Hello everyone. Got back about a month ago from a month long vacation that included 2 weeks in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. My brother and I had been planning this trip for a little over a year and it was both of ours first time visiting Alaska.
We got to the park via the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks, I would highly recommend traveling via this train. It's very scenic and they have great food available as well, at prices that are high for the lower 48, but were in line with AK prices.
We were planning on backpacking the entire time we were in the park, with the exception of the last night. We elected to start our trip in backcountry unit 14 (
McKinley Bar East). We left the next day on the camper bus headed out into the park and were actually delayed for an hour and a half due to snow. About 2 inches of snow had fallen in the park that morning and the rangers decided to close the road until they could get Polychrome (the most difficult section of the road) clear from snow.
Saw some Dall Sheep at Polychrome too
When we finally made it out to Wonder Lake it was cool and raining, but it was keeping the mosquitoes at bay. We hiked down to the river and made camp for the night.
We awoke to fabulous views of the Alaska Range and Mt. McKinley and some delicious biscuits and gravy for breakfast.
The day was mostly a slog through waist high brush and boggy ground while battling mosquitoes, but the views were worth it and the sense of wilderness was incredible. We didn't see anything man made that we didn't bring with us that day.
The mosquitoes were pretty bad this day too. I ended the day with close to 100 bites.
We made camp back down on the river bar that night. We turned in early, we were exhausted from our day, and woke up around 0100 to another great view of Denali.
The next day we hiked up to the Muldrow Glacier, which at it's base looks nothing like glaciers here in WA. The glacier has become so covered in debris falling from the mountains as it makes it's way off Mt. McKinley that vegetation actually grows on it.
View of the glacier on the left looking down towards it's terminus and the McKinley River
We had a minor medical issue that afternoon and elected to head out to make sure everything was kosher and then come back in.
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2008 Jeep Liberty KK, SkySlider, Tow Package, OME/Bilstein Lift, Flowmaster Delta 50, Removed Resonator, DuraTracs, In-dash CB, PIAA 520 ATPs, Dual KJ Tow Hooks
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