A Day in Denali

Saturday, August 14th

By Rachel

We woke up this morning and we had a moment to get ready to leave and then we headed out to Denali National Park.

The thing about Denali is the majority of visitors actually never see the mountain because most days are overcast and rainy. Today was one such day, but the view as we drove into the park was still spectacular. The mountains got bigger and snowcapped and contrasted with the green pine trees. The pictures don't do it justice.

We dropped off our things at our cabin and headed into the park to take a shuttle to hike the Savage River Alpine Trail. The start of the hike was a bit chilly. It was rather drizzly and cold. Luckily, hiking steep uphill for a while warms you right up. For a while we were hiking through thick fog, but towards the top, the fog cleared and we were left with a beautiful view that was well worth the steep hike to the top. 

Denali is full of lots of wild life. On the shuttle to the hike we were constantly reminded that everyone with bearspray must keep it zipped in their backpack. While hiking we were purposefully rather loud because it is fun to see a bear from the car, we actually did not want to see one while hiking. We did not see a bear, but someone passing us did tell us that they saw a lynx.

We returned home from the hike and decided to grill hotdogs on our grill. We bought hotdogs from the only store in town (and we were happy to discover that there was a store in the tiny town).