Itinerary

Day 1: Your trip begins today in Anchorage, Alaska.  You can arrive at any time and transfer to our bed & breakfast independently.  Depending on your arrival time, the remainder of the day is at leisure to relax after your flight or to explore some of the city’s notable sites including the Anchorage Museum of History & Art or the city Park Strip.  This evening, you’ll meet your guide at 6pm and head to an orientation dinner at a local restaurant.  The orientation will include a discussion of the route, an introduction to our unique style of Alaska wilderness travel, a familiarization of the principles of Leave No Trace, and a conversation about traveling safely in bear country.  Dinner included.

Day 2: This morning after a healthy breakfast at our B&B, we’ll make our way over to Lake Hood Seaplane Base, the busiest float-plane airport on earth, where we’ll board a floatplane bound for the Denali National Park and our home for the next 8 nights.  This 1.5 hour flight will take us over alpine tundra, braided rivers, and cascading waterfalls; past Mt. Mckinley, the highest peak in North America; and finally down through the mighty Great Gorge of the Ruth, the deepest trench on earth!  Our skilled bush pilot will then take us down to a small lake nestled in a cleft between the Ruth and Tokositna Glaciers, where we will unload our packs on a small beach and then wave the airplane goodbye.  We’ll set up camp on the lake, bask in the newfound solitude, and then take a short afternoon hike.  All Meals Included.

Days 3-9: We’ll spend the next 7 days headed south to our pick up airstrip located in the Dutch Hills.  Our route will take us through gun sight passes, over open tundra benches, down spectacular creeks, and across big Alaska Range glaciers and braided rivers laden with silt.  We’ll camp near small lakes, drink from alpine streams, and walk through country that has seen few human footsteps.  We’ll scan ridges for dall sheep and mountain sides for grizzly bears as we hike through north America’s crown jewel, completely immersed in the wild.  When the weather permits, views of north America’s highest mountain range will dominate our panorama and we’ll savor the incomprehensible vastness of Alaska. By the afternoon of day 9, we’ll arrive at our final camp near an airstrip 35 rugged miles to the south of where we started, and we’ll spend our last evening truly enjoying our final moments of solitude in Denali. All Meals Included.

Day 10: After a celebratory tundra blueberry pancake breakfast and coffee, our bush pilot will arrive at the nearby airstrip by mid-morning to extract us from the wilderness.  Our flight path will take us over the Dutch Hills, down the mighty Susitna River, and into Talkeetna – one of Alaska’s favorite small towns.  After lunch and a visit to the National Park Service visitor center, we’ll board the Alaska Railroad’s Denali Star train for the return trip to Anchorage.  If you’re returning home from Anchorage this evening, please schedule homebound flights for after 10pm. Breakfast and Lunch Included.

More information from Alaska Alpine Adventures:

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