Denali Viewpoint South

The Byers Lake Loop Trail begins in the Byers Lake Campground. If you're not planning on camping, you can park in the day use area (the first right hand turn, off of the campground entrance), pay the $5 fee, and walk towards the campground loops. At the bottom of B loop, there is a sign which simply reads "To the lake". Follow this down to the water, and voila! You're at the trailhead, complete...

The Ruth Amphitheater is a lesser known, but spectacularly beautiful glaciated part of Denali National Park. There is terrain for any skier's tastes, from flat, wide open touring to steep, gnarly descents, and house-swallowing crevasses. If you're lucky and plan ahead, you can reserve the Sheldon Mountain House to stay in and have a warm fire, a padded shelf to sleep on, and a place to shelter ...

Kesugi Ridge is a 27.4 mile point-to-point trail from Little Coal Creek to Byer's Lake in Alaska's Denali State Park. To get to the trailhead from Anchorage, take the Park's Highway north to the parking area at Little Coal Creek Trailhead at milepost 163.9. The trail quickly climbs about 1,750 feet in the first 3.3 miles up to the ridge before starting the traverse. After another 10.8 miles, t...

If you are looking for an overnight backpacking trip in Denali National Park with spectacular views of Denali, this is a great option. There is no trail and if you happen upon one, DO NOT follow it. The best part about Denali is that there are not many trails and most of the park is designated wilderness.Denali National Park is split into units, which have daily quotas as to how many people can...

To get to this trailhead, you are going to have to take the Denali Park shuttle bus to the Eielson Visitor Center. The shuttle system is great, but it's also the only way you're going into the park in the summer months. Once you're on the bus, you can get out at any point, go for a hike, and catch a bus back to the Wilderness Access Center at the end of the day. This is obviously much easier to...

Cooling temps and changing colors often prompt us to squeeze in one more trip. And in the mountains of Alaska, it really is a squeeze. The time from peak fall colors to the first snow cover can be as short as a week. This autumn we chose to expand on a popular trek in the Talkeetna Mountains north of our home in Anchorage. Adding an unknown start and an extended ending to the popular Bomber Tra...