Denali National Park, AK

date hiked: August 2-3, 2007
distance: 20 miles
highest elevation: unknown
elevation gain: unknown
time: unknown

Denali was our last stop while we were in Alaska. It turned out to be a perfect final destination. I left Denali, and in turn Alaska feeling like I had just met a new person that I hoped would be my friend. It felt like only a brief introduction…and I know I want more.

Denali National Park is the only National Park (that I am aware of) that is only accessible by a gravel road running 45 miles into the park (the first 15 miles is paved). Private vehicles are only allowed to drive the first 15 miles of the park road. If you want to explore deeper into the park, you will (most likely) take one of the infamous green shuttle buses.

You may get on and off the shuttle bus as often as you wish. You don’t have to reboard the same bus, you can just flag another bus down and if there is room they will pick you up. Tyler and I randomly hiked about 20 miles of Denali in this fashion. Get off the bus, hike find another bus, ride to someplace new, hike some more.

Of course, Mt. McKinley is a main reason people travel to Denali. We read that the mountain (which locals call Mt. Denali) is only visible 20% of the time during the summer months. We had also met a couple in our hotel in Anchorage that had seen the mountain the day before we were heading there. We figured the odds were not in our favor. Apparently, Mt. Denali creates it’s own weather so even on a clear day, it could be surrounded by clouds. In fact, that’s exactly what it was like. However, we were lucky enough to see bits and pieces of her. For a brief time, she was almost completely visible. Too bad we were so far away. It was amazing.

We saw lots and lots of wildlife. Caribou, red fox, artic squirrels, and moose were some of the wildlife we encountered.

Just after seeing the fox, on the way out of the park, we were on the shuttle bus and we had reached the paved road. In 15 miles, our Denali experience would be over. The bus came to a stop and the driver said, “Everyone quietly look in the road ahead of the bus.” There, strolling down the road, was a mama brown bear and her two cubs.

All I could do was laugh.

The next day we boarded a plane in Anchorage for our flight home to Seattle (we drove from Seattle to Portland.)

This entry was posted on October 6, 2007 at 3:48 pm and is filed under travel, hikes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.