Party of 6

We rented an RV and hit the road headed North. Destination: Denali, formally named Mt. McKinley. Being able to see the tallest mountain in North America was spectacular. The 20,310 foot mountain can be seen from Anchorage on a clear day, but seeing it up close was amazing.

We did an evening hike the first night we got to the campsite.

The next morning we began our adventure at Denali National Park. We started with the sled dog team. The sled dogs have been used at the National Park since it became a park. This team prepares trails in the winter and takes supplies to checkpoints, where park rangers are staying, throughout the park. These dogs are built to pull and not necessarily for speed like the Iditarod racing dogs. They were super sweet and the kids loved giving them lots of attention.

We took Savage trail, where there is a really good view of Denali. Halfway up, there was a super neat rock formation that the kids had a ton of fun exploring.

Denali from the top of Savage trail. The fall colors and snow capped mountain were picturesque.

We ran into this furry critter on our way down. Ground squirrel? Marmot?

And chatted with this Magpie.

We then took a road down to the Teklanika River.

After getting back to the campsite we took another small hike and played in the water some more.

The kiddos also put in the work to earn another Junior Ranger badge from a National Park.

And ended the trip with ice-cream even in the cold weather.