Welcome to Denali

Denali National Park encompasses six million acres of wild land. Originally established to protect wildlife, it also offers a varied landscape and the continent’s tallest peak. There is only one road into Denali and the only way to access the interior is to board one of the park’s many buses. So that’s just what we did. It was a 7-hour round trip ride that took us to mile 53 on the Park Road. Although it was cloudy and we couldn’t see the actual mountain itself (only 30% of the park’s visitors ever see the mountain since it is so often covered by clouds), we saw plenty of wildlife to make up for it. Our final wildlife count for the day was 11 grizzly bears, 2 moose and countless caribou. And the scenery was pretty spectacular too.

On our last day in Denali, we tried something different. We booked an off-road ATV adventure that took us on trails right outside the park. It was a blast. It had poured the night before and was still lightly raining

when we started the ride. That made for a mud filled adventure that was an absolute BLAST! Our guide was a nineteen year old and he had no regard for his “senior” participants….so, we went fast and loved every minute of it.