Tuesday July 3 Denali National Park Savage River Alpine Trail

Today was a perfect day for a hike, which started out bright and sunny, lower 60's.  Finished in the mid 70's.  We caught the shuttle bus from the Denali Bus Depot to the Savage River stop.  This is the furthest point that cars are allowed to go in the park.  However, there is not enough parking, so we took the bus from the start of the Park.  About a 25 minute bus ride for the 14 mile trip. 

The trail was about 4 1/4 miles with a 1500 ft climb.  The climb was all at the beginning and very steep.  Awesome views along the whole trail of Denali Mountain and surrounding valleys.  We started above the tree line at about 2600 ft and climbed to about 4100 ft.  Compared to some of the hikes that we have done in Wyoming/Montana etc. where this elevation is well below the tree line, the weather up in Alaska is so extreme that the tree line is very low.   When looking out on Denali, it is hard to imagine that it is soaring at heights of 21,000 ft.   We stopped at the top for a long break and then returned down the other side of the mountain.  Fantastic hike!

Mount Denali - Really cool views of it today. Weather was really clear

and this was a rare view

Part way up the trail - On the road below, to the left is back to the

entrance of the park which is paved.  To the right, over the bridge 

continues on some 80 miles on dirt road.  Cars are not allowed 

past the bridge.  Only buses.

Cool view of Denali off in the distance and the tundra between.  

Savage River is below. 

Part way up the trail

Facing up with more trail to go - It was a lot of up on this trail

Cindy getting in the way of Denali 😉