Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Savage River, Alpine Vista Trail

Tamiko had been talking about wanting to hike at Savage River which is the fartherest point on the Denali Park Road they let the public go into the park, beyond that you have to get on one of the green park buses. Savage River is at the 15 mile point. So yesterday, Monday 9/2/13 we both had off and the weather looked iffy with the typical light drizzle of rain. The question was whether or not it was going to stop.

The Alpine Vista Trail at Savage River ascends abruptly to 1,250 feet and then goes down along several adjoining ridges for four miles to another point on the park road.








We started at the other end from the river at the park road. Nearby is an old cabin built by road crews in 1925-1926. It's part of the history tours. We got there just before a tour was to arrive. The student ranger had a fire going in the heater stove. She told us about the cabin and helped us take some pictures.   









She's sitting on the heater stove. I've never seen one with a plat on top I guess just for that purpose. 















 I wonder why the spruce grow these large knots.
























The first part of the trail begins to increase in inclination and travels along side a stream coming down from the mountain.
 


 The foliage is beginning to turn more and more each day into auteum colors. They say it happens quickly and only lasts a couple of weeks.
















 The first video. The wind started to pick up and hit us as we got above the tree line and started to ascend the ridges going eventually to the overlook above Savage River.





Just a little ways down the trail you can barely hear me over the wind. It's starting to gust around 20 mph or more. 
















The wind is so high it's hard to hear anything I'm saying. Tamiko is sitting down because it hard to stand up. 





Like most places its not hard to find a good patch of blue berries to eat.


































 The Arctic Ground Squirrel's are so cute and they just stand there and look at you. It is sideways, haven't figured out how to rotate a video yet. If you do leave me a message at the end of the post. Thanks.



 
























The wind is so strong we're having to lean into it to keep standing. At one point Tamiko sat down on the trail and scooted along, afraid of getting blown over the side as we were at the crest of the ridge.



Fourth video, high wind at the crest of the ridge. 
 







This cloud formation only lasted about a minute but was really cool. 
















 I took this at the this rock just just above the river. The last precipice before the river.



 



The wind blowing in the same direction as the flow. Since the water is running fast to begin with, the wind is making it look like the water is flowing super fast.
 




The result of Tamiko having to sit down on top of the ridge to keep from being blown over the side.

THE END
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1 comment:

  1. hartstopSeptember 4, 2013 at 5:48 AM

    wonderful pics...feel like I was there with you, especially after watching the videos. Love the cloud formation shot

    ReplyDelete

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