valleys looked this time, with all the leaf colors. The surrounding peaks were also interesting with the fresh snow at lower elevations than two weeks ago:

:

Above and below:  closer views of the valley between Thorofare Ridge and Kankone Peak to the north

About half of the surface of the rolling plateau was covered in snow but it was either shallow or packed down enough that I didn’t fall through. The cornice at the saddle was the largest drift I encountered. Other rocky areas were exposed where the snow had already melted.

There were no flowers in bloom on top this time. If any were hardy enough to still have flowers, they were buried under the snow.

I found some ground squirrel tracks and interesting snow “bowls” around rocks and plant stems:

I took many more detailed and long-range shots up here but there isn't room for them on this page.

While I was up on the ridge the higher slopes of Denali gradually became more visible. The horizontal line of clouds above the summits rose from about 14,000 feet to 17,000 feet high when I took this final picture in that direction from the ridge before I began descending.

At 20,320 feet elevation, Denali's south peak was still under the thick blanket of clouds:

I crossed my fingers that visibility would improve before I left the Eielson area. I rationalized that I'd already seen The Mountain clearly from the ridge and road previously, and even on the way out to Eielson this morning.

A little to the north the clouds were already beginning to move away:

Final view of Kankone Peak;  this is a good illustration of how quickly mountain weather changes.

In retrospect, it might have been better to stay up on the ridge another couple hours and enjoy the increasing sunshine there.

But then I would have missed all the drama down below . . .

PHOTOS FROM THE DESCENT

I started back down to the visitor center at about 1:20 PM. I descended more slowly because the trail was slick and I was more prone to slide downhill than up.

I also talked to more people on the way down. They were all going up and had questions about the distance, snow conditions, etc. I encouraged all of them to stay up there long enough to wander around the ridge to see the fantastic views.

Over the snow cornice at the saddle

To me, the slope back down to the visitor center appears more steep than going up to the ridge.

I was already a third of the way down when I met the ranger group going up.

They were either going even slower than the group I saw a couple weeks ago or they started significantly later than noon.

There were only about six hikers following the young male ranger today.

That's probably a good thing, considering the situation I discovered when I got down to the visitor center. Although I was clueless on my descent, the ranger had a radio and eventually learned what was happening below.

Continued on the next page:  a big surprise when I got to the visitor center

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the ultra Lab

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© 2012 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil