Backpacking at Denali NP

“Myself and two others are planning to backpack for a week in Denali NP this coming summer. I am trying to work on the details of the traip. I would appreciate any information that anyone has on the travel options between Anchorage and Denail NP.

If you have any other helpful information about backpacking in Denal, I would also appreciate that information.”

“I have this summer's trip narrowed down to two options... one is here in CA, the other is Denali. I go to Alaska on biz somewhat often & have been collecting info for quite awhile... I have Denali guidebooks, mapos, etc.

If you fill out your profile I can know where to send info...”

“I've used this company in the past and was satisfied http://www.denalioverland.com/

Know how to use a map and compass ;) Ain't no trails....

Be flexible with where you want to go as the park is divided into 'zones' with only a certain amount of permits given out for each zone.

Fording Alaska rivers can be very dangerous, so make sure you know what you are doing if you attempt it.

Good luck, and have fun!!”

“Oh yeah, one other thing. The mosquitoes are really as bad as they say, especially at wonder lake. Take a headnet, deet, a spare headnet, and some spare deet!!”

“dicey, what month did you visit Denali?

Any advice on stream crossings?”

“TRy the railroad that runs between Anchorage and Fairbanks. I know it stops in Talkeetna and a few places on the north side of Denali before reaching Fairbanks. The scenery from the train is fantastic (especially after a long air flight) and the food ain't bad either.

And yes, take plenty of DEET and spare head nets. Those mosquitos are big and aggressive. As the joke goes:

Q: What's Alaskas state bird?
A: The mosquito”

“myersj1,
The first time we were there in june, the worst time for skeeters I admit. The second time, we flew right onto the Kahiltna glacier (also in june), so bugs were not an issue.

The deal with the rivers is that they are braided and can be up to a mile wide, fast moving, and milky from glacial silt. You can't see the bottom, which is a real problem. When you arrive at the visitor center to get your permit, they will make you watch a movie about river crossings with some tips on techniques, bear stuff, and other backcountry travel tips.
We had practiced several fording techniques before we even arrived at the park because we planned to ford the McKinley river to reach McGonnagall Pass.
The current became too swift at one braid nearly 3/4 across and knocked us off our feet. It was pretty scary to be swept downstream in that cccold water! Our mistake was thinking we could do one carry across with huge packs, but at that point we were too freaked to try again, and changed our objective.
Cross these rivers with care, early in the morning. Throw rocks in to help determine depth, and don't cross where the water is smooth = deep.
The movie will give you other tips for fording techniques - hopefully you don't need to cross the McKinley ;)

Good Luck!!”

“Am wondering some of this stuff myself.


Sort of. The family is going to AK in June for 2 1/2 weeks.


We will be spending only 4 days or so in the Denali area.


We will have a car so I think we have it down to: ACH to talkeetna. Possible flight into Ruth Glacier.

Denali. Stay outside the park. take a couple of day trips in. find some day hikes from the shuttle line.

We are going to be doing some tenting down at Katchemak bay near Homer , so i don't feel as compelled to do it at Denali.”

“lee,
That sounds lika a great plan! Talkeetna is a great little town with this sign on the way in:
"Welcome to Talkeetna. A quaint little drinking town with a climbing problem." Try a cinnamon roll at the Roadhouse - the best I ever had!
If you get a chance to fly into the Ruth gorge, do it! Some friends of mine have been in there a couple of times. The scenery looks top notch:
http://pollackphoto.com/us/ak/ruth2/default.htm”

“My wife and I were there 13 years ago this coming June.

We were in AK for my sister in laws wedding. We did Talkeetna and Denali first, then went down to Homer to see her.

Anyhoo . . .we did the flight into Ruth Glacier with Talkeetna Air taxi. At the time $90 per person (now $220).

It was one of the single best experieces of my life.


Absolutely amazing.”

“Park road opens to vehicle traffic, and you can drive the length of the road....NO LOTTERY like in September....

This is an UNANNOUNCED opening, dependent on the progress of the Snow Plows, but it makes the one day with a rental car worth the effort to get to the park on that day.

link to everything DENALI:

http://www.denali.national-park.com/cal.htm#lot”

“We really enjoyed our visit to Denali two years ago. We did the tourist thing one day - taking the bus out about 60 miles to Eielson Visitors Center then back. It took 8 hours. The next day we got dropped off at Polychrome Overlook and did an overnight hike in the backcountry. I would have liked to do more, but time was limited. In the three and a half days we were there, we saw a dozen griz, two wolves, caribou, dozens of mountain goats, dahl sheep, a moose, etc. It was all very cool. I enjoyed traveling where there were no trails. We had no big rivers to cross and the mosquitos weren't bad at all - but we were later in the year.”

“My hubby & I went in 2004. :-)
Do a search on "Alaska" for our thread... :-)

We flew from Chicago (we're in the Detroit area) and the airfare was only about $375 RT, for a direct flight off of Alaskan Air. We went in mid-August - Early September, but I understand that we were kind of lucky-- it is usually the rainy season at that time of year.... The temp was about 70 the first day and then dropped from mid/high 30s to mid 60s.

Note: the ground is arctic tundra and a lot colder than down in the lower 48 states. Make sure that you have a good sleeping bag AND padding--I found my feet getting cold because we "saved weight" by cutting our foam pad to 3/4 and getting a smaller thermarest. In hindsight (and from Tarabull's advice), make sure to have the double padding and definitely near your feet.... :-)

We rented a car through Alamo-- with an online discount coupon, it turned out to be a lot less expensive for 2 people to rent a car vs. taking the train... (I think it worked out to be about $300-400 for 14 day rental vs. $500 for 2 train rides...

The glacial streams are ICY cold... ;-) One tip that we were given (post-trip) was to bring a coffee filter to pre-filter the water with your water filter to keep glacial silt from clogging a water filter (we packed in our water....)

A hidden secret:
If you're in the front of Denali (in the car-camping part), Check out the "Golden Spike"--it's the little after-hours employee bar--(make friends with some of the park employees and they will tell you about it.)

People in Alaska are friendlier than anyone else in the world.. (at least that's what we experienced!!)

Oh, and bring your camera--with plenty of film or digital cards to store photos with... You will find that on a clear day, the scenery is some of the most incredible ever seen!!!

We are hoping to go back to Denali someday--if we get lucky, it might even be this coming summer... :-) We only went to the Polychrome mountains and did 2 nights there in 2004.... Next time, we will be in better shape and hope to go to Wonder Lake and to do a few more nights, maybe in some other regions of the park... :-)

By the way, walking on Arctic Tundra is akin to walking on a sponge. Apparently the tundra is made up of many layers of mossy plants, which make hiking in it a challenge, (and if you are like me on my first time out, I fell flat on my face because of the sponginess (wasn't funny at the time, but in hind sight, I can see why my hubby thought it was funny-- I had a fully loaded (and probably overly heavy) pack and I couldn't get back up after falling down face first.....”

“Lee,

There are some day hikes and ranger-led hikes from the front of the park--We did a little dayhike to Horseshoe Lake--I picked some wild rose hips and cranberries along the way... :-) (for tea, later)

I don't remember the cost of the shuttle into the park, but it's kind of pricey, ($18.50/adults, $9.25 ages 15-17, 14 & under, FREE) so that might be better suited for an overnighter, or to take a trip down to the Eielson Visitor Center vs. taking the bus in and out each day for day hikes... (I think it's about 3-4 hours into the park just to see the visitor center.) :-) You'll find that there is so much to see and do!! :-) Definitely do some online research and talk to lots of people when figuring out what to do and where to go!

There are so many little campgrounds along the way from Anchorage to Denali, and the scenery is so beautiful, that no matter what you do, I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip (especially if you LOVE expresso)”

“http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/qng4vxo8,2.php

12 crappy pictures of what the Polychrome Pass area is like. Point 5511 is cool because it's covered with thousands of geodes.”

“Cool pictures USA.
We went to the Polychrome area, but only had 2 days, so we didn't get to go out too far... I'd love to see the geodes!! How long did it take you to hike out there?”

“I was there for only three days.”

“Can you provide nay more detail regarding pt 5511 and the geodes??


