We've heard there are great things to see in Denali and since we were in Alaska already
we wanted to be sure to check it out. We got off the cruise ship in Seward and made
a quick stop at Exit Glacier then drove the 6 hours or so to Denali.
Once there we did a little hiking and did a whitewater rafting trip. Too bad it was
late August which meant this area was well into fall. As a matter of fact the night after
we left Denali they were expecting 1"-2" of snow!
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Hiking Savage River Loop
We didn't do enough research about Denali National Park. The park is BIG and you need to
give yourself plenty of time to book the buses to the more remote sectiosn of the park that
you are not allowed to drive to.
That said we spent the first day just doing a couple easy hikes. The first was the Savage River Loop
which as the end of the road for private cars. There is a small lot there and despite the drizzle
at least it was warm. It was a nice easly hike and no big deal. The highlight was seeing several
Moose on the side of the road on the way to the trail. The Moose are easy to spot because there
are always a bunch of cars on the side of the road so just pull up behind them and look where everyone
else is looking and there you will see a Moose or two.
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Hiking Horseshoe Lake Trail
The second hike is right by the park entrance and has some decent elevation change. It started
by going down a trail to this cool little lake with crystal clear water. There is a huge
Beaver Dam at one end of the lake and although there were signs of Beavers in the area
we never saw any in the flesh.
This trail was chock full of very cool Mushrooms of various types and was probably
the most interesting thing we saw on the hike.
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Hiking Mount Healy Overlook Trail
We decided to do the hardest hike last, but unfortunately we didn't have
too much time because we had Whitewater Rafting later in the day. The plan
was to hike up the hill as far as possible leaving enough time to get back.
The weather was slightly drizzly when we started but was otherwise ok.
Unfortunately it rained harder and harder as we went up the hill. After a while
the rain got worse and worse so we decided getting soaked wasn't worht it
and turned around.
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Whitewater Rafting
Whitewater rafting sounded like fun when we signed up, the day before when it was much warmer.
However when we started the temps were already down into the low 50's and it was raining.
The outfitter warned us to dress extra warm and especially two layes of thick socks.
It started out smooth enough...and didn't get that much rougher. We were warned that the rapids
can get pretty rough but there were only a couple spots we got wet but never truly soaked. Just a splash
or two now and then. It wasn't even that cold until the very end when we pulled out of the canyon
and were subjected to the now much colder winds. Still a fun time.
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