Denali!

I apologize in advance for the volume of pictures in this post! We just left Denali National Park in Alaska this morning, but I think it will always have a place in our hearts… we loved it. The pictures below tell the story of 2 of our days in Denali. As context, there is one road that runs roughly east to west in the park. People are only allowed to drive about 15 miles into the park, beyond that, you can only take a park bus and get dropped off (or simply ride the bus into and back out of the park if you wish). We camped at about mile 13 at Savage River, which was lovely, great treed sites, easy walking distance to the river, the bus stop, and a hiking trail. (Savage Alpine Trail)

The first day:
We took the park bus from Savage River to Toklat River (this was the shortest and cheapest bus ticket)… we didn’t figure we’d want to spend more than 6 hours on the bus (3 out and 3 back). We rode out, got some decent shots of Denali (Mt McKinley), the highest peak in North America at over 20,000 ft. Had lunch at Toklat. Road the bus back to “Polychrome Pass” (the most picturesqe stop), and did a hike there. We decided to take the “road less traveled” and hiked North from the road rather then South toward the pass. It turned out great because we soon discovered that the area North of the road was covered with wild blueberries. It also allowed us to hike through some bush, over a recently dried up lake for some cool animal prints, and to reach some “attainable” mountains to climb. We all went up a couple hundred feet, and then Kane went up another 5-600 or so by himself. It was amazing! The day ended with blueberry pancakes back at the campsite.

Day two:
On our campground host’s advice, we took the Savage Alpine trail from our campground up the mountain and back down about 4 miles west further into the park. It was marked as a “strenuous” hike, which was our first, and luckily we started on the more mild side. When we reached the last mile (the decline), things got really steep. Once we reached the crest of the trail, Kane and I hiked on up the rest of the way (there is some debate about how far), I’ll say 500 feet on up to the apex of the mountain. Along the way we saw (and passed) a group of Dall sheep. It was incredible.

Denali was amazing… the landscape is like nothing we’ve every seen, wildlife incredible, and the fact that you can hike anywhere you want (on or off the trail) helps put it over the top. These pictures really can’t even scratch the surface of the majesty of this place. It’s 360 degrees of incredible from almost anywhere, and it’s 6 million acres (the size of New Hampshire).