Our itinerary is shaping up as such:

Night 1: Anchorage

Day 2: Drive to Denali. Mess around up by the Savage River

Day 3: Park service shuttle bus in as far as we think the kids will tolerate. And back out.

Day 4: Morning nature hike. Mess around.

Day 5: Talkeetna. River raft. Spend night in Talkeetna


Day 6 Drive towards Seward. Possible overnight on the way. perhaps in Anchorage or south on the Seward Highway.

Day 7: to Seward. Mess around. perhaps climb Mt. marathon. Stay in Seward.


Day 8: kenai Fjiords tour. Small boat. 9 hours. Stay in Seward

Day 9: Drive to Homer. Stay at sister in laws.

Day 10 - 18 Various activities in Homer. Including kayaking camping across Katchemach bay for three nights.

Day 19 back to anchorage for flight out.”

“Sounds like an excellent adventure, lee. If the weather is clear on day 7, I would recommend a dayhike up to see the Harding Icefield. There is a strenuous trail that starts at the Exit Glacier. The first 7 photos on this page http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/qng4vxo8,3.php will give you some idea of what to expect. But don't waste your time there if the weather is bad.

Point 5511 - Get off the bus a couple miles beyond Polychrome Pass at a point where it will be easy to get down the cliff. The view will be something like this http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/pic/54ddks.php with Point 5511 on the left. Hike south from the road towards the mountains and then hike up the eastern slopes of the mountain. The geodes are scattered around near the top in some places very concentrated. When you are standing at this viewpoint http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/pic/x6ih7cupmpz7.php you know you are in the right spot.
last edited: 1/07/06 1:05:38 PM”

“Yes, definitely recommend harding Ice Field hike!

It's rocky and very vertical, some places may be slippery due to water run-off... A challenging hike, but bring your binoculars or camera-- you may run across some mountain goats on the way up or down!!! :-) At times, it seemed like the hike went up forever (every time we thought we had reached the top we'd realize that we weren't there yet... LOL

They also have ranger-led hikes (which we usually like to go on--very informative). I do recoommend starting the hike as early as possible so that you can get up and down during daylight. Thinkbubelz & I had missed the ranger-led hike, so we checked out the glacier at the bottom and didn't go up until 3 p.m.... We actually never made it to the actual Ice Field-- we stopped at the little shelter at the top and then had to hastily climb back down-- got to the bottom at about 9 p.m.-- about 1/2 hour after sun-set... If we were to go again, we'd leave no later than noon so that we could have ample time to check out the ice field at the top.

There are some nice walk-in camping sites just a short drive from the entrance to the Harding Ice Field ranger station... It's free and not too far from Homer. They have pit toilets and a little sheltered area with picnic tables as well as a food locker.

THinkbubelz & I took a day cruise from Homer--If you are at all worried about seasickness, I'd recommend eating a bland breakfast, and taking Bonine about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before getting on the boat (didn't make me drowsy the way Dramamine did--I felt great!) and bringing some candied ginger in case of queaziness... We saw all sorts of animals on the day cruise: Sea otters, zillions of birds, puffins, seagulls, Seals, mountain goats, and even 2 whales breaching (that was amazing!) Bring a cameera and you will NOT be disappointed! :-)”

“By the way, the Eklutna Lake area (car-camping) and hike are nice, too :-) You'll see lots of Dall sheep on the "Twin Peaks" near the top! :-)

*** Definitely recommend the ranger-led hikes if you have kids-- they give lots of interesting info about the area!
last edited: 1/07/06 1:46:38 PM”

“USA/Pinkbuble --

Thanks to both of you for your help!

I made some notes on Pt. 5511 and Harding Ice field.

I have got to remember that I will have my two kids with me (ages 8 and 11) who may get tired at some point!!!

Pink --

We will be doing a a day long boat cruise from Seward out into Resurrection bay. And from Homer we will be spending three days in a yurt on a beach on the other side of katchemak bay. So theoretically we will get a fair amount of both time in the interior mountains and on the water.”

“I just got email confirmation of two items:

1. Two days of shuttle bus reservations. The first day to Fish Creek (mile 63). the second day to Toklat (mile 53). That should give us plenty of options.


2. Confirmation of the cabin we wanted for 3 nights!


3. Waiting to hear on rafting.”