A Bit About Denali National Park …

• The park was established in 1917 to protect dall sheep. In the early 1900s, the sheep were hunted extensively and then their meat was sold to miners during the Alaskan Gold Rush.
• In 1980, President Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) that, among other things, created 157 million acres of wilderness in Alaska. The Act expanded Denali National Park from 2 million to 6 million acres as well as established 7 new national parks in Alaska. The idea behind the conservation act was to preserve the land for continued use by Native Alaskans for subsistence living.
• In addition to its beautiful mountain range, extensive wildflowers, and wildlife galore, Denali is a premier place for dinosaur fossils! Researchers discovered the first dinosaur tracks in 2005 and new tracks and bones are found on an annual basis. Some dinosaur track areas are larger than football fields!
• There are very few established trails in the park. There are short trails near the Visitor Center and on the Savage Creek. However, the land is open to hiking and several Park Rangers encouraged us to ‘hike wherever we want’ and to ‘explore the park’. I will admit, this is very intimidating. In the end, we found a couple of awesome places to hike and we have a list of places to explore for next time.
• Bus shuttles are abundant in the park and have been the primary mode of transportation since the park opened. Cars are allowed to Mile 15 with limited parking at the Savage River Loop Trail. A free shuttle runs from the Visitor Center to Savage River and there are several bus options to take visitors further into the park (for a fee).

Savage River – Mile 15

We started our travels by spending 3 nights in the Savage River campground. It’s great because the 4-mile Savage Alpine Trail leads to beautiful views of Denali on a clear day. We were fortunate to have nice weather and we hiked this trail twice to check out the mountain! We also saw a golden eagle who seemed to have a nest on the ridge as well as a pika hiding in the mountain rocks. The Savage Alpine trail is a convenient day hike because there is a shuttle stop at both ends of the hike.

During our stay, we were quickly in a habit of taking our morning coffee to a bench along the Savage River. On our final morning, a female moose (cow) and her calf silently slunk behind us and dipped into the river. It was such a treat to watch them with the beautiful valley in the background. It is a highlight of our trip!

(Click on any picture to open the gallery and read the captions)

Riley Creek – Visitor Center area

This campground is near the Visitor Center and has all of the amenities you would expect including cell service, showers and laundry! It’s easy to catch a shuttle bus to the Visitor Center, Science and Learning Center, and the park store. It is even within walking distance to the plethora of gift shops outside of the park entrance!

We strategically placed this location in the middle of our Denali stay. Mark’s family was in town and it was nice to spend a day catching up with them. We all hiked the 2.5 mile Horseshoe Lake trail. We climbed down, what felt like, 1000 stairs before reaching a beautiful, shallow, crystal clear lake. Much to our surprise, a pair of beavers swam past us and on down the creek! We had never seen beavers so close – it was awesome!

We also watched the dog sled demonstrations. Denali is the only National Park with an active sled dog team. The park uses sled dogs to patrol in the winter along with several rustic cabins for rangers to use for multi-day treks. The dog kennels are open to visitors daily (they even have volunteer dog walkers, which sounds like the perfect gig for me!). A ranger delivers a presentation three times a day about how the dogs are used in their traditional way to protect our national park.

Teklanika – Mile 29

This campground, by far, was our favorite in Denali National Park (well, except for the showers at Riley Creek because those were pretty awesome too!). After talking with a park ranger, we extended our stay from 3 to 5 nights in this remote area of the park. While there is not a minimum night’s stay, visitors can only drive to the campground for stays of 3 nights or longer. Stays less than 3 nights require use of the shuttle bus to the campground.

Once parked at Teklanika, visitors cannot move their vehicles until it’s time to leave the campground. With that being said, a special bus pass (called a ‘Tek Pass’) is available for campers in Teklanika. It’s an unlimited use hop-on / hop-off bus pass that takes campers anywhere between Mile 15 and Mile 43. We used this shuttle daily for transportation and we would ride it after dinner to see wildlife! Mark and I agree that for $32, this is one of the best deals going in the national parks!

Our first hike in this area was along the East Fork of the Toklat River. It’s easy to hike along this braided river because there are wide, flat gravel bars. We walked a few miles up the riverbed to look at the landslide that has closed the road. The day was beautiful and aside from a couple of ankle-deep river crossings, it was an easy hike! The river flows in front of Polychrome Mountain, which is a beautiful array of colors in the sunshine! And, as we were finishing our hike, a caribou appeared out of nowhere on the gravel bar behind us! That was a cool way to end our day!

The park road cuts 5 miles through a wilderness area that is off-limits to hikers, except to walk on the road. This area is prime grizzly bear habitat. One day, we took the bus to one end of this wilderness area and hiked the 5 miles along the road to the other end. Can you believe that we didn’t see ANY wildlife? What we did see was a downed sign (that was upright the day before). A bus driver told us that a bear has knocked down that sign 3 times this summer – ha! And we saw some ginormous bear prints along the road!

Our final hike of this adventure was up Cathedral Mountain. We were hiking in a small valley and the ascent was constant yet gradual for two miles. There were beautiful wildflowers, but all in all, the hike wasn’t overly remarkable. That is, until we reached the top of the wash and looked around to see stunning snow covered peaks! It was such a surprise! And speaking of surprises, on our way down the wash, a caribou sprinted out of the brush and ran right in front of us! Mark grabbed his camera while I screamed bloody murder. The caribou was freaked out, Mark didn’t snap a picture, and my blood pressure was through the roof!

In Summary

We saw tons of wildlife during our time in Denali, and generally speaking, we spotted them from the bus near Teklanika campground and Sable Pass. Wildlife included: dall sheep, grizzly bear, caribou, moose, ptarmagin, hoary marmot, pika, and a few ducks. We also saw a surprising amount of beautiful wildflowers in full bloom. Even though their season is short, the sunlit days are long and the wildflowers thrive here. Looking for dinosaur fossils was an unexpected surprise in this park. Mount Denali is visible from several points along the park road as well as from the top of the Savage Alpine Trail.

To our backpacking pals: We met a couple of groups who were venturing out on backpacking treks. Generally, they were using river beds as their main thoroughfare; however, one group was hiking across the alpine tundra to see two glaciers! Denali National Park is sectioned into ‘districts’ and permits are issued based availability within each district. For obvious reasons, stringent bear safety practices are enforced throughout the park.

Riding the bus is a great way to see this park. However, there is no limit to the hiking opportunities. I hope this gives you a few ideas as you explore this vast wilderness area!

Hope you are having a wonderful summer!

-Mark and Debbie