At Eilsen we watched a movie about climbing Denali, which stands at 20,320ft making it the tallest mountain in North America. It is only open to climb two months out of the year and takes about 3 weeks from start to finish. Around 1100 people attempt it each year but only half actually reach the summit. Sadly, some lose their lives on the mountain due to exposure, hypothermia, or falls. Move over Rainier, Asher instantly fell in love with this epic, snow covered mountain. He said he really wants to climb it but he understands that it's super dangerous and people die every year attempting it. We heard only about 30% of people who come to the park actually get to see the mountain because it's usually obstructed by clouds. We were fortunate to see it from Eilsen and wake our second night to a cloudless view from our campsite! Amazing!
We set off on a hike together from the visitor center.
The sign next to these skulls explains that these two moose died while fighting when they locked horns and one horn pierced the eye of the other and killed it. With horns still locked, the other moose couldn't move and died from hunger or thirst. Crazy!
We boarded a shuttle together headed back towards camp, but half way back asked to be dropped off somewhere along the road where we could hike a bit. The isolation we felt once the bus drove away was both freeing and unnerving. We were alone in the wilderness and while the clearance in this rocky area gave us a clear view of what was nearby, we couldn't see over the hills. When the next shuttle pulled over to watch an animal to the west of us, we just prayed it was a caribou!
Once you leave your shuttle, you have to flag one down and see if they have room for you. Since there was seven of us, we decided we better walk back to the road and wait there.
While we were waiting, my kids played hide and seek with Leeora while Doug, Ben and I took photos of the caribou that was in fact nearby. The caribou was slowly getting closer to us. I walked up the road to get a better perspective and suddenly I noticed the caribou was running right towards Daddy and the kids. To clarify, the caribou was below us, so I don't know for sure if he meant to run at him or if it was a coincidence. In any case, it scared me and I yelled a warning to Daddy which scared off the animal. A few minutes later, a different caribou appears above us running down the road towards us. As soon as he saw us, he stopped, turned and ran the other direction.
When we arrived back at our campsite, we set up the tent just as the rain started. Doug invited us into his RV and cooked us dinner. Once the rain stopped, we were standing around a campfire while the kids made s'mores when another camper came to warn us that a grizzly was a quarter mile down the road from us. That reminded me that in the last couple weeks there was a problem at this campground with a particular grizzly bear. They actually closed it off to tent camping until they killed the bear. It wasn't a pleasant thought right before climbing into our tent to sleep.
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