National Park #20: Denali and Denali Highway

Here’s the not-so-secret secret about Denali – its freaking huge! On clear days, you can see it from Anchorage nearly 230 miles away. For perspective, as the crow flies, it’s 208 miles from New York’s Central Park to the Washington Monument in DC. So when you start seeing Denali Mountain pop out from the clouds on your drive up, you’re blown away by the scale.

Denali is an enormous park with one 92-mile long road that runs from the park entrance to the base of the mountain. After about 15 miles into the park, personal vehicles are not allowed and you must use the internal bus system which helps reduce traffic and gives priority to the wildlife. Personally, it also helps slow down your pace of travel as you move along with the bus schedule and find enjoyment in the downtime. A rockslide was slowly taking place and the road was closed in 2022, so the furthest point you can venture into Denali is at mile 43. Check out this amazing timelapse of the slow changes.

There are a decent amount of campgrounds in Denali with some campsites near the main entrance and then scattered along the main road. As you get further along, isolation increases and so do the restrictions. Where we stayed in the Teklanika campground, we were required to stay a minimum of three nights and once we parked, our RV had to stay put until we left to reduce traffic on the road. So we cruised out on the gravel road, parked, and started hanging out in “Tek”. An interesting experience while at Denali is that there are very few managed trails throughout the park. They encourage and promote personal excursions at your own risk. It makes it a bit hard to plan a hike, but can also be fun when you start wandering around a riverbed or through a valley.

On our first full day in Denali, we bussed it back to the Savage River area where knew there was a maintained trail that ran along a ridgeline with great views. After the bus dropped us off, we saw a few cars parked on the side of the road and people walking in one direction – obviously there was an animal. So we wandered up and saw a caribou walking through an under-road passage. After that we hit the hiking trail around midday, which is uncommon for us as we often try and get our hiking done earlier in the day when its cooler. So we set out through the forest and then hit the alpine zone where the sun beat down on us. The views were incredible, but we were getting hot. We hit the summit of the hike and grabbed lunch with an amazing view of the valley. We then worked our way down to the Savage River and did some fun rock scrambling where Leona got her rock-climbing fix for about 15 minutes.

On the next day we decided to bus it out to the the end of the road at mile 43. While waiting for our bus, a butterfly landed on Leona and then on Quincy. They were really calm and let it rest. We then moved it over to the shade and placed it on a plant. So cool.

On the way out, our bus driver/amateur tourguide saw some mountain goats or dall sheep off in the distance, caribou sitting in snow banks (because mosquitos wont bother them on the snow), and families of ptarmigans- quail-like birds that are the statebird of Alaska. There’s a park ranger typically stationed at Mile 43 to answer any questions, but otherwise its pretty laissez faire. We hiked down to the East Fork Toklat River and wandered for a bit, had some lunch, and then took the bus back to our campsite. Once back at the campsite, we put on our bathing suits, brought some beers, and hung out at the Teklanika River for a few hours. No one else was around and it might have been the most isolated we’ve ever been in nature. And it was simply amazing.

Off in the distance, we could saw some light grey clouds and smelled a bit of smoke. Nothing too crazy as the campground wasn’t far away, but we learned that a wildfire started that afternoon just north of the main entrance and the park stopped all inbound visitors. What became the Riley Fire ended up burning 436 acres and shut down Denali National Park for 11 days. Luckily, they didn’t evacuate our campground as the wind direction and distance (nearly 30 miles) kept us out of harms way. Sad for all the other visitors as it was closed over the July 4th weekend.

Knowing the fire was active near the entrance, we left on our final day ensure if they’d actually let us leave or tell us to go back to the campground until further instruction. On a 33 mile drive, we only saw one other vehicle – a park ranger telling us to exit the park and head south away from the fire. Luckily for us, that was our plan. We also crossed a ranger checkpoint where the ranger alerted us of a moose and her calf. We ended up seeing them cross the Savage River with only the four of us and the ranger to enjoy it.

We made our way out of Denali and headed south to Cantwell to do some laundry. While we were in Cantwell, we saw planes beginning the waterbombing process of the process to help reduce the strength of the fire. After a few hours in Cantwell, we started our 130+ mile drive on the Denali Highway that is often dubbed one of the most scenic drives in the world. The “highway” is mostly gravel and you’re driving around 40 mph most of the time. A few miles in, we saw a moose and twin calves, which means this is at least her second time giving birth. A bit later we saw another moose and a calf. We saw beaver dams, glaciers, and beautiful lakes. About halfway through the highway, we stopped at one of the roadside lodges, the Alpine Creek Lodge. It’s not a huge lodge, but they showed us how to pan for gold, where we all found a gold fleck in our pans. We popped into their small bar and had a beer and/or soda while we chatted with the bartending who gave us some amazing history on the highway and her dogmushing team. Afterward, we got to meet her five dogs and the girls got to ride in a “side by side” all terrain vehicle, grinning from ear to ear.

We left Alpine Creek Lodge and drove a few more miles before we found a great spot overlooking a huge valley where we had some dinner. After dinner, everyone lounged and read our books for a solid 90 minutes. A rainbow also decided to show up making the night even more special.

Looking back on the trip, these were our favorite parts:

Mary – hiking the ridgeline trail near the Savage River was incredible because we saw amazing views of the park and the girls got to scramble on the rocks for a bit.

Sean- our afternoon lounging on the Tek River was a special one. Peaceful. Sunny. Carefree.

Quincy: seeing all the moose and their calves on the Denali Highway was my favorite

Leona: panning for gold at the Alpine Creek Lodge followed by the time hanging out with the sled dogs.