Denali National Park

My daughter, Christine, flew up to Anchorage to spend a week with me in Denali National Park.

Our first night was spent at a lakeside campground along the way to the National Park, inside the Denali State Park. I mention it because it was really my first really bad experience for mosquitos. I can't imagine anyone staying there for any amount of time. It would be miserable.

Access to the National Park is only by bus along a 90 mile gravel road. The campgrounds in the park are likewise accessible only by bus, meaning you tent camp at one of the three small campgrounds (less than 10 spots) inside the park, or backpack into the back country. There is one exception, the campground Teklanika, 30 miles into the park. If you have a campsite there you can drive in and out to the campground once, and only once, and you have to stay a minimum of 3 nights. Fortunately I had made reservations for a week.

After driving in, we spent the next day riding a bus to the small visitor center 66 miles in, where we hiked up a trail to Alpine Ridge above the center. That brings up another interesting facet to this park. The Alpine Ridge trail is the only trail inside the park. Every ranger I asked said basically that you simply pick a spot you like and head out. All other national parks are strict about staying on the trails. Denali rangers say “What trails”. After a while we found out from some rangers and bus drivers that the best hikes were along the ridge tops and the river beds.

So our first hike was up to Alpine Ridge. The view was spectacular even though Denali, behind Christine, was hidden in clouds.

Eagle eye, Christine, spotted the top of Denali in a break in the clouds. She read somewhere that Denali shows herself an average of 5 days a month during the summer.

This is Alpine Ridge. Once on the ridge, the trail ends and you encourage to just wander around. We went to the farthest peak before the ridge starts to really descend.

These are some of the other mountains around Denali that were visible. Many of these are around the height of Mount Rainier.

The next day we road a bus out to the visitor center again with our bicycles. From there we road the bicycles, Christine had rented one in Anchorage, to Wonder Lake, some 20 miles further down the road. It was a lot of fun with Denali just in the clouds some. To our surprise, we arrived at the lake in time to catch the same bus we had ridden to the visitor center. We really shouldn't have been since the buses roll along around 20 miles per hour and stop lots to look at wildlife, plants and scenery. Good thing too because the bugs were pretty bad at the lake, although nothing compared to the lake a few days earlier. But it wouldn't had been fun to wait there the hours or so for the next bus.

And the highlight of the day was a good, if brief, view of Denali. It is really something!!