Going wild

It’s 10am. We’re about to check-out of our hotel in Anchorage and collect a rental car. We’re off to Denali National Park today. Ahead lies almost 400 kilometres of roadway, snaking its way through some of the most remote wilderness we’ll ever see. Our first stop today will be at Talkeetna, 114 miles north. Here we’ll pause to enjoy a three-hour jet-boat ride up rivers chocked with spawning salmon before continuing on to Denali.

Tomorrow we’ll take a national park bus more than 150 kilometres into the heart of Denali National Park. The Park Road as it’s known is the only access into the park’s interior. This also makes it a popular route for wild animals traversing the area. Why struggle through bush and rocky terrain when there’s a handy gravel roadway nearby? We expect to see bears, moose and deer as we venture further inland; possibly round every other corner. We’ll then spend a night in a simple cabin before making our way back to the main highway on Saturday afternoon.

Our final night in Alaska will be in a country lodge south of the national park’s main entrance. Here we hope to enjoy spectacular views of Mount McKinley, North America’s highest mountain. On Sunday we’ll then make our way back down to Anchorage in time to catch an evening flight to the Lower 48. We’ll see you again in four days time.