July 17: One More Day at Tangle Lakes

Saturday July 17, more Denali Highway: Since we didn’t have to get to Denali National Park till Sunday, we had another day to relax and enjoy the arctic landscape around Tangle Lakes. We headed up the road a ways to a trailhead leading a few miles north to Glacier Lake. Not far from the trailhead, a creek crossing nearly foiled us. We tied our boots together and slung them round our necks and rolled up our pant legs. Yikes! It was cold water, fast running and full of sharp and slippery, moss covered river rocks. The kids did better than us, as their feet have some callous. I slowly crossed on all fours. Some hikers from Holland pointed out a moose in the distance, grazing in a meadow. Its antlers didn’t look quite right – not broad enough, but he was a long way off. Hours later, we finally got to our objective. The lake nestled between 2 rounded, glacier smoothed mountains and as we sat resting, a loon called out from the other side. The sound of it turned the scene to perfection.

While driving back to camp we rounded a bend and suddenly came upon a large cloven-footed animal on the road for her evening’s walk. What is she!!? Large and gangly, with a long head sort of like a moose. But not quite as large and gangly as a moose. John said caribou and yes, that’s what she was! She finally tired of being followed by our car, with me hanging out the window with my camera, and jumped off the road. Caribou. Santa’s reindeer. That had been a large male out in the meadow earlier. (The females are the only in the deer family to also have antlers.) While walking, I’d been impressed with the large number of hoof prints all over the trail – far outnumbering human prints. Caribou were the usual inhabitants of this country.