Let me start this post with the word Wilderness; yes that’s the word, which depicts Denali in its true form. Oh where to start … beautiful resorts, majestic mountains, epic scenery, white water rafting, husky kennels and substantial national park which is spread across around 6 million acres … now that’s huge. Thanks to Alaska railroad, I was able to reach Denali safe and sound as it was raining cats and dogs throughout the journey and it would have been really difficult to go by road. Denali is fairly popular for camping in the national park but if you don’t have an appetite for camping then no worries, one can easily stay in many of the luxurious resorts over Denali-Healy highway.
I didn’t have much to do for day 1 as it was raining and I was in a mood to enjoy my resort room, after saying in hostels for 4 nights. One can easily spend 4-5 nights in Denali if one entices to enjoy all the activities which Denali has to offer like helicopter ride, rafting, camping etc. But for me I opted for 3 lakes hike, tour to Alaskan husky’s kennel and bike ride in the national park.
Hike was fairly moderate but since it was drizzling at the time, it turned out to be one of the remarkable hikes. The best part about the hike was the tour guide, as it turned out he was exceptionally knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. Denali is most popular for seeing bears, wolves, moose etc. but I was lucky enough to see beaver building the dam; which indeed a sight noteworthy. One intriguing fact to add about Alaskan Eskimos is; none of them have ever build or stayed in an igloo.
Next adventure on my list was to visit husky homestead, which is a kennel for Alaskan huskies. Iditarod champion Jeff king owns kennel and his over enthusiastic team manages the show. One who doesn’t know what Iditarod is, it’s a 1000-mile sled dog race between Anchorage and Nome. All huskies in the kennel were purely bred for one purpose only i.e. to run in Iditarod. Most of the dogs were really friendly and were ready to show off their traits whenever they get chance but some of them were really bashful. All in all it is a great fun to be around 30-40 husky dogs and to get enriched by Iditarod history.
Final leg of my Denali journey was to pay my visit to Denali national park. In order to do so I decided to rent out a mountain bike and wander around the national park. It turned out that my stamina was not in check to wander the national park with mountain bike, having said that I was able to explore national park up to 4 miles on my bike. For cycling enthusiastic, national park do provide shuttle service till wonder lake and one can easily opt for his/her point for return, but fair warning all shuttles are highly books so please try to book your seat in advance.
Next thing on my journey was to pay my visit to Fairbanks which lasted only for 7 hours as I oversight my departure date from Alaska, nevertheless it is pretty neat city with lot to offer as one can go for cycling or rent a car to go up to arctic circle and paramount touristy thing to do is to see northern lights. Only catch to see northern lights is you can’t view them in summer as these natural phenomenon come into sight only during the night and during summers Fairbank’s nights usually tends to expand for 30 mins excluding dawn & dusk. But don’t be dishearten, as one can go to north pole … wait it’s not THE north pole but a small town 40 mins from Fairbanks, which has original Santa house and from where every Christmas children all around the world gets their greetings. One interesting fact about this North Pole is, it is the original magnetic north pole. I brought an end to my journey by visiting one of the local pubs … as usual … and seeing never ending sunset … literally.
Alaska has lot more to offer like glacier hiking, cruise, kayaking with wales etc. I’ll be back for sure.
Horseshoe Lake
Denali Rail road station
Yes, we do