Backpacking in Denali NP

     Sunday, July 12th, we drove to Denali NP to take our backcountry orientation from rangers at the BAC center. We spent an hour or so watching a movie and listening to a ranger discuss backcountry safety and rules for Denali NP. This is required for anyone who is planning to go backpacking overnight in the park. Afterwards we drove to Savage River, about 15 miles into the park, which is as far as you can drive into the park without a special permit. The parking around the Savage River trail was overflowing so we went back to a picnic area and did a little day hike there. 
     That night we went back to the Denali Hwy and stealth camped along the road about 4 miles in. We got up the next morning to a nice sunny day and were scheduled to meet our friend Toni (Pigeon from the AT) in Denali for a backpacking trip on her days off. As I stepped out of the camper I was amazed to see "The Mountain" showing off for us.

View of Denali from our stealth campsite

     We met Toni at the BAC (backcountry access center) around 9 am and signed up to hike in section 3. (each section is limited to only a few overnight hikers per day)

We took the bus out to our spot and got off. There are not trails in Denali NP so you have to bushwhack across the tundra, willows, beaver ponds, mountains, etc. We did all of the above. This was by far the most difficult hiking I have ever done. The tundra, which covers most of the area we hiked, is like walking on a 6" mattress. In addition there are areas of willows that are so thick you can barely make headway that you need to go thru. It seemed to take 3 times as long to go somewhere as it would on a normal hike on the AT. The views were beautiful and the weather on the first day was near perfect. We saw a bull moose in the distance that had the largest rack we had ever seen. When he had his head down it looked like it appeared there were calfs on each side of him. We were viewing him with our binoculars. He disappeared into the willows before we got up to where he was an hour or more later. Around 5:30 or so we set up our tents and had supper. We then just relaxed and enjoyed to magnificent view around us before heading to bed.

Joyce and Toni getting ready to head into the willows

A nice view to enjoy while taking a break

Watching moose in the distance

Our campsite in Denali

     

     Overnight it stayed fairly warm and the winds really picked up. In the morning after breakfast the weather looked like rain. Joyce and Toni wanted to take a hike further up the mountain so they headed out in spite of the misty skies. I was still exhausted so I stayed behind and rested. I had hoped to climb on up the mountain to take some pictures but the rain started falling and got harder as the time went on. The visibility became worse as the morning went along. Around 11:30 or so I could see Joyce and Toni coming down the mountain about a half mile away. We had a few quick bites of food, broke camp and decided to head on back down to the road to catch a ride back to our cars. We kept trying to find the shortest route and made pretty good time going downhill until we came to a beaver flooding area less than a mile from the road. Toni did a good job of navigating and lead us around and thru. We never had to swim, even though at times looked like it might be our only choice. We waited at the road, in the steady rain, for around an hour and 20 minutes for a bus to pick us up. We were wet and cold for sure. We took hot showers as soon as we got back and headed out to have pizza. Thanks for the great hike TonI!

 Views that Joyce and Toni saw while on their morning hike in the rain