Alexes Abroad 2009: Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Us on top of Mt McGonagall, in front of Muldrow Glacier with both peaks of Denali / Mt McKinley visible in the background

Sunset

Autumn colour

There's luck, then there's the unbelievable. Only 1 in 5 visitors to Denali National Park see Denali (officially Mt McKinley, but McKinley was just some presidential candidate and Denali means "great one", so no wonder the latter sticks better), North America's highest mountain (6,194m). We spent 8 days in the park and had great views on 6 of those days!

Denali

Denali (for the record, we've culled from a thousand photos…)

We wasted no time upon our arrival by train from Fairbanks. By that evening, we'd arranged backcountry permits for a 5-day hike, and booked and gone on a scenic flight (a "flightseeing" trip, as they call it here) around Denali. We doubt that this flight will ever be surpassed in the breathtaking scenery stakes. We actually circled over the summit, looking down on famous and infamous ridges and peaks, donning oxygen masks because of the altitude. Beyond words.

Denali – from above!

Glaciers flowing off Denali

Most of our time in Denali NP was spent hiking (no surprises there). We were pleased to be out alone after several guided trips. We had a ball, with practically perfect weather and a striking, unique landscape clothed in bright fall colours. There were only two challenges (both of which we met). The first was crossing the McKinley River, a braided glacial river. Brrrr. The second was finding (and then staying on) the "mountaineers' trail" that officially doesn't exist but in practice provides a convenient way to get in and out of McGonagall Pass.

The braided McKinley River

Setting out for McGonagall Pass after a long wade across the McKinley River

The valley we walked up to McGonagall Pass

The focus of the walk was McGonagall Pass, where we camped for two nights, perched above the loooooong (32 mi) Muldrow Glacier. From nearby high points we could see both summits of Denali (not to mention dozens of other mountains that would be attractions of their own anywhere else), and the Traleika and Brooks Glaciers joining into Muldrow Glacier. On and off, all day and all night, we would hear landslides as the glaciers' undercutting caused another giant slab of mountain to crumble onto the glacier. Down next to the glacier, walking on powder-soft moraine, we could hear constant crumbling, dripping and plopping as the glacier slowly reshaped its surrounds. The Alaska Range, of which Denali is part, is still growing – a millimetre or so a year – and it feels very geology-in-action.

Approaching the summit of Mt McGonagall

Awesome campsite

We had virtually no company, thanks to a strict permit system. The park is divided into areas with quotas on how many people are allowed in each area each night. For our area, it was just 4 people. Denali NP provides many examples of interesting approaches to "wilderness" management. Other features include a distinct lack of walking tracks (hence our track not officially existing), and there being only one road in the park – the Park Road. The Park Road is mostly inaccessible to private vehicles. Instead, you take shuttle buses. We spent almost 5 hours each way getting to and from Wonder Lake, where we started the walk (for the tiny sum of $31 each). The wildlife spotting along the way was much better than it was on the walk, and we saw all the big mammals from the bus – grizzlies, wolves, moose, caribou and dall sheep.