Denali National Park in Alaska contains Mount McKinley (also known as Denali), the tallest peak in North America. Some come to climb the mountain, a trip that takes intense preparation and several weeks of climbing. Others come to backpack through the wilderness that surrounds the mountain. Last but not least, the bus tours on the only park road in six million acres of wilderness are extremely popular for sightseeing, and wildlife sightings are almost guaranteed.
Be sure to visit the kennels or see the sled dogs in action during a demonstration. Denali is the only national park to use sled dogs. The rangers use them to patrol the wilderness in winter. To get there, take the Dog Sled Demo bus from the entrance area.
There are several bus tours available: Tundra Wilderness for wildlife viewing, Natural History, and Kantishna Experience, which goes to a historic gold mining site at the end of the park road. In addition to these tours, there is a shuttle bus that will let you off to go hiking, and a camper bus for backcountry camping or camping in a developed campground.
Around the entrance area, several easy trails allow for hiking without planning to spend the night in the backcountry. You can join a ranger for a daily guided hike on one of these trails. Rangers also lead discovery hikes in the backcountry, which require the purchase of a Discovery Hike bus ticket that will take the group along the park road to the site of the trail chosen for that day.
A backcountry trip in Denali can be extremely rewarding, but it requires some flexibility. Because of the popularity of the park, the backcountry is divided up into different units, each of which has a quota for the number of backcountry users. When you get to the park, you will need to consult a ranger to plan your itinerary in the backcountry.
Part of the joy of Denali is getting off the trail - although we don't have many trails listed for the park, it's not because you can't explore, it's that the park encourages you to climb that ridge, hike to the horizon, or explore that creek. Even without backpacking, you can still getaway from everyone, just hike at midnight with the arctic sun.
