Denali
Got into Denali on Thursday night, spent until Monday morning there. This place is really touristy. Luckily there are ways around them, for those of us who actually want to be outdoors instead of on a "wildlife viewing" tour bus.
If you do a google map search for "park road, denali, ak" you'll see the park has a road going through much of it. A person can only drive about fifteen miles in; The rest is reserved for the park's buses. These will take people further into the park so they can hike or camp or whatever, way out in the wilderness. I took a bus to about the 29 mile mark (which was a 2.5 hour trip one-way) and departed for a hike. I was the only person who got off the bus - everyone else rode it back to the visitor center. What the crap are these people doing there? "let's get on a bus an' see one o' them smokey bears!"
after getting off the bus I walked around for a while and found a hill to climb, it was a steep sort of thing which I couldn't walk back down - only "glissade." this is french for "slide on one's ass."
This park, particularly from its higher elevations, made me feel very small. It's huge, not at all flat, and very impressive. If anyone reading this plans to come here, there are a few pieces of advice I can suggest:
Reserve a camp site ahead of time.
Get on the green bus, despite it costing $24 per person.
Get off the green bus, out in the woods somewhere.
Don't worry about there being no trails - that's the point.
Bring food. Food inside the park has prices like $9 for half a sandwich (not an exaggeration.)
I stayed in a hostel last night, for the first time ever. It was $22, and in Anchorage. Not a bad deal, I paid more for a campsite once. This was the first time I've slept on a real bed in weeks, which was nice. What was not nice was sharing a bedroom with three other guys. There was something about that situation that made me feel like a genuine homeless person. The people were nice, intelligent, friendly, not crazy, and clearly just frugal instead of being there because they had no other options - there's just something weird about sleeping in a bunk bed in a room full of strangers.
Photos
If you do a google map search for "park road, denali, ak" you'll see the park has a road going through much of it. A person can only drive about fifteen miles in; The rest is reserved for the park's buses. These will take people further into the park so they can hike or camp or whatever, way out in the wilderness. I took a bus to about the 29 mile mark (which was a 2.5 hour trip one-way) and departed for a hike. I was the only person who got off the bus - everyone else rode it back to the visitor center. What the crap are these people doing there? "let's get on a bus an' see one o' them smokey bears!"
after getting off the bus I walked around for a while and found a hill to climb, it was a steep sort of thing which I couldn't walk back down - only "glissade." this is french for "slide on one's ass."
This park, particularly from its higher elevations, made me feel very small. It's huge, not at all flat, and very impressive. If anyone reading this plans to come here, there are a few pieces of advice I can suggest:
Reserve a camp site ahead of time.
Get on the green bus, despite it costing $24 per person.
Get off the green bus, out in the woods somewhere.
Don't worry about there being no trails - that's the point.
Bring food. Food inside the park has prices like $9 for half a sandwich (not an exaggeration.)
I stayed in a hostel last night, for the first time ever. It was $22, and in Anchorage. Not a bad deal, I paid more for a campsite once. This was the first time I've slept on a real bed in weeks, which was nice. What was not nice was sharing a bedroom with three other guys. There was something about that situation that made me feel like a genuine homeless person. The people were nice, intelligent, friendly, not crazy, and clearly just frugal instead of being there because they had no other options - there's just something weird about sleeping in a bunk bed in a room full of strangers.
Photos
posted by Eric at
2:15 PM
1 Comments:
I have always wanted to go to Denali, now I'm not so sure. I would probably be one of the lazy tourist looking out the window. How did you get back on the bus?
Is is just me, I can't seem to use the sideshow feature on your pictures or make them larger individually by clicking on them one at a time.
By
Brett, At
July 16, 2008 at 12:00 PM
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